Kerry Parker was on his way to the stewards’ room at Rosehill to scratch Think It Over from the Tancred Stakes when a group of jockeys got there first.
Parker’s stable star doesn’t enjoy wet tracks and when Rosehill was downgraded to a heavy 10 following the first race on Saturday, he decided that running Think It Over might do more harm than good.
However, the jockeys, including senior riders Kerrin Mcevoy and James Mcdonald, already had concerns over the safety of the surface and were on their way to express that to Racing NSW stewards.
“I was walking into the stewards’ room to scratch Think it Over but the jockeys beat me to it,” Parker said
Shortly after, Racing NSW announced that the remaining seven races on Saturday’s card had been postponed due to concerns over the safety of the waterlogged track.
Golden Slipper-winning trainer Gary Portelli had Clyde in the Tulloch Stakes (2000m), a race which was to have been a fork in the road for the three-year-old.
A good performance would have earned him the chance to back up in next Saturday’s ATC Australian Derby (2400m), although Portelli said the track conditions were so testing, it might have been too big an ask if the meeting had gone ahead.
Portelli was one of several participants who was hoping officials decided to push the carnival back by one week, which he said would be no issue for his Golden Slipper winner Fireburn, who was headed towards next Saturday’s Sires’ Produce Stakes.
“I would prefer if they push everything back a week,” Portelli said.
“It won’t worry Fireburn. It worked for her having three weeks into the Golden Slipper.”