Next week’s $30,000 Ted Ryder Cup will be limited to 12 runners and held over 1660 metres, rather than the traditional 1600, after the Murrumbidgee Turf Club was forced to switch the meeting to the inner Riverside track.
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MTC chief executive Scott Sanbrook said they had tried to give the course proper every chance to recover following extensive drainage work last month but, reluctantly, it wouldn’t quite be ready for racing on Friday week.
“It’s definitely not ideal but the biggest priority is to ensure that we don’t do extensive damage to the course proper,” Sanbrook said.
“It would’ve been close to being right, it’s come a long way in the last fortnight.
“But it’s a risk that you don’t want to run.
“So we had to bite the bullet… As much as we’d love to have this meeting on the course proper, the Riverside track raced well (at Monday’s Ryder Cup prelude meeting).
“I’m sure we’ll see a quality field line up for the Ted Ryder Cup.”
The course proper underwent major works in November, including new drainage for the outside five metres of the track, as well as sand grooving to improve the soil profile and refresh the existing drainage closer in.
“It was major work, close to $200,000 worth, with the assistance of Racing NSW,” Sanbrook said.
“It needed to be done and we’ll see the benefits of it in the winter time. But unfortunately we haven’t had the conditions to suit to get the track surface fully recovered for December 22.”
There have also been distance amendments to other races at the meeting to suit the Riverside track.
The MTC says the course proper will be ready for its first meeting of 2018 on January 12.
