After a host of picnic race days were cancelled in NSW until the end of June, Wagga volunteered to put on an extra meeting on Saturday.

Hughes, who moved to Canberra just before Christmas to ride trackwork for Keith Dryden and Joseph Jones, secured a running double on Neil Osborne's Metro Missile in the Class B Handicap (1150m) and Luke Pepper's Lutece in the Picnic Maiden Plate (1050m).

"We've had just about every meeting cancelled until June, I think about eight or nine (meetings)," she said.

"It's very hard for those smaller clubs to hold any sort of meeting without crowd support, they don't make any money out of it."

Hughes said the abandonment of several non-TAB meetings made it especially difficult for connections to find suitable races for horses.

"I've still got my normal day job (trackwork) but it's a big loss of income every week," she said.

"It's not only hard for us as riders, but also the picnic trainers who rely on those races for their horses at that level.

"A lot of non-TABs have been called off as well."

NSW Picnic Racing Association president Craig Tyack told NSW Country and Picnic Racing it was a particularly tough period for the industry.

"The stewards have said we could possibly run with no crowd, but no club wanted to do that because it's not really in their interest," Tyack said.

"Trainers may have to turn their horses out, I've turned mine out."

Hughes finished second to Maddy Wright in last season's NSW picnic racing premiership.

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