IT'S regarded as one of the better draining tracks in NSW, but Murrumbidgee Turf Club were forced to abandon Saturday's Christmas Party Races meeting after the Wagga deluge continued throughout Friday.
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But a phantom meeting will still be held at the track to allow racegoers to get into the festive spirit.
A steward's inspection of the track on Friday afternoon left officials with no option but to call the meeting off, with a number of other meetings in the Riverina having previously been abandoned in recent weeks.
"Heavy rain has rendered the Wagga Wagga track unsuitable for racing with significant surface water identified during a steward's inspection this afternoon," Racing NSW said.
"The course has received 53mls of rain over the past 24hrs with a total of 86mls for the week."
MTC finance and operations manager Patrick Stephen said families can still have a fun day out despite racing being postponed.
"Both the Travers and Slocum Street gates will open from 12, and the reserve tables and hospitality are still going ahead.
"There'll be a couple of on course bookmakers and a band playing from late afternoon, plus kids' entertainment.
"Had it (rain) stopped this morning we would have been every chance as it does drain terrificly well, but the extra rain gave us no chance.
"We'll postpone it at this stage, and we'll see whether they want us to reschedule it or not. There's a lot of meetings around being called off, but one thing you can't control is the weather.
"We raced on Monday on the second track and it raced fantastically well. We're open to taking pressure off trainers where we can.
"We do race Monday week (December 6) and we think we'll have massive fields there. We might have to split some."
Rain has proven a constant menace for local racing in recent weeks, with a host of meeting in outlying town forced to be abandoned.
Wagga Softball has also been called off this weekend, joining cricket in doing so for the third straight week.
The final round of the Tour de Riverina cycling series is at this stage still going ahead on Sunday at Uranquinty.
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