This Saturday's St Albert's College race day could be the last meeting at the Armidale Racecourse for a "little while."
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Drought conditions have wreaked havoc on the surface with the rating for the coming meet a Firm 2.
Armidale Jockey Club's secretary-manager Jim Dedes said despite the dire conditions, he is hoping people come along to take their minds of the ongoing dry weather.
"We are going to try and make it a bit of a celebration because of the dryer weather, everyone is a bit down, we want to make it a celebration for people to come out and enjoy themselves, have a day out instead of sitting at home and waiting for it to rain," he said.
"St Albert's Day is always a really big day anyway.
"We are looking forward to it and we are expecting quite a good crowd."
The hard surface of the track has deterred owners and trainers from entering horses but Dedes said there will still be high quality racing on display.
"Our fields definitely would have been better if we had a lot better track but because the track is going to be hard, we put it up to a Firm 2, which I can't remember having in racing here in Armidale," he said.
"A firm track does turn a lot of horses away which is a bit unfortunate.
"Horse welfare and jockey welfare is number one.
"They just jar up, they can't handle hard ground."
The following week's September 22 meeting has been transferred to Moree where the track is maintained with bore water.
Dedes said although they are having the St Albert's meeting this Saturday, the track will be in no condition after the event to host more races.
"The only reason we are racing this meeting is we do have a grass cover on there," he said.
But that will get chopped down after Saturday and we need water to repair and regenerate and that is not going to happen while we are in drought.
"We are going to asses each race meeting as they come.
"Racing NSW will come up and do an inspection of the track and if it is not suitable to race we will have to keep transferring our meetings.
"Unless it rains in the near future we will be lucky to race for a little while which is unfortunate."
FIELDS
Race 1 - 1:37PM BID FOOD ARMIDALE BENCHMARK 50 HANDICAP (1900 METRES)
1 TICKETS FOR YOUTH 61kg
2 HOUSE WINS Ms Mikayla Weir (a0/51kg) 57.5kg
3 CRAIGLEA MAXX 55.5kg
4 GO LUCA 55.5kg
5 MISS HANSON Ms Belinda Hodder 54kg
6 KIRA'S BEAT 54kg
7 SUPER BONUS Billy Cray 54kg
8 SEBRING FLING Geoffrey Snowden 54kg
Race 2 - 2:12PM DYNAMIC FIRE CLASS 1 HANDICAP (1100 METRES)
1 KEIGHLEY SUN Jacob Golden (a4/51kg) 60kg
2 TRY'N'SING A SONG Daniel Northey 56kg
3 KADARCHI Matthew Paget 55.5kg
4 BLINKIN FANTASTIC Ms Belinda Hodder 55kg
5 LOVING HEART Billy Cray 55kg
6 BABBINBOON BOY Liam Blanch (a3/49kg) 54.5kg
7 DOUBLE PERIL 54kg
8 RIMMSKI Ms Kasie Stanley 54kg
Race 3 - 2:47PM OAK TREE RETIREMENT VILLAGE ST ALBERT'S COLLEGE CUP BENCHMARK 58 HANDICAP (1300 METRES)
1 COURU Billy Cray 59.5kg
2 ONYA ROSIE Ms Yvette Lewis (a3/53kg) 57kg
3 BALANTES Brooke Stower 56.5kg
4 DAN ROY Ms Belinda Hodder 55kg
5 MISS MAKEPEACE 54kg
6 SIR AUSSIE 54kg
Race 4 - 3:26PM JACKSONS QUALITY MEATS CLASS 1 HANDICAP (1400 METRES)
1 MASTER CRAMSIE Vad Bolozhinskyi 58.5kg
2 AL PHEROZ 56.5kg
3 LOVING HEART Billy Cray 55kg
4 MISTER MCRAE Brooke Stower 55kg
5 ELUSIVE VALLEY Matthew Paget 54.5kg
6 HELL OF A TAIL Ms Mikayla Weir (a0/51kg) 54kg
7 BON BON Ms Belinda Hodder 54kg
8 CATHEDRAL LASS Geoffrey Snowden 54kg
9 ANGELS LOVE 54kg
10 TYCOON PLAYER Ms Kasie Stanley 54kg
Race 5 - 4:06PM ARMIDALE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MAIDEN PLATE (1400 METRES)
1 BANDJIN RAIN Billy Cray 59kg
2 SPATULA Nozi Tomizawa 59kg
3 SPURRED ON Brooke Stower 59kg
4 TICKET KEEPER Matthew Paget 59kg
5 ANNENKOVA 57kg
6 HOT SISTER 57kg
7 JESSIE Geoffrey Snowden 57kg
8 KEIRETSU Peter Graham 57kg
9 SHADOW DESTINY Vad Bolozhinskyi 57kg
10 SMART AGENT 57kg
11 VANA SIGNORA (NZ) Ashley Morgan 57kg
12 TRUE FIGHTER Liam Blanch (a3/49kg) 54.5kg
Race 6 - 4:46PM DADS FOR CHINESE MAIDEN HANDICAP (1100 METRES)
1 OURTHEO Luke Cumberland 59kg
2 TURMOIL Brooke Stower 56.5kg
3 CRIMSON ROSE Matthew Paget 55.5kg
4 MR ALONSO Ms Belinda Hodder 55.5kg
5 FIERY Billy Cray 54.5kg
6 JOHN PAUL 54.5kg
7 BUNNY HOPPER 54kg
8 DRUMALO 54kg
9 EKANGO 54kg
10 JALAPENO POPPA (NZ) Nozi Tomizawa 54kg
11 KENSINGTON KID Liam Blanch (a3/49kg) 54kg
12 ROYAL GREY Ms Mikayla Weir (a0/51kg) 54kg
13 SHE JUST SAID IT Daniel Northey 54kg
14 SULU'S GIRL Geoffrey Snowden 54kg
15e VERNA Vad Bolozhinskyi 54kg