Racing Victoria has rescheduled the Geelong Cup meeting to Thursday after severe winds forced an abandonment on Wednesday.
The RV operations team and stewards confirmed the fixture change less than 30 minutes after the decision to abandon the card.
Three races were run and won before an indefinite delay from about 2pm due to health and safety concerns.
Patrons were advised to stay away from non-fixed infrastructure including temporary marquees.
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Stewards consulted emergency services personnel on-course and the Bureau of Meteorology to see if the remainder of the card could be run but to no avail.
Reigning Geelong Cup-winning UK trainer Brian Ellison said a decision would be made on whether to run in the rescheduled race on Thursday or the Moonee Valley Gold Cup on Friday.
The Geelong Cup field featured four MV Gold Cup dual acceptors, including favourite Gilded Water, Onesmoothoperator, Changingoftheguard and Grand Pierro.
Ellison said Onesmoothoperator needed to run before the Melbourne Cup on November 4.
“One way the other we’ll definitely be running, in this race or Friday,” Ellison said.
“It’s a shame really. We need to get a race into him before Melbourne Cup.”
Champion trainer Ciaron Maher indicated Gilded Water would return to Geelong on Thursday.
RV steward Corey Waller said the uncertainty of weather conditions – severity and timing – forced the abandonment.
Racegoers were evacuated from marquees as wild winds forced an indefinite delay to the Geelong Cup meeting on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images
“Talking with the emergency services … they’re saying the current wind conditions are around 46km/h-50km/h with gusts of up to 76km/h coming through,” Waller said.
“That wind activity is likely to continue until at least 5pm … the problem is then, after 5pm, they’re saying it may die down but they’re not 100 per cent sure whether it will or won’t.
“There’s also a chance the wind direction may alter to a degree and bring a bit of wind to the south which is actually even stronger.
“We just don’t have a lot of surety to say we can wait for two hours and it will die down, there’s a chance and a pretty high chance, it may continue past that, which wouldn’t give us enough time to run the races in a safe fashion.”
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The local weather station is conveniently based in the centre of Geelong racecourse.
Geelong Racing Club chief executive Luke Rayner lamented the abandonment, albeit being “right decision” from a patron and racing safety perspective.
“Large cup events for country clubs are significant from a racing but significant from an event perspective, we’ve done all we can,” Rayner said.
UK operator Onesmoothoperator leaves the course after the Geelong Cup was postponed. Picture: Getty Images
“We’ve tried to exhaust every avenue we could look to do, it’s just the updated weather information provided by emergency services suggests we still are at risk from an event perspective and obviously from a racing perspective.
“There’s two fronts coming, a northwest wind from Mortlake and a southwest from Portland, they’re both in my view a risk for the next two hours.
“Two hours is a long time to ask jockeys, horses, patrons to wait in the hope that we may be able to resume activity from a racing and event perspective, I think the right decision has been made, as unfortunate as it is.”
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Rayner said the club would communicate ticketing information to all affected patrons about the reschedule event.
It is only the fourth time since 1947 that inclement weather has affected the Geelong Cup, according to local racing historian Robert Windmill.
The race was abandoned in 1953 (heavy rain) and postponed to the Sunday in 2000.
Gail force winds and icy rain threatened the meeting in 1986.
The start of the meeting on Wednesday was delayed briefly after wind brought down a section of the rail at about the 1300m mark.
The first of the rescheduled Geelong races on Thursday is slated for 2.25pm with the last at 5.30pm.
Rayner said the new meeting would be free entry for all patrons.