RTC’s Autumn Season now from August 20 due to rain
The Royal Turf Club (RTC) will postpone its second season by two weeks, as the inclement weather in Nuwara Eliya in recent days has proved to be a ‘wet blanket’. The second season or, the Autumn Season as the RTC calls it, which was scheduled to gallop off yesterday, will now commence on August 20.
“The Nuwara Eliya Racecourse has received 103 mm of rainfall this month, with 45 mm in the concluded week, while more rain is forecast over the next 10 days. Due to continuous rain, the training track was closed for 6 days over the last two weeks, severely interfering with the preparation of the horses for the race meeting to be held yesterday”, said RTC CEO Wayne Wood.
Yesterday’s race, dedicated to charity, was named Charity Race Day. The RTC will, however, continue its committed endorsements, despite change of dates of its Autumn Season, which will run up to May, 2017.
“The scheduled Thoroughbred Auction will also take place after the race meeting on August 20,” Wood added, while detailing the races scheduled for that day.
“Seven races are programmed for the meeting, for which, just under Rs 2,000,000 in prize money will be presented. The feature race will be the RTC Breeze Up Auction Class 1 Handicap over 1400M,” he explained.
After August 20, the RTC, with 18 more races, average a race every two weeks until mid next year. Among the top races, apart from the August 20 event, are the Ladies’ Day on September 17, the Deepawali Race Day on October 29, the Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 and the Christmas Cup on December 10. Races will continue every two weeks until May 17, 2017.
“For the August 20 races, the RTC will accept entries until 10 am on August 15. We deeply regret any inconvenience caused, but the decision has been taken with the welfare of the horses in mind, which is our first priority. The Club eagerly awaits the arrival of a new set of starting gates, while the new saddling and sampling area will be completed in time for the races,” Wood went on to say.
After taking off nearly 17 weeks to plan out their second phase of action which will run for almost 31 weeks.