BY TOM BARBER - Daily Liberal 10 February 2023

Dubbo Turf Club manager Sam Fitzgerald insists Monday's planned race meeting will still go ahead even after the track was at the centre of Thursday's storm.

Like many places around town, Dubbo Turf Club was rocked by the shock storm on Thursday evening with heavy rain, large hailstones and strong winds all hitting parts of the city.

Returning to work on Friday morning, Fitzgerald got a chance to assess just how much damage had been done, recording more rain than several other places of Dubbo.

"We were sort of on the receiving end of somewhere between 70 to 80mm," he said.

"A couple of trainers on course recorded up to 100mm. It just sort of shows that we were right in the thick of the cell when it came over.

"We've got a fair bit of damage to infrastructure, we are racing the clock now for Monday.

"We've got our February Sponsors Day on Monday, the course itself is wet but is safe and should be well on its way to being a nice improving track for racing."

The club is planning on having their annual February Sponsors Day on Monday, an event which shows support to the people who support local racing.

Now that the cleanup is well under way, Fitzgerald said the club is focused on doing all they can to put on a great day of racing.

"The focus is on Monday, a lot of the other stuff in terms of infrastructure that we can fix can wait," he said.

"It's now about just making sure the facilities are safe and right for racing as well as for people to be able to come out for the race day."

Monday's eight race meeting is set to be an exciting one for the club with a Country Championships Preview (1200m) to take place.

A wet track is to be expected early in proceedings but Fitzgerald is confident a great day of racing will still take place.

"They held up quite well, we had a bit of program change with the two year old 1000m going to a maiden 1000m, which was very well received," he said.

"The Country Championships Preview race looks like a really nice one, I think we've got three individual Highway Handicap winners in the field.

"Amulet Street is also in there after running in the third in the Country Championships Final last year.

"We've also got Listen To The Band who is aiming for his fourth win this preparation, it's looking a really nice race on paper so hopefully it produces on the day."

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