COVID-19 and a track rejuvenation have forced the postponement of the Mount Gambier Racing Club’s 2020 Gold Cup.

The club is winning the early stages of its battle to vanquish a weed infestation impacting the track’s safety that led to racing being suspended.

The Gold Cup was scheduled for Friday, December 4, but Mount Gambier Racing Club General Manager Brett Watson said a decision about a future date would be made in the New Year.

“The club recognises the importance of the Gold Cup event to the Mount Gambier social calendar and the prestige it has amongst trainers and owners,” Watson said.

“However, due to the uncertainties presented by COVID-19 and the ongoing work on the track to reduce the weed infestation, we are unable to proceed on the date scheduled.

“The committee will make a decision regarding the revised date in early 2021.”

While the track surface did not look good, Watson said the repair process was working.

“The track has been scarified to get rid all of the unwanted debris, such as poa and kikuyu dead thatch,” he said.

“Two weeks ago, the poa was sprayed again and the track is showing signs of this being successful.

“The kikuyu is starting to run, with new shoots and small growth showing.

“This will only improve once we see warmer weather.”

Watson said the first two processes in a six-step track management plan had already been completed, while fertiliser, water amendments and water penetrants will be applied in the coming weeks.

In addition to the track surface regeneration work, Watson said COVID-19 restrictions would have severely impacted the Gold Cup meeting.

“We normally have a lot of marquees for our cup day and having to add in a COVID management plan to enable more than 1000 people, plus the added expenses would be cost prohibitive,” he said.

“Marquees are hard under the current COVID conditions, for example a 3×3 marquee – which normally holds 10 people – can only hold four people and so on.

“This would add a lot of additional expense and would make marquee bookings unviable.”

Watson said the club was pleased with the efforts of newly appointed track manager David ‘Shep’ Shepherdson.

“Shep is leading the charge in bringing the track surface back to its best as soon as possible,” Watson said.

The Mount Gambier track underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in 2018 to attend to ongoing drainage issues.

While those issues have been rectified it meant the course proper needed to be completely re-established.

“The track renovation has been highly successful, with the drains now flowing well on the wet days,” Watson said.

“However, the downside is that for now we have a racing surface that needs to mature and the weed infestation has significantly hindered this process.”

Watson conceded the new track manager had a challenging task in front of him and to help Mr Shepherdson with the de-thatching process, the club has purchased a new Amazone machine.

In the meantime, Watson said he was grateful for the public support regarding the Gold Cup’s postponement.

“We thank our sponsors, stakeholders, members and trainers and the local community for their understanding of this decision in what we recognise has been a disruptive year on many fronts,” he said.

Meetings scheduled for Mount Gambier during this current period have been relocated to other venues by Thoroughbred Racing South Australia, while the club’s annual general meeting will be held next Wednesday at 7.30pm.