Murray Bridge meet called off

A second race meeting was abandoned on Saturday when strong winds and tumbleweed forced the postponement of the Murray Bridge card after just two races.

The nine-race meeting had already been moved to a twilight fixture due to soaring temperatures but was eventually called off after tumbleweed inundated the racing surface after blowing in from surrounding paddocks.

“Unfortunately, the meeting is postponed due to something that I haven’t struck before in my lifetime as a steward,” Racing SA Deputy Chairman of Stewards Peter Ryan said.

“We have got very strong winds here and that’s caused a build-up of what you’d say is roly poly for about a 300m section on the outside fence, they’ve come at such a force that they’re actually leaping the fence onto the track which makes the track unsafe for racing.”

A team of staff, including stewards, tried in vain to clean up the tumbleweed before the decision was made to postpone the meeting.

“It was just a situation where we thought if we could clear the initial lot of roly poly around the bend and clear it, and then put people to monitor any that came over, we could continue racing. But unfortunately, there’s a paddock that’s been harvested and they’re just continually building up.”

Racing SA will advise when and where the remaining seven races will be run.