CANBERRA Racing Club is confident the torrential rain won’t effect next week’s Black Opal Stakes.

Earlier today Sunday’s Wangaratta Cup meeting in northern Victoria was abandoned due to the driving rain.

And several race meetings across NSW are under serious threat over the next few days with tomorrow’s Sapphire Coast expected to be cancelled.

Canberra Racing Club chief executive Peter Stubbs said Thoroughbred Park’s largest ever race meeting would survive the wet weather.

“It’s very wet, right at the moment and it’s very unlikely that we would be going ahead if we were racing today,” Stubbs said.

“The available forecast for next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is looking quite reasonable, so we’re hoping that will continue on to the Black Opal.

“Looking at forecasts further west of us, you would certainly expect that probably next Thursday is going to be sunny.”

The course proper at Thoroughbred Park has a profile mix of sand and loam which is capable of draining a minimum of 100mm of water per hour.

Stubbs said the synthetic Acton Track was a possible contingency plan, but would need the current rate of rainfall to continue well in to next week for a transfer to occur.

Next weekend’s race day features four listed races including the capital’s flagship $250,000 Black Opal Stakes and the $200,000 Canberra Cup.