FORSTER-Tuncurry Jockey Club president, Garry McQuillan is now '100 per cent certain' the track will be ready for the next meeting scheduled for Monday, December 6 at Tuncurry.
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This follows work carried out this week by Racing NSW and the club on the affected area of the track.
The club was forced to postpone the cup meeting on Friday, September 10 after the fourth race.
A deputation of jockeys, stewards and club officials examined a section of the track from around the 50-metre point until just after the winning post.
This had exhibited excessive penetration of the surface by runners, compared to the remainder of the racing surface.
Following this examination the decision was made to call off the rest of the meeting.
This meant the main races, including the Tuncurry-Forster XXXX Gold Cup, the Bellevue Hotel Golden Mile and the Evermore Pearl, weren't run.
Mr McQuillan said the club ran a sonar machine over the impacted area of the track to assess the problem and work carried out this week will repair the damage.
I wouldn't have run a horse I owned over that section of the track.
- Forster-Tuncurry Jockey Club president ,Garry McQuillan
This includes boring holes into the surface and filling them with sand, Mr McQuillan saying that coffee rock, perhaps put in place during the construction of the track, was the root of the trouble.
Mr McQuillan added the decision to postpone the meeting was correct.
"I wouldn't have run a horse I owned over that section of the track,'' he said.
"It was unsafe.''
However, he added that with crowds allowed to return to racing in NSW this week, subject to COVID-19 regulations, the club is expecting to make a strong return to racing on December 6.
Mr McQuillan confirmed that the three major races postponed from September 10 will now be run on December 6, including the Tuncurry-Forster XXXX Gold Cup.
This will carry prizemoney of $34,000 and will be run over 2100 metres.
"All our corporate areas have already been booked out,'' he added.
However, Mr McQuillan conceded it had been a difficult 18 months for the racing industry due to the pandemic estimating it had cost his club in the vicinity of $200,000, principally through lost sponsorship.
"We couldn't in good faith go and ask businesses for sponsorship when they couldn't even open their doors,'' he said.
He remains confident that the club will bounce back as the State returns to something like normal.
Given favourable weather he expects a capacity crowd will be on hand for the December meeting.
Meanwhile, the Krambach Cup will be raced at Taree on Friday.
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