Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival: Gold Chalice and Bracelet heats pushed back to Wednesday

The meeting was set to feature the Gold Bracelet and Chalice heats.

The three-year-old program will now be run on Wednesday night - a meeting which was originally penned in to host the silver and bronze consolation events along with the Rowleyalla Sprint, Hondo Grattan Sprint and Lady Drivers race.

Which of those events will still feature on Wednesday and which will be pushed back to the follow week's meeting will likely be determined on Tuesday.

Many drivers and trainers were already on their way to Bathurst Paceway when stewards made the call to cancel Monday's racing.

Bathurst Harness Racing CEO Danny Dwyer said it's now a case of which support races get sacrificed during the carnival in order to accommodate the change of schedule.

"We'll need some clarification about how we finish off that meeting on Wednesday, whether we finish off with some of the races we planned to run on that night or whether they get taken out. We'll work on that.

"However, all the three-year-old heats will definitely be run on Wednesday.

"We'll try and maintain events like that Lady Drivers race on the Wednesday because it loses a bit of focus when it falls outside of the carnival.

"The consolation races though can be their own standalone program. But with the races like the Lady Drivers event, the Rowleyalla and Hondo Grattan, if we can keep those within the carnival then that would be the right thing to do."

Less than an hour out from the start of Monday's meeting stewards declared the Bathurst track was unfit to race on due to inconsistencies in the surface.

"It was all down to safety, and their main issue was in the sprint lane and how it was an unfair surface there compared to other parts of the track," Dwyer said.

"They've made the call that horses on the outside would be advantaged compared to horses going up the inside trying to make use of the sprint lane.

"I can understand that decision from a racing and punting perspective. Now we'll look towards coming up with the plan to ensure that we're running all finals on the final night of the carnival, because that's what we want to see.

"At the end of the day the safety of the horses and participants is paramount. That's what we have to be focusing on."

After a discussion at the race office the call was made shortly after 1pm - when the Monday meeting was originally scheduled to start - that the Chalice and Bracelet heats would be moved to Wednesday night.

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