OCTOBER’S excess rain has claimed another event with next week’s Dunkeld Cup abandoned.

The Dunkeld Racing Club officially abandoned its 2022 event on Monday with about 190mm of rain falling during the month, and more than 90mm in the past week alone.

Dunkeld Racing Club manager, Lisa Evans told The Spectator it was a tough decision to make, but the condition of the course made it an easy decision less than two weeks out from race day.

“Our grounds are just like a swamp,” she said.

“It takes a fair bit of time to bump in infrastructure and we looked at the track last week and it was quite a realisation that it might not go ahead then.

“For us, it does take us a good 10-14 days to build the actual event, we needed to start building marquees today and not one place around the track that is suitable.”

With record crowd numbers, record marquee sales and “really good presale” tickets for the first event with crowds since 2019, it was a big blow to call off November 12 event.

While the club would incur a financial loss, all pre-purchased tickets would be refunded.

Evans said the social aspect of the event had already been missing for three years and a further delay meant it would be nearly 1500 days between cup days spectators could attend.

“It is disappointing for me, but disappointing for the wider community, where everyone comes together and for it all to not eventuate is disappointing,” she said.

“We did have a mower on our track a couple of weeks ago, but haven’t been able to get back on in the past couple weeks.

“The industry will look to see if there is a suitable venue to transfer the meet, so it will just be to find the right venue.”

While the long wait means a long time between drinks for Dunkeld racegoers, Evans was remaining positive and said next year’s event would hopefully see a big influx in younger racegoers who had not been able to experience the event to its fullest extent.

“Obviously Dunkeld attracts a lot of young racegoers, so people who weren’t 18 in 2019 are now four years older and we will have a whole new cohort of people who want to come and enjoy the races,” she said.

“So I predict next year’s event will be another big one.”

With the Penshurst Cup scheduled for seven days after Dunkeld, it is still hopeful there will be a second cup ran in the region this spring.

Penshurst Racing Club secretary, Brendan Kelly said the club had received 170mm of rain this month but remained hopeful the 2022 event could still go ahead.

“I can’t determine what the weather will do for the next three weeks, but we are hopeful,” he said.

“We will make an assessment this weekend and then keep an eye on it from there.”