Persistent rain in recent weeks has seen meetings re-located and others abandoned, including races at Wodonga and Albury.

Albury Racing’s chief executive John Miller said it was nice to be on the positive side of the ledger.

“It’s not a great financial windfall for the club, all we are really doing is helping out the industry,” he said.

“Gundagai had 120 nominations for the races this Saturday — horses that would have stayed at home in their boxes if we didn’t step up.

“In recent weeks something like 300 horses have been balloted out of races and that gives you an idea of how losing these meetings impacts on trainers, owners, jockeys and the industry in general.”

Miller said they didn’t need more rain this week.

“There will be a track inspection on Wednesday but I’ve told the stewards and Racing NSW that even with fine weather the track will still be heavy,” he said.

“There is the possibility of some rain Wednesday and Thursday, but it’s less than 1mm and if that’s the case then we will be fine, but we don’t want any more than that.

“At this time of year with our drainage issues and the temperatures not getting much above 12 degrees the surface doesn’t really dry out.”

The club has recently undergone an independent assessment of required works including earthworks to realign, reshape and widen the existing track, drainage improvements and turf replacement at an estimated cost of $1.6 million.

Funding for the track upgrade and prizemoney increases were hinging on betting tax negotiations with the NSW government.

Miller said the shift of venue for Saturday’s race meeting was further evidence in the fight to make the track improvements happen sooner rather than later.

“They have spent a lot of money at Wagga, now they have to spend it here at Albury,” he said.