THE bushfires and dire smoke conditions have taken toll of another Mid North Coast Race meeting being called off-Manning Valley Race Club's TAB meeting at Taree yesterday.
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Racing NSW made a late decision yesterday morning to postpone the meeting due to the air quality "deteriorating to hazardous."
The decision was made to protect the welfare and safety of participants and the horses.
It would have been made when some participants engaged in early races on the nine-card meeting were making tracks to Taree.
Postponing the meeting is hard on the heels of Port Macquarie Race Club's TAB meeting last Thursday being abandoned and the fires causing half of the Kempsey Cup meeting also being abandoned on November 8.
Kempsey has good nominations for its six-race TAB meeting on Saturday and it could be under a threat if conditions continue to prevail.
Wauchope trainer Colt Prosser passed out for six hours at home after trackwork last Friday and blamed his condition on breathing in thick smoke.
He has last start promising three-year-old gelding Tallis in an eight-horse race at Rosehill Gardens today and he said last week he wouldn't go if conditions deteriorated.
Tallis had won its past two starts at Port Macquarie and he wanted to progress its career to determine its class.
He said what happened to him must be affecting racehorses stabled in the open where there was thick smoke.
