Racing Orange mourns loss of Sharnie Phillips as club loses third straight meeting to rain

The weekend's deluge flooded Towac Park, resulting in serious damage to the course's sand track. There's no major structural damage to the venue or the track.

The Towac region copped 22 millimetres of rain on Saturday before a whopping 104mm overnight on Sunday, resulting in the track's dam spilling.

But that repairable damage to the track pales in comparison to the loss of Racing Orange's Sharnie Phillips, a tireless worker club chair Bree McMinn described as "my right hand man".

Ms McMinn said the whole Racing Orange community "was a bit lost" following the death of Ms Phillips last week.

She'd only just returned to work at the track after a stint in hospital following surgery.

"It's just tragic circumstances," Ms McMinn said.

She said Ms Phillips helped with everything at Towac Park.

She looked after the grounds, cleaned the venue, worked at the bar, stocked fridges and whipper-snipped the track to ensure it remained tidy.

"She did everything," Ms McMinn said.

"She would have been here for the last four years. She didn't have a horse background, but she certainly got to know them and, in fact, one of Alison Smith's horses, Mildred, she'd say used to nod at her every time she went passed on the mower."

The club has confirmed family and friends of Ms Phillips are invited to attend her funeral service at the Penhall Memorial Chapel on William Street, on Friday, November 25 at 1pm.

Following the service there will be a gathering at Towac Park Racecourse in 'Sharnie's Bar'

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made at the service to the Orange Heart Foundation

Ms McMinn said the water was "belting through" the track at times last Monday morning, and calling off Friday's race meeting well ahead of time was, while a difficult decision to swallow, the right call.

However, the club is now in limbo as the entire region battles the increasingly monsoonal rainfall that's hammered most corners of the Central Racing Districts Association.

In normal circumstances, a washed out race meeting could be transferred to another track, but with Parkes, Cowra, Forbes, Wellington and Mudgee all battling similar circumstances, Ms McMinn isn't sure if Friday's scheduled Tradies and Ladies day will go ahead at a different venue either.

"I have no idea, I've rung Racing NSW. Our track has flooded but we haven't heard what the plans are in terms of rescheduling," Ms McMinn said.

Orange's 'Welcome back to Towac' day and the ANFD race meeting, both in October, were cancelled due to rain at Towac Park impacting the track as well.

Friday's cancellation marks the third straight meeting being impacted in Orange.

"We are (devastated), it's an absolutely horrendous start to the season but what's happening around us, at Eugowra and Molong, puts it into perspective," Ms McMinn said.

The Central Western Daily understands Bathurst is in line to host Friday's meeting, if the track at Tyers Park can be brought up to speed in time. That region was also hit with heavy rainfall and flooding over the weekend and Monday.

Racing NSW general manager industry and analytical Scott Kennedy said it was a challenge to keep racing "as normal as possible" in the current, extremely wet climate.

Wellington's postponed Sunday meeting was shifted to Narromine on Tuesday, and he said stewards would look at Bathurst's track in the coming days to determine if it could host Orange's Friday TAB meeting.

Cowra's non-TAB meeting is also still a chance of being run.

Mr Kennedy said clubs damaged by floods can access a Racing NSW Country scheme that reduces the excess on some insurance claims. He said some tracks might have coverage under crowns lands policy, too.

"What we'll do with this latest floods is assess the damage on a case-by-case basis," he said.

Clubs that have meetings washed out, like Orange has in the last three meetings, could be eligible for a payment in exceptional circumstances.

Mr Kennedy said Racing Orange's situation was unfortunate.

"Certainly losing three meetings is difficult," he said.

"In a circumstance like this we might look at swapping a meeting with another club down the track.

"It's just a matter of making the best of the circumstances."

Racing Orange's next meeting is scheduled for December 12.

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