Mother Nature continues to play cruel pranks at country race meets, with the highly anticipated events at Duck Creek (Nyngan), Mudgee and Wellington earlier this week cancelled due to last week’s rain impacting the tracks.

While rain has been needed everywhere this year, recent concentrated downpours across swathes of country NSW have played havoc with scheduled race meetings in regional areas.

With regional communities looking forward to the highly-anticipated local racing programs, which often draw large volumes of punters and visitors to those areas and providing huge economic boosts, the cancellations have been disappointing. But some communities like Nyngan did make the most of the crowds that travelled to attend, continuing with planned entertainment to the delight of attending crowds.

With an estimated 6000 people descending on Nyngan for the Duck Creek Picnic Races on Saturday, July 4 – one of those regional race meetings impacted – event organisers instead hosted the inaugural “Hobby Horse Championship” in lieu of its cancelled program.

The six-race card had capacity for up to 30 human racers in each event, with $500 in prize money going to the winner of each race. Other planned entertainment also carried on, to the delight of racegoers.

“Duck Creek Picnic Races 2026... you were a bloody ripper!” organisers wrote on social media.

“A record-breaking crowd of more than 6000 people came through the gates this year, making it our biggest Duck Creek Picnic Races yet.

“A huge thank you to everyone who travelled to Nyngan, and supported the event and our local businesses,” they added.

“To our incredible sponsors, volunteers, committee members and everyone who worked behind the scenes – this event simply wouldn’t happen without you.”

Late last week, the Mudgee race meeting set for Sunday, July 5, was transferred to Wellington – only to be cancelled by stewards because of track conditions there.

There was further bad news on Monday, July 6, when the Wellington Race Club posted a statement from Racing NSW on its social media, indicating the proposed Wellington Races program for that day was also cancelled.

“A track inspection this morning following a gallop identified areas of concern that had not improved sufficiently for racing,” the statement concluded.