Queensland ravaged by rain again - and our Tommy’s right in the middle of it

Trainer Mark Dux has scratched Tommy Lincoln from his race at Albion Park on Tuesday, unable to work the horse properly as flooding once again devastates the Queensland state.

Dux, who trains at Woongoolba, 40 minutes south east of Brisbane city, says it hasn’t stopped raining for the last 11 days, rainfall in the last six days alone totalling 180mm.

For the third time this year, there have been emergency flood alerts and evacuations in south-eastern parts of the state and Dux can see little relief in the forecast.

“It’s been a nightmare. I haven’t been able to get on to my track since last Tuesday it’s been that wet. Luckily, I’ve got a 10 horse walker, with rubber mats, so I can keep exercising them but trotting isn’t training properly.

“Tommy hasn’t worked properly since he last raced (May 7). The track is slippery and muddy and he could easily slip and do an ankle. Even the yards are waterlogged.”

Dux says while he has a good track, it’s not a hard surface made of crusher dust like some, so it doesn’t do well with continuous soaking.

“Yesterday afternoon it looked like it would fine up, but it poured during the night.”

Mark Dux … “training is the worst job in the world when it’s wet.”Dux says because horses aren’t working normally the risk of them tying up also increases.

“I worked as many as I could when I got home from the races at 3pm last Tuesday but that’s the last time they’ve been on the track.”

Since the closure of the Gold Coast racetrack there had been nowhere to travel horses to train either, he said, Albion Park not open to training after rain.

Dux says he knows of some horses from other stables who raced there last week after standing in their boxes for three days but he says lining up Tommy Lincoln on Tuesday would only be detrimental to his future.

“If it stops raining and I can work him tomorrow I may give him a quiet trial on Friday so he’s ready to race on Saturday week.”

That race at Albion Park is run from a standing start and is crucial for Dux’s immediate plans for the horse.

“He needs to have had one stand start in the last eight months to be eligible to run in some of the feature stand start races coming up.”

Those features include the A$32,000 Flashing Red (2647m) at Albion Park on June 4 and the A$106,000 Redcliffe Gold Cup (2613) on June 25.

Tommy Lincoln has raced from a standing start three times in New Zealand, beginning like a rocket twice, including his all-the-way win over Copy That in the 2020 Summer Cup.

And his clean gait and good pre-race manners has Dux confident he can maintain that good record in Brisbane.

But first it needs to stop raining.

“Training is the worst job in the world when it’s wet.”