Griffith Jockey Club president Jonothan Streat said the meeting was “on hold” and the committee was still working hard to try to bring a race meeting to Griffith next April.

Streat said Racing NSW was approaching Griffith’s bid to get back on to the racing calendar with some apprehension, but said the area was still in line to be allotted another date to race.

“We were as close as we have been for the past few years (to racing). We had been given a date and we were out of debt,” Streat said.

“They (Racing NSW) put us in line to get the first date, and we are in the basket to get set another one next year, as long as we do a few things.”

Top of that to-do list is getting the track up to speed, with the decision made earlier this year that Griffith’s foray back into the racing circuit would be done on dirt.

Tests will be carried out in coming weeks, to ascertain the clay and rock content of the soil at Dalton Park, in order to come up with a strategy to meet Racing NSW’s standard.

Streat said Racing NSW was still pushing for Griffith to run on a turf track, but he said financially that wasn’t possible with the likely bill to be in the tens of thousands of dollars for seed, water and labour costs.

Also the timeframe needed to re-establish a turf track would mean that racing in Griffith would not happen for at least 18 months.

“If we were given four race meets a year, then a turf track might be worth it, but for only one race a year at this stage we simply can’t afford it,” Streat said.

“You can understand their (Racing NSW) apprehension, they want to make sure everything is up to where they want it because if there is a problem first up, then we will never get it back again.

“But they have set the bar pretty high, and it has been about two-and-a-half to three years since anybody has been out to look at the track.

“I have said I will pay for your plane ticket, or pay for the fuel in your car to get you out here.”

Streat also rejected the notion of going to large business to ask for funds, saying that if sponsorship money was used to organise the meet, prizes would have to come out of club members’ pockets, threatening the viability of the event.