Sunday’s meeting at Sha Tin was abandoned after eight races due to “unprecedented rainfall”, while Wednesday’s Happy Valley card has been cancelled as Hong Kong continues to brace for Typhoon Ragasa.

The Heir and Inno Super lost their footing on the bend between the 600m and 500m point in the Class Four Kowloon Bay Handicap (1,400m), leading to an inspection by a Jockey Club delegation and leading jockeys Zac Purton, Hugh Bowman and Alexis Badel.

It was ultimately decided racing could not continue on a track that had copped 140mm of rain since early on Sunday morning.

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges was happy to make the “responsible” decision regarding the rest of the meeting.

“We had unprecedented rainfall [in recent] weeks, but we had no issue regarding safety until race eight,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“With the continuous rainfall, we could see that there was one tiny spot on the track, which in a way caused horses to lose a little bit of their action. The jockeys reported this, so then there was a discussion that led to the site inspection.

“From our point of view, and from the jockeys’ point of view, it would not have been responsible to continue. There is the whole water that goes into this channel, and with all the water we had – 140mm since this morning – no other track could have even started racing.

“With a forecast of potential further rain, you would have needed probably an hour to clear the backlash – the drainage was good but it put so much water into the overall catchment that you have a backlash of water that cannot drain.”

The feature Class Two Yi Tung Shan Handicap (1,200m) was one of the two races lost to the weather, with that race set to be run as Race 11 on Sha Tin’s September 28 card.

With Ragasa on the horizon and set to hit Hong Kong from Wednesday morning, the Jockey Club has also been forced to abandon Happy Valley’s card in the interest of safety.

With 210km/h winds expected to batter the city and a No 10 typhoon signal likely to be issued, the club decided to get on the front foot with an early cancellation.

“We have studied intensively over the last week the whole forecast. When we look at three sources regarding the weather, being Hong Kong, China and even Japan, the forecast is that the storm, which is a super typhoon, will be closest to Hong Kong on Wednesday morning,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“Besides the wind, it’s predicted to have massive, massive rainfall [and] significant flooding. When you take this into consideration, we think it’s a better decision to decide not to go ahead with the race meeting.

“We can focus now to make our facilities as safe as possible – I think there will be significant work necessary to prepare for the super typhoon, so that we prepare for the welfare of our people and the welfare of our horses.”

There will also be a commercial hit for the Jockey Club, with a significant loss in turnover due to the two races, including the feature, being lost.

“If you look at the overall picture, the turnover will be a loss of HK$300 million, so it will be a tax loss of HK$30 million for the government,” added Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“The commercial aspects are not the consideration, it is the safety, and with additional races we will have later, it’s probably a delay of the income.”

It is believed the Jockey Club is planning to hold a replacement meeting on either June 15 or July 15.