Club president Steve Keir has called the emergency meeting following a Racing NSW investigation into the track surface at Kempsey.

There is strong speculation the track could be forced into a temporary closure until urgent repairs are carried out on the racing surface.

At last week’s TAB meeting the track conditions led race stewards to downgrade the track twice from its original pre-race classification of slow.

And at one point jockeys threatened a walkout because of the perceived safety risk. A consensus vote eventually meant they continued with the program, but it left some of the jockeys unhappy.

“After a few races, some of the boys said it was terrible – horses were slipping and sliding, especially at the 1000m turn,” leading Mid North Coast jockey Peter Graham told the Sun Herald.

“The grass cut out. There were pieces of turf coming back as big as your helmet.”

The condition of the track has been the subject of much debate since large areas were allegedly poisoned in a bungled weed eradication effort towards the end of 2008.

The matter is the subject of legal proceedings, but according to one industry figure it never should have been allowed to get this far.

Trainer Barry ‘Redback’ Ratcliff said the already struggling track had now been placed in an even more uncertain position.

“It wasn’t mowed when EI (Equine Influenza) was in and the Parramatta Grass took hold,” he said.

“Now the soil needs to be taken out and new turf put down.

“They could have fixed it between September last year and now, when there were no races on, but they won’t really have that opportunity again until after the Kempsey Cup.”

Racing NSW has contacted Mr Keir to inform him of its findings, and he will now take the issue to the club’s committee before an official announcement is made on Friday.

It has supplied the club with copies of four reports on the condition of the track.

Mid North Coast delegate for Racing NSW Don Hopkins said the reports included information on soil conditions at the track as well as remedial procedures required to fix the issue.

Racing NSW does have the power to close tracks if they are deemed unsuitable or unsafe for racing, but Mr Hopkins was not forthcoming on whether the industry body had ordered the Kempsey club to shut Warwick Park.

He said Racing NSW felt the appropriate course of action was to allow the club to make an announcement on the track following its Thursday meeting.