Forbes-based racecaller Col Hodges misses Narromine meeting due to Central West flooding

The famed racecaller has had just "one or two" sick days in more than 50 years in the job and there's been the odd unavoidable situation here and there, but for the most part he's as much a piece of racing in the western area as the horses themselves.

But on Tuesday Hodges had to admit defeat as the devastating flooding which has engulfed the region stopped him from getting to Narromine Race Club.

Hodges lives at Forbes and rising floodwaters left the town cut-off from all sides on Tuesday morning.

"This is the first one ever because of a flood," Hodges said of meetings he's missed.

"I've had to go through floodwaters before in different ways and I've been in fire engines and trucks before but this is the first one I couldn't go to because of flood.

"Apart from that I've only had one or two days sick in 50-odd years. I might have missed three days or had things happening that were unavoidable.

"But I've gone through grasshopper plagues and dust storms where you couldn't see more than 20 metres in front of the car and now we've got the floods.

"It would have been impossible to get there today."

The flooding crisis of recent months has made life difficult for Hodges - who was awarded an MBE for his services to racing in 2017 - and trips to tracks at towns like Cowra have involved long detours.

It was earlier this month, on November 6, when Hodges required assistance from emergency services to get to a meeting at Warren.

"I left my car on the other side of the floodwater because Forbes gets cut in half and I'm on the south side," he said.

"I was fortunate to get a fire engine across the water and was able to get to Warren."

Hodges had got in touch with Racing NSW and Sky Racing on Monday to inform them the outlook wasn't good and Tuesday's Narromine meeting was ultimately called remotely from Sydney.

Hodges was left at home, where he spent the morning driving around the parts of Forbes he could reach to see how the flooding was impacting his town.

As someone who lives on one of the higher streets on the south side of Forbes, Hodges wasn't in any immediate danger following Sunday's 120mm downpour which occurred but it was clear to see many who were.

What stood out the most was the houses which had been evacuated just two weeks ago were now being cleared out again.

The residents of those houses had only recently finished throwing items like waterlogged couches and mattresses into the street to be thrown away, only for the water to come up again.

The Lachlan River at Forbes could reach the 10.8m peak which was seen during the devastating 1952 floods as early as Tuesday night.

Major flooding was already occurring on Tuesday morning, while further rises are possible into Wednesday and a prolonged major flood peak could continue through to the weekend.

While that would increase Hodges' chances of missing more races, there may be no meetings left to call.

Torrential weekend rain and flooding has impacted a number of tracks, with surfaces at Wellington, Cowra, Parkes, Forbes and Orange all underwater in recent days.

Racing Orange has already cancelled a meeting scheduled for Friday while Saturday's meeting at Cowra will almost certainly follow suit.

It's been the story for numerous race clubs around the region given all the rain of recent months.

Narromine hosted the meeting originally planned for Wellington on Sunday and Tuesday's races marked the first for the club in 12 months.

Wellington lost its feature Boot meeting earlier in the year and hasn't raced since July 18 while Racing Orange has had to cancel all three meetings planned for recent months.

Mudgee Race Club was also left ravaged by floodwaters earlier this month, leaving its Mudgee Cup meeting set down for December 2 in some doubt.

Hodges has seen the likes of it before, stating he went roughly seven weeks without calling a race during ongoing downpours 30 years ago while there's been other issues which have brought the industry to its knees in his time.

Racing, like most other things in life, struggled during COVID and a whole host of small-club meetings were cancelled while bigger meetings went ahead in front of empty stands.

But the thing which hurt the most was the horse flu outbreak which began in mid-2007.

"COVID was hard but the horse flu was the worst one," Hodges said.

"I didn't call a race for about eight months then. Some trainers got some compensation but I didn't.

"That was a bad time, the horse flu was probably the worst."

What Hodges is most concerned about is the future of a number of the smaller clubs, many which just run one picnic or non-TAB meeting a year.

The Central West and far west is home to a host of those clubs and many of those haven't raced in years due to the crippling COVID restrictions and then impact of rain.

"If they get to race next year it will be the first time in four years and a lot of those smaller clubs only race once a year. They only have dirt tracks so a bit of rain can put them off pretty easily," he said.

"I've seen it before at different times with a lot of meetings called off but I've never seen some clubs go for up to four years without meetings.

"If a house gets deserted it can fall to pieces inside a year or so and that's my concern with a lot of these clubs which haven't raced for three or four years.

"There's no one there looking after them so the track and infrastructure can fall into disrepair."

While many forecast the ongoing 'big wet' to last through to potentially Forbes, Hodges did also offer a glimmer of hope.

As someone who's been involved in racing for more than five decades, Hodges has seen plenty come and go but the willingness of people to get in and help is something which has been a constant.

"I can remember 35 or 40 years ago when there were big droughts and I went out to some meetings and thought to myself 'gee I can't see racing lasting out here'," he said.

"They're still going strong 40 years later. They survive."