AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- The repeated delays in America's Cup racing has hit San Francisco's Oracle syndicate especially hard.

Four challenger races were called off Wednesday because of light wind, increasing to nine the number of races postponed in three days. Wednesday's races were to be sailed on Thursday.

"These postponements have been difficult,'' Oracle spokesman John Cutler said. "It seems like the challenger series has been going for months and we've only done three races.''

Nine teams from six countries are competing in the four-month Louis Vuitton Cup for the right to challenge Team New Zealand for the America's Cup in February.

Oracle, backed by software mogul Larry Ellison, has sailed only three of six scheduled races and could be forced to sail two races each day on shortened courses.

Organizers said if further racing was lost they would schedule two races a day starting Friday to make up lost time.

Oracle headed to its course on the Hauraki Gulf for the third time in three days Wednesday, only to return without a result.

"Are we worried? We're doing our best not to look worried,'' Cutler said. "We're further behind than anybody else.''

Light wind was expected again Friday and team weather experts say racing could be postponed again. A change to high wind is forecast for Saturday.

Cutler said Oracle was prepared to sail two races a day if necessary.

The first round robin was to run Oct. 1-10 and has now been stretched over three reserve days. No further reserve days are available if racing is called off Thursday.

Seattle's OneWorld was to have raced Oracle on Tuesday, and Victory Challenge on Wednesday. New York's Stars & Stripes began a race against Le Defi on Tuesday but could not finish within the time limit. Stars & Stripes' race against Switzerland's Alinghi was also called off Wednesday.

OneWorld remains unbeaten in four races, and Stars & Stripes has two wins from five starts.

"We knew there was a risk of losing some race days in starting this early and we were ready for it,'' said Bill Trenkle, president of Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes.

Bill Ratliffe of OneWorld said his team was not surprised by the delays.

"We've been down here since December 2000 and we know what the weather's like,'' he said. "In two years we've only sailed on five consecutive days twice. This is nothing we didn't expect.

"The feeling in the team is still up, it's still very positive. We're disappointed because we'd like to get the racing done, but people are still up and there are smiles on their faces.''

On Thursday, it's Oracle vs. Le Defi, Stars & Stripes vs. Alinghi, OneWorld vs. Victory and Italy's Prada vs. Britain's GBR Challenge.