Local racing has been going through a pretty turbulent time lately.

Bathurst's dramas are well known and the on and off situation with their racing licence is still ongoing while both Orange and Dubbo have suffered with cancelled meetings and loss of money due to no rescheduled dates or the rescheduled dates then being washed out as well.

All in all, things haven't been great for racing in our area.

But yesterday the nominations were announced for this weekend's Wellington Boot and all of a sudden things are looking a bit exciting again.

Famous names like Gai Waterhouse, Peter Moody and Bjorn Baker, along with well known local and regional trainers Michael Lunn, Luke Griffiths and Terry Sutherland, all put forward nominations for the $100,000 event which is sure to grab the attention of local racegoers.

With all the poor luck meetings in our area have had the best possible thing would be for a great weekend at Wellington with perfect conditions that leaves the connections of these metropolitan racers very impressed.

It's likely that even if Moody and Waterhouse's horses are accepted they won't be at Wellington on Sunday but imagine if one of the representatives went back to the Waterhouse stable and told the legendary trainer how great the weekend was in the central west.

Having metropolitan trainers involved in regional meetings is often seen as a double-edged sword with the point of view that metropolitan trainers are taking away opportunities for local chances.

But racing in our area needs some positive publicity and the likes of Gai Waterhouse and Peter Moody can deliver that.

A number of trainers and punters throughout NSW will be focusing on Wellington and the central west this weekend and we really need to deliver.

Big name trainers combined with the picturesque track at Wello, the huge amount of prizemoney on offer and (hopefully) some good weather will get everyone talking about local racing in a positive light again.

And you can't argue that it's not needed.