INCOMING Dubbo Turf Club chairman Chris Davis feels the club is facing a sink or swim moment but is confident the people involved in the club can ensure success for many years to come.
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The Turf Club has gone through a tumultuous few years with a number of changes occurring at a board level while the track itself has missed out on numerous meetings, mainly due to adverse weather.
Davis has recently taken on the role as chairman, a position which was once filled by the popular Michael Edwards, and he feels the time is right for the club to take action and really advance itself.
"It's really at the cusp of going one way or the other," he said.
"But I'm very confident we'll get it to really be something Dubbo can be proud of and good strong racing in the town brings people to the town and flows through to the community."
Davis' appointment as chairman was first mooted following December's eventful annual general meeting.
Former chairman Terry Bye was one of seven board members who withdrew their nomination.
That allowed Davis, Angus Barlow and David Ringland automatic positions in the committee and they were then able to invite people to fill the remaining vacancies.
The club then had to go without a chairman but Davis has filled the role and it is a position he is confident to undertake.
"After spending five to six years here as secretary manager in the early and mid-2000s it's always been a passion and I've always wanted to do something for the club because and I went through some of the tough years," he said.
"There's great people here."
Kevin Hockey, Sarah Carrigan, David Ringland, Angus Barlow, David Meathrell and Charles Mclean will all join Davis on the board while the new chairman said people have been lined up to fill the Racing NSW appointed positions and those announcements would be made in the coming weeks and months.
As well as finalising the backroom structure of the club, Davis is also focused on ensuring the track and facilities ensure future success for the club.
One of the major things the club would now do was develop another sand track purely for slow work and Davis said that was just one of the projects set down for this year.
"There's a lot of things which have got to happen and which will happen," he said.
"The first thing the people will see is another sand track, it will be a slow work sand track and this (current) one will be used as a fast-work sand track.
"At the same time or later this year we want to do some drainage work on the home turn to stop some of the issues we've had with the weather and also the extensions to the members lounge and in the female's jockey room.
"That will all happen later this year around November, December and January and we may not race those few months while we do all that but we're pretty confident you'll see things happening in the next few months."