The Dubbo Turf Club's inaugural Foodie Race Day and Night Market event has proved too intriguing an opportunity for at least one out of town visitor.
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Hawkesbury based trainer Garry White is making the trek to Dubbo for the Friday night event, and is bringing one of his most promising racing prospects along with him to try their luck in the Derby Day Benchmark 66 Handicap event.
The Sydney based trainer will only be bringing Paris In May, but the five year old gelding has racing talent to burn and could be a strong contender for the first place $11,200 prize.
The increased investment and larger prize pools for country racing and the higher level of competition flocking to the state's more regional racing clubs as a result isn't giving White any pause though.
"Racing right across the board has gotten a lot harder, you almost have to be a mid-week horse to win a Saturday race nowadays," White said.
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"And in the country now, you nearly have to have a good provincial horse to win out there nowadays, but if I go anywhere it's usually along that western line near Dubbo, I enjoy getting out there. It's a good track out at Dubbo, I'm always happy to go there."
Paris In May might not be as experienced as some of the more seasoned country horses he'll be competing against, but the gelding has had a good showing in recent trial runs, and a first place finish in Wellington in his most recent start to give White ample confidence that his horse will out-perform the competition.
"I wouldn't be going if I didn't think he'd win," White said.
"He is a progressive little horse, he hasn't raced for a while, no major reason why, he just needed a decent spell which we gave him, he's still learning what to do a little bit, but I think the long trip will do him well."
"He's lightly raced, he's only had five starts in his five years, and I think this time around he's a lot better horse, not that he's had any real issues before."
"His trial's have been very good and he's improved a lot, I think he's a lot better than he was."
While the outside barrier Paris In May is cause for some concern, White is drawing some comfort from the perceived similarity between the Dubbo and Hawkesbury tracks across the 1000m distance.
"He's called barrier nine, which could be an issue, but the Dubbo start is a lot like Hawkesbury and he's got good speed, so I imagine he'll probably roll across."
"One reason why he's stayed in the paddock a little more than others is he's definitely had issues with shin soreness early on, but he's got a high level of ability, if he brings his ability to that race, he'll be very hard to beat."