It may be expected to be one of the hottest, and biggest, days of racing in Dubbo this year but Dubbo Turf Club president Vince Gordon is confident that the Chill-Rite Daikin Christmas Twilight race meeting will go ahead this weekend without too much interruption.
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"We'll have all the precautionary measures in place," Gordon said.
The Central West has recently been inundated with smoke conditions that have posed health dangers and caused harness race meetings in Bathurst to be cancelled.
While the air quality is much improved, temperature forecasts have the mercury rising as high as 45 degrees on what could well be one of the warmest days on record in Dubbo.
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"There's certainly policies in place to address it and we have trigger points where we need to be prepared for different conditions, if that's the case then that's the case, but we'll deal with each of those as they come along," Gordon said.
Preparations for the event are going well, according to Gordon, who expects the track to be in the best condition possible, despite the drought and harsh weather .
"Everything's coming along nicely, the track's looking really good actually, we're very happy with the number of businesses getting involved, almost five hundred people booked into the marquees for their Christmas parties, which is great," he added.
The event, which has drawn a wide range of nominations, including from the stables of local trainers like Clint Lundholm and Kody Nestor, as well as Bathurst's Dean Mifrin and Gilgandra's Bryan Dixon, will feature six races on Saturday.
"It's always good to see the nominations here in Dubbo, we're blessed with a great field and I think that's really a reflection on the track and the club, we're very happy with those," Gordon said.
Dixon's Blinkin Nomore will likely have a chance at back to back wins after being nominated following recent success on the track in Wellington.
As will Narromine's Justin Stanley, after securing a win on home turf late last month with You Know Zon.
Clint Lundholm's Sticks N' Stones will look to find a breakthrough win in the Maiden Plate after running in second in their two latest starts.
While the strength of the nominations, and the number of local faces, was pleasing to Gordon, he also noted that one of the biggest days of racing demanded certain other activities alongside the six race slate, with the finals of the ongoing Dubbo fashions on the field event also set to be held on Saturday.
"It'll be a really good day on the Dubbo racing calendar, we're looking forward to it, our fashions on the field series final is coming up and that'll be announced early in the evening," Gordon said.
Final fields are released on Thursday.