Penny's Bonitas' details in the form guide at Gilgandra Jockey Club last weekend showed all anyone needs to know about the tough time trainers around the state are facing at the moment.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Trained by Bryan Dixon, Penny's Bonitas is one of a huge amount of horses who have been hard to place in recent months because of so many meetings being cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
"The form guide had her down as coming back from a spell because she hadn't raced since June 4," Dixon said.
"She'd come back on August 9 but she wasn't spelling, she'd been left in the stables because she hasn't been able to get a start."
Like so many trainers in the western area and further afield, Dixon has been left with few options for his lower rated horses.
But Racing NSW has offered assistance, with Dubbo Turf Club to host the first of four new non-TAB meetings for lower grade horses this Saturday.
READ ALSO:
The others will be held at Coonabarabran (September 5), Moree (September 19), and Narranderra (September 26).
As well as that, a picnic meeting will be held at Gilgandra on Saturday, September 26.
Dixon will have at least two horse line up at Dubbo on Saturday, with Penny's Bonitas to go around again alongside stablemate Tinybella in the Western Star Hotel F&M Benchmark 50 Handicap (1020m).
"It's great. We've lost 28 [meetings] because of COVID and we buy these lower grade horses to give them a chance in life and we're nearly going to have 12 months lost," Dixon said.
"You've got some not-competitive horses who have had to go up against better horses or not get starts at all because they're ratings are low.
"This is great and it's got to keep going."
While understanding while race clubs have had to close their gates to the public Dixon said there has been frustration at times given "six or seven thousand people can go to a football match in the city but you can't have 500 people at the races in Bourke".
So many smaller which run picnic and non-TAB meetings rely on the money generated on race day and the lack of crowds has made racing near impossible.
But the new meetings on the calendar are a boost and there were 60 acceptors for Saturday's five-race meeting.
Dixon will also be in action at Mudgee Race Club's Gooree Cup race day on Sunday before racing again at Tamworth on Monday.
But despite so much travel, some of his horses are still missing out.
"I've got two in at Mudgee and three at Tamworth and two are emergencies," he said,
"Unless it rains they're not going to get a start so I'll just nominate again for Coonabarabran next week.
"I just hope this [extra meetings] continue because you only need to look at the Central and Western Districts and the fields are huge.
"So many horses are missing out on a start."
Racing starts at 11.30am on Saturday at Dubbo.