The New Year period will again be a busy one for the region's trainers.
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Nominations have been released for the annual Gilgandra New Year's meetings, this year run on Friday and Sunday, and also for a meeting at Forbes on Saturday.
The biggest of the three will be on Sunday, where the $37,000 Gilgandra Cup and $27,000 Gilgandra Town Plate will be contested.
The cup day meeting at Gilgandra attracted an initial 202 nominations, with 17 of those for the 1600m cup and 18 for the 1100m Town Plate sprint.
Bruce Parker, a former stalwart of Gilgandra racing, won't be represented after his retirement midway through the year but his stable will be on show as it is now in the care of his nephew, Kieren Hazelton.
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Hazelton has made a handy start to his training career and has put forward Bid To Fame and Zamali for the day's feature event.
Both were formerly trained by Parker and are two of eight chances Hazelton has nominated for his hometown meeting.
His other hopefuls are the last start winner Riva Rialto, Ben Shoof, Japingka, Soldier Poy, Streets Of Suemori, and debutant Zareign.
Wyong trainer Damien Lane could have the two form runners in the cup.
Lane has put forward the highly-rated Pirate Ben and Oakfield Captain for the feature but both are also nominated for events in the city later this week.
Also put forward for the cup were the Sue Grills-trained Blinkin Fast, the Michael Mulholland-trained Universal Thief and Sensacova, a recently new addition to Terry Fahey's stables at Narromine.
The Town Plate has attracted a handy group of regional sprinters.
Rodney Robb, a regular at Gilgandra this time of year, has Rogue Runner in contention while A Martin Placepick is set to be first-up for Narromine's Wayne Collison and What The Fuss returns to country racing for Dubbo trainer Kody Nestor after back-to-back Highway events his past two starts.
Final fields for Sunday's meeting are released on Thursday while there were an initial 66 nominations received for the non-TAB meeting in Gilgandra on Friday.
The two Gilgandra meetings sandwich the TAB meeting at Forbes on Saturday, which attracted an initial 109 nominations.
There are a number of dual nominations across each of the three meetings and officials at all three clubs will be keeping one eye on the weather forecast with plenty of rain predicted for the region this week.
Nick Guthrie
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
