This weekend's Rabbitohs Race Day will help kick-off an exciting time for Dubbo Turf Club.
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Ahead of Sunday's NRL game between South Sydney and the Canberra Raiders at Apex Oval, a bumper meeting will be run on Saturday while feature events like the Silver Goblet and Winter Country Classic are scheduled for the coming months.
There's also plenty happening off the track, with upgrades continuing on areas like the mounting yard and the member's room while much more is being planned.
New Dubbo Turf Club general manager Sam Fitzgerald is proud of the working being done and excited for the coming months but added much of the groundwork was done by his predecessor, Vince Gordon.
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Gordon was at the club for seven years before he lost his battle with cancer in March of this year.
"It's been a challenge and we've got a lot of projects happening but I'm extremely thankful that I've been able to take over a club that's in such fantastic shape financially and with regards to its standing in the community," Fitzgerald said.
"That's wholly contributable to the work Vincent Gordon did in the past seven years in getting this club from where it was and, certainly, I'm very proud to continue his work and try and take Dubbo to the next level again."
The improvements made at the club during Gordon's time in charge will be on show to what is expected to be a strong crowd on Saturday.
A number of South Sydney Rabbitohs Old Boys and possibly some current players will be trackside ahead of Sunday's match.
The meeting received a staggering 218 nominations, a number that even surprised Fitzgerald.
"We're very lucky to have such a great sporting weekend in Dubbo this weekend," he said, with the Group 3 Brother Fox greyhound race also on Saturday night.
"We held this meeting last year before the Rabbitohs-Panthers game and it was a huge race meeting, however, it did have COVID restrictions in place so this year, being unfettered by those restrictions, we're anticipating a bigger crowd."
The Silver Goblet Prelude, purely for two-year-olds, will be one of the main events on Saturday and it attracted a healthy 23 nominations.
The main Silver Goblet feature will be run during a showcase meeting on June 10. That meeting will also include two heats of the Winter Country Classic, before the final on June 26.
"Dubbo very much takes the lead for racing in western NSW in the winter," Fitzgerald added.
"We've got three meetings in June and one in July and a meeting in August and two in September. It's a busy period but we're very confident, despite the wet weather, our track will be able to handle that heavy racing schedule."
The club invested plenty of time and money in getting the rye grass in at the track and that will ensure a healthy racing surface in the winter months when the kikuyu grass becomes dormant.
More than $100,000 was also spent on rejuvenating drainage to ensure the track can handle any significant downpours.
The final fields for Saturday's meeting will be released on Thursday morning.
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