Derby Day is shaping as a great chance for not only punters and fashionistas to get trackside, but also trainers who have been so severely impacted by rain.
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Dubbo's biggest party will be at it's very best on Saturday after two years of COVID restrictions.
With the weather forecast looking promising early in the week, a crowd of roughly 4000 is expected at Dubbo Turf Club while there's also set to be strong showing on the track after 240 nominations were received.
The bumper number was expected by those at the club, given so many western area meetings have been cancelled due to the ongoing spring downpour.
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The washouts continued on the weekend when the Coonabarabran Cup meeting - which had been transferred to Coonamble due to rain - was cancelled while a non-TAB meeting set down for Cowra was also abandoned.
"We're quite fortunate our noms are solid but there have been a lot of race meetings lost," Dubbo Turf Club general manager Sam Fitzgerald said.
"In previous weeks there's been diminished numbers with meetings being swapped and changed so we were expecting large nominations and hopefully we can support as many participants as we can by getting their horses racing and giving out some prizemoney."
Seven races - headlined by the 2200m Western Eagle - are set down for Saturday and that could possibly be expanded to eight given the strong nominations. The Derby Day meeting is to be followed by the annual Melbourne Cup Day non-TAB meeting at Dubbo Turf Club and stewards are working to lift the field limit from eight horses at that meeting so more are given the chance to race.
The two upcoming meetings are two of the biggest social events on the Dubbo Turf Club calendar and after plenty of upgrades to the facilities at the track in recent times there's plenty of excitement building.
"It's the day the community focuses its attention on our club and everyone comes out to have a good day," Fitzgerald said.
"We're certainly very excited and looking forward to the next week.
"We're looking forward to welcoming back a full compliment of patrons this year after COVID last year dictated the numbers we could host. We're excited to have a bigger crowd come out and enjoy the day and show off what we've done in the past 12 months.
"Obviously there's been some changes to our infrastructure. We've done a lot of work with the garden and aesthetics so we're excited for people to come out and see our hard work and enjoy a good couple of days of racing."
Should the forecast change and heavy rain force the abandonment of the races, the party at the track won't be cancelled and punters can still be a part of the racing at Melbourne, Sydney and elsewhere around the country at the betting ring.
No rain was predicted for Saturday at all on Monday afternoon, much to the delight of trainers around the region.
The 240 nominations are largely from the western and Central West regions, with Dubbo trainers Clint Lundholm, Brett Robb, Connie Greig, Michael Mulholland and Lunn brothers Garry, Michael and Dar all well-represented.
"We have roughly 200 horses in work here at Dubbo so it's great to be able to provide this kind of opportunity for our local trainers," Fitzgerald added.
"We've been very unlucky with meetings being washed out so finding races for horses has been problematic. It's good to see we've got a very good representation of local horses in the noms."
Tickets for the Derby Day meeting remain available from 123Tix.
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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.
