The grand final was being held in Dubbo and it was the kind of event which could impact the crowd at the track.

While a genuine reason to be concerned, Fitzgerald's worries paled in comparison to those experienced by Mr. Jack White, secretary of the Dubbo Hibernian Race Club, in 1915.

It was Tuesday, June 29, 1915, when the third meeting of the Hibernian Race Club was held and the following was written about it in the Daily Liberal and Macquarie Gazette just three days later:

"... there was a good attendance and on the whole it was a crowd all of whom were on good terms with themselves and the read of the world," it read.

"Other cares were shut out; there was no anxiety as to whether the Empire will survive the great struggle in which she is engaged; there was no worry over the possibility of Germany coming in to Australia and squelching all race clubs."

The Dubbo Turf Club honoured the Hibernian club at its meeting on Friday, March 6, and ahead of the day Fitzgerald and his team had been learning about the history of the sport in the city.

"It's a little-known fact among racing fans that Dubbo once had two active race clubs," Fitzgerald said.

"Australia in 2024 is going through a lot of things with inflation and the cost of living crisis. So obviously there's some, but not close similarities to, the depression time.

"It would have been something very challenging to contend with back in the day and obviously with knowing what it costs to keep a professional race club going day to day, it would have taken a fair toll and would have taken a lot of work to keep everyone up and running.

"It largely would have been self-funded back then. There would have been no wagering subsidies and incentives.

"So it would have been done out of the pocket of the committee and sponsors and certainly the racing community."

The Hibernian Race Club was officially formed on Thursday, July 2 in 1914.

Within a week it had 130 members and when it ran its first race meeting the entire amount of prizemoney on the day totalled 75 pounds.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, that is now equal to roughly $9000.

When the Dubbo Turf Club runs its meeting on Friday, the minimum prizemoney for each race will be $27,000.

"Obviously everything's relative. When you look at it from over 100 years ago, £75 was probably a reasonable amount of money back in the day as compared to today," Fitzgerald said.

"But naturally today we're racing for a minimum of $27,000 at any given TAB meeting.

"It just shows how much the industry's grown during that time and obviously professionalised and it's obviously very fulfilling to see the growth we've had over that 110 years."

There's little known about the Hibernian Race Club.

It had strong ties to the Irish community and Irish heritage and Irish bands often played at race meetings.

On one such occasion, the club even made the "heavy" investment to bring an Irish pipers group north from Melbourne.

When the club ran its inaugural meeting in 1914 the feature event was the Hibernian Handicap.

At the Dubbo track on Friday, March 8, 2024, the final event of the day was called the Hibernian Handicap.

That event - 110 years ago - was won by Metpha.

No trophies or signage of the Hibernian club - which is believed to have only run for a few years - remains but Fitzgerald and his team were pleased to be able to recognise part of the city's racing history.

"Timing-wise, obviously March is an important time of the year with St Patrick's Day," Fitzgerald said.

"We're thinking about what we can do to make that race a little bit more special and perhaps start a new tradition.

"Hopefully we can look at it in the future and then maybe attribute a bit more prize money to it or grow the prestige of the race," he said.