This Saturday, the Forbes Diggers Harness Racing Club will offer free entry to their Anzac Day meeting as a gesture to the centenary of Anzac commemorations.
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Gates open to the event at 12pm with the first race set to start at 1pm at the Forbes Showground’s paceway.
The history of harness racing in Forbes has a significant connection with the war years and those who so bravely fought for our country and it is fitting that on Saturday, Anzac Day, the first of two pacing meetings will be conducted by the Forbes Diggers Harness Racing Club.
As it was “Diggers”, men and women who served at war or had loved ones do so that helped develop the existing paceway at the showground, forming the club in 1952.
Over the years the Forbes Services Memorial Club has placed its support behind the sport both in sponsorship and assistance in many ways.
Over the next two weekends it is Forbes that gets its turn in the harness racing spotlight with Saturday’s meeting giving patrons a taste of things to come.
The following Sunday, May 3 will see the local club’s annual feature, the Carnival of Cups conducted with a healthy $63,000 in prizemoney up for grabs which is sure to attract some of the state’s leading trainers and drivers to compete.
This Saturday will see two qualifying heats of Forbes Services Memorial Club Series conducted which will lead into a $12,240 final the following Sunday.
Last year, this final was taken out by the Bernie Hewitt trained and reined Alphitonia.
Saturday’s supporting program sees $1,500 penalty free races catering for all classes while other feature races on May 3 include two $10,000 Tabcorp Menangle Country Series Heats, a $6,120 qualifying heat of the Dubbo Dooza Golden Gig Series and four other races carrying stakes of up to $8,160.
Leading local trainer, Jason Gaffney is looking forward to the next two weekends with a big team nominated and he hopes that a home track advantage may favour his horses.
Bathurst and the state’s leading trainer Steve Turnbull returned to Forbes last year after a long absence and with daughter Amanda in the gig, Radiant Lodge had a field day, winning a number of races over the carnival.
Now that Amanda is spending more time at her Shepparton (Victoria) base, her younger brother Mitch is likely to share the driving duties with his father.
Other prominent trainers supporting the meeting include Nathan Hurst, Peter Bullock, Chris Frisby and Mark Hewitt while locally, Andrew Cassell and Brett Hutchings (Parkes), Pat Jones and Ken Sharp (Eugowra) and Forbes trainers Gary Eyre, Adam Bellach, Terry Hush, Braden Sullivan and Ian Quirk all have horses nominated for Saturday’s meeting.
A full preview including racecaller, Michael Dumesny’s selections will appear in Saturday’s edition of the Forbes Advocate.