Georgina Cartwright and Taleah McMullen enjoying the dual-seater sulky racing Photo by Dan Costello
All roads lead to Albion Park this weekend.
It’s the second night of the 2020 summer carnival and the host club have a huge 10-race program assigned with seven features included.
And if the reaction from the opening night last week is anything to go by, it promises to be bigger and better this Saturday night.
“Last weekend was a great result for all involved, it was great to see so many people (new & old faces) take in a night of fine racing action coupled with a new facilities including the Creek Bar. A great way to measure a crowd is by how long they hang around for and in the end, we had to turn the lights out which is very pleasing.” CEO Scott Steele said.
The metropolitan club in conjunction with major sponsor Garrards gave away $20,000 cash last week to lucky punters and it was naturally well received.
Winners included Dianne McRoberts, Dale Hogan, Steph Freeman and Bernadette Alexander who all pocketed $5000 each.
While no cash giveaways are planned this weekend, the entertainment will be equally strong with the second round of Jockeys & Drivers Challenge an obvious highlight.
The four hoops taking their spot in the dual-seater sulky race this week includes Tegan Harrison, Ryan Wiggins, Mark Du Plessis and Matthew McGillivray.
Last week, Georgina Cartwright and Baylee Nothdurft proved triumphant.
“The inaugural Jockeys & Drivers Challenge races were very entertaining and this weekend will be no different, I’ve had many jockeys looking for a spot including Justin Huxtable who’s checking every hour for a position again.
“We’re hoping for a bigger crowd this week and even more turnover, the latter was a pleasant surprise last week so I’m keen to improve again.
“Many of the corporate areas are filling very quickly so get in quickly and try and secure your spot, we’ll have another band playing again throughout the evening.”
The on-track action is excellent with the arrival of the powerful Craig Cross stable this week from Sydney, the leading mentor has several key runners engaged including Balraj, Cruz, No Win No Feed and others.
The main event is the Gr.2 $50,660 Badcock Group of Companies Queensland Cup for the open class pacers.
Local hero Colt Thirty One is chasing back to back victories in the features and aims for his seventh successive win.
The Grant Dixon prepared stallion scored a brilliant victory last week when sitting parked to win the Gr.3 Be Good Johnny Sprint in 1:51.9.
Actions starts at 5.42pm.
