Action from the Orange Carnival of Cups meeting at Towac Park last Sunday. Photo by Coffee Photography
THE Harness Racing New South Wales Board, the C.E.O. and many of the staff, as well as the new Minister for Racing, the Federal M.P. and the Mayor of Orange - it was an impressive roll-call at Sunday's TAB Carnival of Cups meeting at Towac Park Racetrack, the new home of the sport in Orange.
And like the big crowd present, they came away convinced that the move to grass-track racing has been an unqualified success, far in excess of anything they might have hoped for.
The Orange Club these days races just twice a year,so trainers, drivers and the public will have to wait till this time next year to once more enjoy this novel experience, but it's clear that the Board members will be pondering in the meantime how to capitalise on a new and exciting opportunity.
Amanda Turnbull's day began inauspiciously when she lost a race on protest early on, but she more than made up for that by taking two of the features, the Jack Honan Memorial with What A Curtainraiser NZ and the Banjo Paterson Cup with Parramatta NZ which ,like Amanda, had some grass-track experience in New Zealand.
Those wins, plus successes by Angela Hedges and Ashlee Grives, threw more dollars into the kitty for the Ovarian Cancer fundraiser, and more went in, and for Prostate Cancer funding as well, when the males outpointed the females in the Kriden Park Drivers Invitational, and when a generous owner threw in an extra $500 after Power Of Red (Steve Turnbull) won the other feature, the Watson Corporate Final.
The crowd enjoyed the mini-trots action, the Fashions On The Field ( won against a very strong field by Gemma Hewitt ), the outstanding racecalls from Mark McNamara (leaving aside his jibe that 'Parramatta has won something at last') and the exciting action on track.
Green is the new Orange. Bring on next year!
