The Cootamundra Picnic Races are coming up on Saturday, April 26. With the races the day after Anzac Day, plenty will be looking to make the trip down on the Friday and make it a long weekend.
President of Cootamundra Picnic Racing Diane Williams is anticipating as big a year as ever.
“We have been washed out for two years now and even still ran the day both times with great success even without horses because we believe it’s very important for people to still have somewhere to get together and to make sure the people who travelled haven’t wasted their trip,” Diane said.
“Financially for us the past two years we’ve run at a loss. So we must get support this year because you just can’t keep running at a loss. We could’ve afforded to pull the pin. A lot of clubs do, but we did it for the people and the town.
“We still have to have security, we still had to have the marquees and everything running and we did. We did it for the well-being of the community in town and those who support us every year.
“Without horses and a bigger crowd, it’s struggling, and we only have five on the committee.
“We ran the TAB meeting for Young last year and we helped the TAB. The Turf Club is very good to us, they’re doing a lot of work out here now, but we need the support of the community to keep it going.”
Diane went into detail about what we can expect with the highly anticipated event.
“The gates will open at 11.30 and the bar will open. We are looking at the first race to be about one o’clock. It will be a six-race card,” she continued.
“The feature race is the Picnic Cup and our sponsor of the day is the Albion Hotel. We have the bus leaving from the side of the Albion Hotel at 11.30 and that’s a gold coin donation.
“Richard Colton is still the only trainer still training out of Coota, and is he still looking after the track. It’s looking beautiful.
“The Turf Club have been good, they’ve been out here working, they are painting, getting a new speaker system which is important because it’s really hard to hear as it’s a very old system and the fellow is here putting that in.
“The jockey’s rooms have just all been done up.
“We have this meeting on April 26 and the TAB meeting is on the October long weekend.
“A few races have been washed out so trainers will be looking for somewhere to run.
“We have a lovely fenced-off area called the winning circle and it’s seating. You can buy tickets for that. The marquees are all sold out, but there is still other private fenced-off seating that they can buy onto.
“They’re $50 a ticket and that’s the table, chairs, and umbrella in a fenced-off area with security so no one else can get in.
“We are having Fashions on the Field and our new thing this year is we are having a Gin Bar.”
Fashions on the Field offers lucrative prize money as always. The people of Cootamundra and surrounding towns are encouraged to dress up to their very best, get down to the track and enjoy a great day of racing.
-Tully Potts
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