Those in Victoria’s north will be powerless to quell the urge to step outside on Sunday and get their backsides trackside to the much-loved Gunbower Pacing Cup. Powercor maintenance work to perform fire prevention measures and maintenance will affect the area, but Gunbower Harness Racing Club secretary Peter O’Shea said the club would be fully functional and a timely escape.
“We’ve had a few problems with Powercor turning the power off in the area, but they have come to the party and given us generators, so everything has come together,” Mr O’Shea said.
“With the power out at home there’s even more reason for everyone to get to the track. They can’t do much else, maybe pull the weeds out of the garden or something, so they might as well come to the trots.”
Mr O’Shea said Sunday’s race day was a much-needed opportunity for the Gunbower township and those in its surrounds to enjoy a day out.
“It’s a dairy industry up around here. We get a lot of people in a radius of 30 to 40km all the way up to Echuca, which is half an hour away,” he said.
“It’s only a small community and it is great that we can have the trots and come together and have a day off.
“Parents are under a fair bit of the pressure running the kids in all different directions to various sporting events, which they know they need to do to keep the sports alive in the area, and then they don’t get a lot of chance to enjoy themselves. On Sunday they can sit back, relax, have a few drinks and chill out a bit.”
And there is plenty to enjoy at the unique event, not least of all the games. There will be the gumboot competition, “the bloke that won it last year threw it 45-50m”, the Spit The Dummy Comp and the 4x100m mixed relay race, with all carrying first, second and third-placed cash prizes, plus vouchers.
The ever-popular umbrella area will also provide an escape and has already attracted “70-odd” attendees.
“We have the big square bales of hay as our fence and will have a bar area and TAB, so people can put a bet on without having to leave the area,” Mr O’Shea said.
Those in attendance will also be able to enjoy some first-class racing, with an eight-race card including several quality affairs, no less than the Gunbower Family Hotel Gunbower Pacing Cup, which will be contested by Star Of Dionysis, Bad Boy Brad, Diamond Ace and Beachstar among a quality field.
“We put a new surface on the track this week, which is looking really good and has come up well, so we are very pleased with the participants getting behind our meeting. We’ve got 87 or 88 horses, a capacity field in the cup and 11 in the trotters’ cup.”
by Michael Howard