One of the region’s most colourful days will go ahead this weekend.
The Mingenew Races will run on Saturday, with the Turf Club hoping to attract a good crowd.
Club secretary Rikki Smith said as well as the six races, Fashions on the Field would be running at the event, along with children’s entertainment, a live band, and the bar.
She said it was a big day for the local calendar, with people staying at the Mingenew Springs Caravan Park and Mingenew Hotel-Motel.
“It’s a very big event for the town,” she said.
“Hopefully, we get the same turnout, if not more.”
The event drew a crowd of about 500 last year. Mingenew’s official population is 282.
Geraldton trainer Tony Scally said a fair number of locals would likely head over for the day.
“It’s always a pretty good day out,” he said. “A lot of Geraldton people go down there.”
He said he planned to take geldings Danehill Matilda, eight years old, and four-year-old Fairer America across.
The event last year ran just a day before the Federal Government’s directive to shut down all major events.
The club had also confronted a long dry spell and a broken town bore that had the track looking dead and unusable before last year’s meet, but a spell of rain greened it up in time.
At last year’s event, Geraldton trainer Julia Martin was rewarded for her faith in a horse that colleagues had told her to “sack” when her galloper Galaxy Blaze won the cup for the second time in three years.
The eight-year-old and absolute outsider paid $28.10 for the win.
Gates open at noon on Saturday, and racing starts at 1.15pm.
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