Community Involvement

Harley Walden, racing coloumnist

By Harley Walden

I have lived in Scone all my life and down through the years have watched as the people of the community have backed and supported many projects that have been placed before them, the Floral Festivals, the building of the Memorial Baths the hundreds that attended the Premier showing of the film Shiralee at the Civic Theatre the closing of the old racetrack at White Park with sense of pride and a little disappointment and the embracing of the new track at Satur.

The introduction by NSW Racing of the Country Championships has proved a great boost for trainers in the bush and as was shown at Scone on Sunday February 21 with the running of the Regional Qualifier, another way to get the community involved.

Everything was put in place by the Scone club, plenty of eateries capped off by a magnificent marque by Darley, jumping castle, face-painting and a bathing pool for the children and the towns folk and community repaid the club ten-fold with a crowd only bettered on Scone Cup day.

The feature race the Hunter and North West Qualifier run over 1400 metres with prizemoney of $100,000 could well be a matinee for the final of the Country Championships to be run at Randwick on Saturday April 2 carrying prizemoney of $400,000.

As was expected by many the qualifier at Scone was dominated by horses prepared by local conditioner Greg Bennett.

The winner Clearly Innocent charged down the outside under vigorous, what was described by jockey Tommy Berry, as not one of his best rides, to defeat stablemate All Summer Long by one and a quarter lengths with Sargent Doakes, also prepared at Scone by Rodney Northam finishing a creditable third behind the Bennett pair.

A track record that was posted by Stella Maree of 1.21.74 some 16 years ago also went by the board with the winner running 1.21.42 for the 1400 metre journey.

Another Greg Bennett runner, Invienna, who ran fourth in the event will now have to contest a Country Championships Wild Card event to be run at Muswellbrook on March 27 as she hopes to qualify for the big one in Sydney.

Unfortunately, the way the Regional Qualifiers are structured, Tamworth will most likely hold the Hunter/North West Qualifier next year, leaving Scone with a breach to fill, that is if they are provided with a Sunday meeting?

If this is the case hopefully the race club committee can muster-up a similar fixture that will again attract the support of the community.