3 minute read

The Broken Hill Harness Racing Club will conduct a TAB Carnival of Cups meeting this Friday night for the third successive year.

Club Senior Vice President Tony Camilleri expects another huge crowd. With Adam Brand performing as part of the meeting people will be travelling long distances to enjoy a night out.

"We've had a stack more interest in comparison to last year with Shannon Noll and that crowd was massive," Camilleri said.

"Five years ago the club sat down with Harness Racing New South Wales about our future and we can't thank them enough for making the meeting what it is now."

"The introduction of entertainment with Shannon Noll and now Adam Brand has attracted just about the whole town plus a great amount of tourists and when you include the terrific prize money, our Carnival Of Cups meeting is grabbing plenty of attention."

Camilleri's daughter Ashleigh competed in last year's Rising Stars Junior Driver series in New South Wales and has since taken out her training licence.

Despite suffering from a broken ankle after a nasty fall she will be attending Friday night's meeting and has two runners engaged in the feature event, the $15,000 Coughlan Drilling Pty Ltd Cup.

"Mattichiello won the race last year when he was trained by my dad so hopefully he can win the race again this year but I also have Cityscape in the race and he has won two of his last three starts so I think I have two pretty good chances," Ashleigh Camilleri said.

"I would love to be out their driving but with my ankle injury I can't be, I am actually booked into see a specialist next week in Adelaide because it isn't healing very well and there is a possibility that I may need an operation to help fix it."

Camilleri has a strong team of horses in at the meeting including the former Sydney trained pacer Rapid Response.

"Rapid Response has been racing really well and the best thing about him is that he tries really hard so I think he will be pretty hard to beat this Friday night, he is the best of my chances I think."

"I have trained 11 winners so far in my career and I've had 56 starters so I'm pretty happy with how the team has gone this season and hopefully the stable can finish off the season well this Friday night."

Camilleri works for the Broken Hill City Council as a disability support worker and despite her injury has returned to work on light duties in the past month.

"It hasn't been easy working and trying to get the horses done but there are plenty of people who have been giving me a hand around the stables and I have really appreciated all of the support while I have been out of action."

"This Friday night will be a huge one, not just for the harness industry but for the whole town itself and I'm looking forward to being a part of it."

HRNSW CEO Sam Nati admits developing Broken Hill into a Carnival Of Cups club was a no brainer.

"Our tactic was to give every club a Carnival Of Cups meeting so they all had something to aspire to and we thought that was particularly important for the smaller clubs," Nati said.

"Additionally when I visited Broken Hill in 2010 it was clear that the industry was struggling and that we had to make a decision on their future, since then not only have we added a Carnival Of Cups meeting and the sponsorship funding that goes with it but we've also provided marketing support through the Noll and Brand promotions, resurfaced the track and purchased important maintenance equipment."

"But more importantly we increased base prize money at the start of the season."

Just by being on course this Friday night one lucky patron will go into the draw to win a brand new Toyota Yaris.