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All roads between Bowen and Townsville in far North Queensland will lead to the Burdekin Shire tomorrow for the race club’s first ever TAB meeting
Home Hill is the meeting’s designation, one of the twin towns that that straddle the Burdekin River, the other being the sugar centre of Ayr.
Burdekin Race Club secretary Sid Ruskin says the towns are still waiting for their first set of traffic lights, but as small as they might be, the rivalry between them is akin to Australia and New Zealand.
The Burdekin has its pedigree in sugar, but the catchment area is now reputed to produce more mangos than the ‘mango capital’, Bowen, 110kms to the south.
Ruskin doesn’t deny that tomorrow will be a sweet occasion for the local racing club.
“It’s our first ever TAB meeting and the track is currently a good 3 and in excellent condition,” he said.
“Everything is in place and we are expecting the Sky Channel people any minute to lay out their cables for the live coverage.”
Burdekin has been allocated two TAB meetings because of the $7 million upgrade under-way at Townsville’s Cluden Park race track.
The upgrade includes construction of a turf track, construction of a new workshop and amenities building and the installation of underground services to support future development.
To give punters a handle on the Home Hill track, Ruskin says it is turf with a 1600m circumference and a 220m straight.
“There’s folk law around here that 60% of winners lead at the turn; that’s not the case, but it is fair to say, though, that it sure pays to be on the pace.”
He says it always pays to keep an eye on the weather. “We can get a half inch of rain here in five minutes — we can handle plenty, but we don’t have six toes.
“We’ve had nearly four inches of rain in the last week and none for the last three days. The weather bureau says there’s around a 50% chance of rain in the next two days.
“As things stand, another half inch would be perfect.”
Ruskin says the club usually attracts 200 people for a normal meeting, 500 on Derby day and 5000 for the local Cup.
“Burdekin is an ideal location and provides easy access for a very large horse population. We have excellent acceptances and are looking forward to a very big day.
“Fig trees form part of the infrastructure and provide excellent shade and there's terrific viewing of a race from the grandstand.
“We have a strong betting ring and everyone has pitched in to make our first TAB meeting a great success.”
