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Mingenew Races set for this Saturday

Reuben CarderCountryman
Fiona Cosgrove, Pip Kupsch and Aimee Holmes on Mingenew Hill wear millinery from the “Willow Green Collection” last year. Fashions on the Field will run at Mingenew on Saturday.
Camera IconFiona Cosgrove, Pip Kupsch and Aimee Holmes on Mingenew Hill wear millinery from the “Willow Green Collection” last year. Fashions on the Field will run at Mingenew on Saturday. Credit: Jackson Flindell

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.

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“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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