IT has taken almost 10 years but the hard labour of Garry McQuillan and his team of merry men is due to kick off at the barrier on August 29 when the Tuncurry Forster Jockey Club hosts its first TAB meet.
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For the first time ever the Forster Tuncurry Racecourse will be beamed via satellite across cable station Sky channel to punters across the country.
“It’s really a red letter day for a race course when they hold their first TAB meet, and this one has happened very quickly on the back of hosting its first race. It is a Cinderalla story... thanks to the extraordinary enthusiasm shown by the committee led by Garry to get this track from a basic training track to where it is today,” the head steward for Racing NSW Ray Murrihy said.
The battle to get the course race fit after it was almost closed down over nine years ago has been an invigorating challenge for club president Garry and the committee. Its refit has cost close to $1 million, aided in large part to funds from Racing NSW. With facilities now including new men’s and women’s toilets, an innovative wash down area, new weigh in and stewards room, and a new tower, Garry said people cannot believe how good it all looks. And as for the warm up ring, well –
“There’s no warm up ring like it anywhere!” he said.
The upcoming TAB meet will feature six races across starts of 1600m, 2 x 2100m, 1400m, 1000m and 1200m. The twenty five gazebos and tickets for the pavilions sold out within two weeks of going on sale but Garry said that there is still plenty of room on the hill.
“I would be very disappointed if we got anything less than 2000 through the gate. The cream of the coast’s jockeys will be here and we’ve got great fields. Racing NSW’s Ray Murrihy coming, and so is Lindsay Murphy the head curator. They saw the track 10 years ago. They’ve been a great inspiration to keep going.”
Garry has six A4 pages of last minute details to get through before the meet, including rolling the warm up area, pressure cleaning the betting ring, right down to the miniscule details of buying bread rolls and getting them cut open so that sandwiches can be made on the day.
There are free buses running from Wingham, Taree, Blackhead, Wallamba Ski Park, and through Forster and Tuncurry all day.
Gates open on August 29 at 11am. It will be followed by the annual ‘Shake Up the Winter Blues’ meet on September 12.
