IT was third time lucky for the Dawson Jockey Club with a small but dedicated crowd attending the Taroom Senex Race Day on Saturday.
Dawson Jockey Club Committee Member and former trainer Graham Rewald said after the races had been washed out twice, it was more important than ever to hold the meet.
“There’s very little country racing in January, so the club decided to hold it to give the stakeholders a chance to earn the money otherwise the money just goes back to Queensland Racing,” he said.
“When there are meetings put off, there’s a void in the program for the trainers.”
Bundaberg was the only other country race meeting held on Saturday.
Senex Energy’s Community Relations Manager Trevor Robertson agreed with Graham describing the twice yearly Taroom races as part of the social fabric that hold the community together.
“Full marks to the committee for persevering and making sure that this event was held so that the horses did get to run, particularly when so many events were cancelled due to Covid last year and then this one was cancelled due to a much better reason – rain,” he said.
“As we look to the next races in September, we hope that it is going to be better than ever as community events start happening again.”
With horses from as far away as Moranbah racing, it was Jandowae based trainer Geoffrey Schrader who claimed two firsts taking out the Sam Barlow Memorial BE 1200M with Valar Dohaeris and the Des Johnson Memorial Benchmark 60 Handicap 1400M with Aklavik.
Schrader also took out a third placing with New Zealand bred Wunulla Lady in the Owen Brodie Memorial QTIS Maiden Plate 1000M.
Oakey trainer Graham Banks took out the Owen Brodie Memorial QTIS Maiden Plate 1000M and former Miles-based trainer Bevan “Billy” Johnson, now based out of Moranbah, won the Bob Scott Memorial Open Handicap 1200M with the New Zealand bred Necessitas ridden to victory by his daughter Dakota Graham.
Taroom’s next race meet will be held in late September.
