HORSERACING
By LIAM DURKIN
JUST four sleeps remain until the gates of Latrobe Valley Racing Club are flung open to welcome patrons to this year’s Traralgon Cup.
The third stop on the Gippsland country cup calendar, following the Moe and Sale cups, it is all systems go for the running of the Traralgon Cup this Sunday.
General excitement is expected to permeate, while at the club, the finishing touches are being put on to make sure racegoers have the greatest experience possible.
Latrobe Valley differs from Moe, Sale, Bairnsdale and Stony Creek racing clubs, as the club is run entirely by volunteers.
Attendees will get to experience the best of country racing, including elevated viewing along the straight.
The Latrobe Valley club has arguably one of the best viewing spots in country racing, with a virtual birds eye view literally one metre above the finishing post.
Trainers will be vying for a share of the $70,000 prize pool on offer in this year’s cup.
At time of going to press, fields had not yet been released for the main event.
Some great stories will undoubtedly be written this Sunday, if recent history is any indication.
A group of mates who bought into the Briagolong Pub in order to save the town’s watering hole won the Traralgon Cup in 2022, while just last year, Latrobe Valley Racing Club recovered to hold its cup day after floods nearly led to an abandonment.
The Traralgon track looked in great condition when the Express paid a visit last week, and club officials will be hoping for a similar ringing endorsement as the one received from last year’s Traralgon Cup winning jockey Alana Kelly.
In her acceptance speech last year, Kelly made mention of the quality of the Glenview Park track.
Minister for Racing Anthony Carbines walked the Glenview Park track himself last Friday, alongside Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron.
Such a sight perhaps demonstrated the communal power of racing – as two political opponents (Carbines is Labor, Cameron with The Nationals/Liberals) stood side-by-side in harmony.
(On a side note, Carbines was in town for a meeting with greyhound officials and Cameron to try and address issues facing the Traralgon Greyhound Racing Club track. It is understood the minister left the meeting optimistic a positive outcome could be reached).
COMMUNITY will be at the heart of the Traralgon Cup.
Latrobe Valley Racing Club has a number of activations for the whole family, demonstrating there is a lot more to a day at the races than just horses and gambling.
There will be the usual goings-on in the half hour intervals between races, with music played in marquees, mingling on the lawn, perhaps on the comfort of an unfurled picnic rug, to go with the general hustle and bustle and click-clack of horse shoes trotting around the mounting yard.
New Latrobe Valley Racing Club committee member Danielle Daniels is overseeing the marquees, and by all reports, there will be no better spot to be for cup day.
Fashions on the field is also set to feature.
Once again, the fashion stakes can be expected to be as hotly contested as the races themselves.
Community connections will also be strong at this year’s Traralgon Cup, with people from local sporting clubs, groups, workplaces and even Latrobe City Council all mingled in the one venue.
As a volunteer-run organisation, Latrobe Valley Racing Club depends on the support from patrons coming through the gates to ensure race meetings continue in Traralgon.
THIS year’s Traralgon Cup will be headlined by local Paralympic swimmer Emily Beecroft as guest speaker.
Beecroft will be guest of honour in the member’s dining room, regaling tales from her trips to the last three Para games.
Still only 25, the Traralgon local has four Paralympic medals, including gold, from her time in the pool.
She claimed the first gold of her career at this year’s Paris games as part of the mixed 4×100 medley relay team, winning in Paralympic record time (4:27.08).
Beecroft added to her tally with bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly S9 in Paris, to go with silver in the women’s 4×100 freestyle and bronze in women’s 4×100 medley at the Tokyo 2020 games.
Beecroft grew up in Traralgon, learning her craft with Traralgon Swimming Club.
She still keeps in regular contact with her old coaches and teammates, often training at the Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre when home.
TRARALGON CUP 2024
Date: Sunday, December 1
Location: Glenview Park, Traralgon (110 McNairn Road, Traralgon)
Gates open: 11am
Traralgon Cup distance: 1900m
Track record (1900m): 1:54.30 – Sondheim (1995)
Circumference: 1570m
Straight: 230m
Traralgon Cup prizemoney: $70,000
