St Arnaud Cups are finally back home

North Central Victorian regional harness racing club at St Arnaud will have its Pacing and Trotters’ Cups back where they belong this Sunday (Nov 20) – with the advantage of brand new facilities.

The St Arnaud Cup was last run at the club’s home track in 2019 but the feature was transferred to Charlton and Melton for the past two years as a result of COVID-19 and then the development of a multipurpose sporting facility at the site.

“We’re certainly glad to be back racing at home and the community is really looking forward to having the Cup back here because it’s one of the big events in town that we really celebrate as a community,” said club secretary Kaye Boyd.

“It’s a big day and the racing will be fantastic – we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and size of the nominations this year,” she said.

The St Arnaud IGA Pacing Cup has a full field of 10 including quality contenders in Vanquish Stride and Sahara Sirocco (Shane Sanderson), Mongiana (Steve O’Donoghue-Bec Bartley) and Yianni (Ricky Ryan).

In the BSL Trotters Cup a field of eight will contest the standing start feature, including Blue Coman (Greg Norman), Show Me The Moolah (David Murphy), home-town hero Travel Bug (Shaun and Jason McNaulty) and 30-metre back marker Robbie Royale (Brent Lilley).

They will be the final of the 2022 Country Cups series to be staged in Victoria ahead of the Inter Dominion series, beginning in Ballarat on November 26.

The pacing cup has a rich history dating back to 1973, with Kerryn Manning taking out the feature five times.  On Sunday, Manning will drive Stag Party for Charlton trainer Greg Norman.

The trotters feature has been run for the past 20 years, with John Caldow having most success, taking home the cup on three occasions.

St Arnaud was among a number of small country clubs that waged a battle for survival when they were closed in a statewide track rationalisation in the early 2000s.  St Arnaud won the right to host their cup meeting again at the Lord Nelson complex in 2011.

The club’s new facilities are part of $4million multipurpose pavilion at Lord Nelson Park, funded by the Northern Grampians Shire, the Victorian and Federal Governments and AFL Victoria. It is the now the base for a group of organisations including harness racing, the Show society, cricket, football, hockey and netball.

“We maintain the track for local trainers so it just made sense for us to keep racing here, and it’s important to the local community,” Boyd said.

“We hold two meetings a year now – the other is in January.  Everything is looking terrific for Sunday.  We just need the weather to look after us!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink