Thousands enjoy celebrations at Albury

More than 5000 people packed into the Albury Showgrounds to ring in the new year at Albury’s premier harness racing meet on Sunday night.

Rain late last week combined with milder temperatures over the weekend, resulted in conditions club president Sue Van de Ven said were close to perfect.

“I think it's magic, the weather has been awesome, the rain on Thursday and Friday settled the dust and it's been a magnificent evening,” she said.

“As far as the weather is concerned, you couldn't ask for it to be better than this.

“The crowd is fantastic as well, it's a testament to Albury and the support which is absolutely fantastic.  

“The people know they can come down for some entertainment, it's not going to blow the budget because they can bring their own picnic and everything.

“A lot of them come back every year but I spoke to some people who were from America and had chosen to celebrate here, in the past we've had people from places like Switzerland, all over the world.”

It's been a big year for the harness racing club, with work on their new finishing post and running rail completed after more than a decade spent getting the project up and running.

Mrs Van de Ven said the club wouldn't be resting on its laurels in 2018 though, with more work still to come.

“We'll be working hard for more racing, our training numbers are growing, so it's exciting,” she said.

“There's still a lot of major works to be done, our biggest project is coming up in the next 18 months, the night stalls in the back for trainers.

“There's a few other suggestions that have been made, which will be taken under advisement.”

All of that took a back seat to the midnight fireworks display though – one Baranduda's Narelle Garland rated as the best on the Border.

Mrs Garland and her family have been coming to the New Year Eve's meet for the past 17 years – and she doesn't plan on missing any in the years to come either.

“It's a great atmosphere, we can get together because there's usually a big group of us, and the fireworks are the best,” she said.

“The first time we came we'd gotten back from a few years overseas, this was the easiest place to come because we had young kids, we could let them run around.”

By Chris Young

Reprinted with permission of The Border Mail