“I THINK it’s definitely justified our decision”.

Orange Harness Racing Club’s meeting in Bathurst on Sunday was an undeniable success, president Frank McRae said, which bodes extremely well for this weekend’s Carnival of Cups and Kent’s H Hardware Banjo Paterson Pace.

OHRC made the decision to move both of their 2016 meets to Bathurst’s multi-million dollar College Road complex due to the state of Orange’s Highlands Paceway, which currently needs a large amount of maintenance to ensure the safety of participants.

The first of those two meets went ahead last Sunday, and McRae said thanks to the numbers and quality of horses and drivers that fronted he’s champing at the bit for this weekend’s massive meeting.

“I think it has definitely justified the decision, everything ran smoothly, it was great. It went like clockwork really,” McRae said.

“We definitely wouldn’t have been able to house that quality of horses, or the number of them, at Orange, so it worked out really well. 

“We were originally programmed for six races and we ran nine, all of which had around 10 or 11 runners.

“But in saying that we will have harness racing back in Orange again, it’s just a matter of when.”

Last Sunday’s meet welcomed 99 runners across the huge nine-race program, which was up substantially from the corresponding race in 2015 held at Highlands Paceway.

“It’s really good signs for the Carnival of Cups this weekend,” McRae said.

“Obviously we can’t say how many we’ll have because the fields aren’t out yet.”