It’s been in the works for almost half a decade but now, with all the boxes ticked, dates for meetings set down and Friday’s final trial run involving some of the region’s leading drivers done and dusted, Orange harness racing has officially found its new home at Towac Park.
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Seven of the central west region’s leading drivers, including Orange’s Jake Davis and Spring Hill’s Kel Winnell, took to Towac Park on Friday afternoon to do some trackwork, in conjunction with Racing Orange, Orange Harness Racing Club, Harness Racing NSW and Orange City Council’s official announcement.
The announcement comes a fortnight after Harness Racing NSW stewards Grant Adams and Michael Zarb gave the Orange track its final ticks of approval and the inaugural meetings on the grass track – on February 5 and 12 – will be held as scheduled, full steam ahead.
Commonplace in New Zealand, it’s been a long, long time since NSW hosted a trots meet on a grass track, making the move a groundbreaking moment in racing history.
“[The move is] about having a presence here, we at Harness Racing NSW didn’t want to see the sport move away from Orange,” Harness Racing NSW chief executive officer John Dumesny explained.
“We suffered from the fact we had to move two meetings to [Bathurst’s multi-million dollar College Road complex] last year.
“But we’re back, we’re here and we’re very thankful to the council who showed strong support … and also to Racing NSW for allowing us to use Towac Park.”
Dumesny said there’s no fears the two meets scheduled – firstly a trial meet, then the Orange Carnival of Cups – will be the first of few, he explained there’s little chance of harness racing at Towac Park being a novelty and fizzling out over time.
“Not at all, the club here, particularly (Orange Harness Racing Club president) Frank McRae and Kel Winnell, have done a tremendous amount of work in making sure these meetings are successful,” Dumesny said.
“We’re in the stage of crawling at the moment, these are our first meetings but we certainly will be walking and running in the future.
“These meetings are the real deal, there’s some tremendous prize money available.
“In New Zealand you’ll see racing on the grass every week.
“[The move] can only benefit both codes of racing, especially if we can host a dual-code meeting (trots and gallops). It gives variety and it certainly will be appealing to the community.
“It won’t fizzle out, we’re behind it, the council is behind it and racing is behind it.
“We will have a presence here in orange with the right support, and we have that right support.”
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
