Racing returns to Inverell on Saturday for the traditional Diggers Cup day with the addition of the second running of the Don Bartlett Memorial Battlers Cup.
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The Battlers Cup is now a $20,000 feature race restricted to horses that have competed in the small one day meetings in the area and was previously run as part of the Inverell Cup program on New Year’s Day.
All races will be covered by the TAB and corporate betting companies with the meeting attracting 102 nominations for the six races.
The addition of the Battlers Cup to the program has necessitated a change to the distance of the Diggers Cup which for the first time will be run over 1800 metres, a distance that has not been used since the course was reconstructed in the late 1990’ with the start located in the main straight.
Local firm Blue Gem Contractors recently carried out the needed earthworks near the course proper to enable the starting barriers to be removed from the track before the horses re-enter the straight to complete the race.
Last year’s Diggers Cup was won by ‘Hula Girl’ and the Maiden/Class 1 race was won by Dean and Patti Smith’s ‘Devlann’ that win commenced a rich vein of form with four wins over the Summer highlighted by a win in the Glen Innes Cup in January.
This year the local hopes in the Digger’s Cup will be headed by the consistent Al Foran trained ‘Bonnie Sare’, who has had two wins and three seconds from her last five starts, and Scott Dixon’s ‘Punton Bernadini’.
The locals will face stiff opposition from Tamworth Mornington Handicap winner ‘Bob’s A Dazzler’ and Guyra Cup winner ‘Exilia Miss’.
In the Battler’s Cup, runner-up in the first edition, the flashy grey ‘Clipaholic’ returns for Bill Perrett with nominations coming from far and wide for a chance at the big prize money.
Top weights will be Apache Lad from Tamworth who qualified with a win in the Barraba Cup and western Queensland galloper Priceless De Hero who qualified with an unplaced run in the Mungindi Cup. Nathan Sinclair form Moree has nominated the in-form mare Ready To Go Go, the winner of the Bundarra Cup and at the recent MoreeTAB meeting.
The local Picnic Race Club will be having a social function in a ticket only marquee on course during the day. Tickets to the marquee must be pre-purchased.
Normal gate charges apply with full bar, catering and betting facilities available for race club members and regular race-goers.
