Sunday evening will see the Tamworth Harness Racing Club showcase a nine-race program, with the feature being the Billy Grima Memorial Pace.
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The race has attracted a tidy field.
Billy was known for his passion for harness racing, along with his star pacer Tangaratta Thor and his Lantern Lodge Stud.
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His four children - Joyce, Michael, Jenny and Paul - still have a heavy involvement in the sport in the North West they. Along with their mother Carmen, they will all be trackside to present the winner of the feature race with the trophy.
The race has drawn some handy runners including Hes Novak, from the Weidemann stables, who won at Albion Park two starts prior with a mile rate of 1min 57.4sec.
Hunter Valley trainers Mark Callaghan has Lacey Lady while Golden Guitar winning trainer Clayton Harmey has Platinum Revolution engaged as well.
There are plenty of inform local runners in the race including Queens Angel, from the Greg Coney stables, who is a last-start winner.
The Sunday night meeting will also see a blast from the past with Kim Stewart making a return to call the meeting. Kim had an association with the club for many years calling races and it is pleasing to see him make a return.
Manilla identities Toby and Judy Grant will attend the meeting to celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary while Greg Dening will be celebrating his 60th birthday.
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The Team Teal fundraising campaign commenced on February 1 and will run until mid-March. It was good to see that our North West ladies are being very competitive in their teal pants. For each winner they drive, $400 is donated to fund ovarian cancer research.
Jemma Coney drove two winners at the last Tamworth meeting. Are You With Me won the M & M Office National Tamworth Pace, paying $23 for the win.
The gelding, trained by her father Greg, beat the $3.60 favourite Chinook Winds by a metre. Chinook Winds was driven by Scotty Jon Welsh and trained by Ricky Gordon.
Another $400 was donated when Queens Angel won the Bearing Accessories Pace. The mare, trained by Greg Coney, paid $8 for the win.
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Former NZ pacer Deanne Panya kept her owners, Gina Ostle and Tom Ison, in the winner's circle after a brilliant win on a muddy track at Newcastle last Friday night.
Gina, based in Tamworth, holds a half share in the mare along with her nephew and reinsman Tom Ison. It is their first partnership in a horse, who has four wins from seven starts.
At Newcastle, Deanne Panya - trained by Roy Roots Jnr - won by seven metre on a heavy track with a mile rate of 1.55.7 (1609m).
The Newcastle meeting was slated to have a 10-race program but the last four races were abandoned due to the state of the track because of rain.
Another club that missed out on racing was Inverell, who copped 90 millimetres of rain the night prior to last Sunday's meeting. The club will host the Carnival of Cups on March 29.
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A future meeting to put in your calendar is the Group 1 $100,000 Newcastle Mile on February 21. The winner will receive automatic entry into the Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 7.
