Golden day on racing calendar

THE Golden Mile is set for this Saturday at Bendigo Racecourse with the biggest names in the Victorian race industry set to battle it for a two-hundred-thousand-dollar prize purse.

The marque 1600-metre event has become one of Bendigo’s biggest meets since first being hosted in 2012 said Bendigo Jockey Club CEO Rob Heinjus.

“It’s certainly catching up with the Bendigo Cup,” he said. “There are 160 years of history with that race event, but the Golden Miles’s prominence is increasing each year.

“It’s probably already as important a race day on the calendar as the Cup given it is the stand-alone metropolitan race meeting on that day.

“There is no racing in the Melbourne CBD, Bendigo race day is it. There are only a handful of standalone regional race meetings on the calendar each year, so it’s a big day.”

Some of racing’s biggest names have taken part recently and Mr Heinjus said the quality of the field will be just as strong this year and will also include some local stars.

“There will be the best horses and best jockeys from around Victoria in Bendigo,” he said.

“We have a couple of excellent local horses racing on the day with Just Folk who is a city-quality horse set for the Gold Mile.

“So, if you love racing and want to get up close to millions of dollars of horse flesh and see some professional athletes at work then this is the place to be.”

The events marquee areas are close to being sold out already Mr Heinjus said with walk-in numbers also expected to be high.

“Dining packages are essentially sold out,” he said.

“The deck area is full up; we still have maybe four or five umbrella locations available and there are probably 50-odd tickets left for our punter’s marquee down on the trackside lawn.

“We are also looking for 4000 patrons on course for the day, weather depending as always for outdoor events like this.”