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.<\/p>\n
The marque 1600-metre event has become one of Bendigo\u2019s biggest meets since first being hosted in 2012 said Bendigo Jockey Club CEO Rob Heinjus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly catching up with the Bendigo Cup,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are 160 years of history with that race event, but the Golden Miles\u2019s prominence is increasing each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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\u2019s a big day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of racing\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be the best horses and best jockeys from around Victoria in Bendigo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The events marquee areas are close to being sold out already Mr Heinjus said with walk-in numbers also expected to be high.<\/p>\n
\u201cDining packages are essentially sold out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2019s marquee down on the trackside lawn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also looking for 4000 patrons on course for the day, weather depending as always for outdoor events like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s biggest meets since first being hosted in 2012 said Bendigo Jockey Club CEO Rob Heinjus. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly […]<\/p>\n