Albury Gold Cup Enters the Big League
09 April 2010
The Albury Gold Cup carnival has long been regarded as one of the Murray region’s premier social events, attracting crowds in the vicinity of twenty thousand. It has now stepped up into the big league as a sporting event, with interest from internationally renowned trainers like David Hayes.
The Flemington based trainer was rewarded for his interest in the Albury Gold Cup, claiming victory with his well backed stayer Growl.
Speaking to newspaper journalists from The Border Mail after the event, winning jockey Brad Rawiller said he was overwhelmed by the crowd support and atmosphere.
“I love getting to the country cups and the Albury Cup is the best country race in NSW and maybe Australia, so I’m certainly very happy to go home a winner,” he said.
The race attracted a prize of $170,000 which helped spark interest from quality trainers and Melbourne Cup winning jockeys. Albury Racing Club Chief Executive John Miller hopes to grow the prize purse even further.
“Ideally the Cup would be a $200,000 race,” he said.
“This year was the first wave of Group 1 trainers and now the message will spread that here is a race worth $200,000 worth targeting with a good horse.
“It was a giant step forward for us because the Cup has been recognised for some time as a social event, today we also took it to a race day of national significance.”
Albury City Mayor Cr Alice Glachan says the cup is an important cultural and community event for residents and an increasing number of visitors.
“The Albury Gold Cup is not only the most significant event on Albury's calendar for many in the region, it is also financially positive to a wide range of businesses too,” Cr Glachan said.
“The build up in the week before the Cup is so exciting it is almost infectious!”
Fashion houses, milliners and shoe stores reported bumper sales and the cup carnival also enjoyed significant corporate support with more than 60 marquees lining the racecourse.
The popularity of the event among residents, businesses and visitors continues to thrive and with the possibility of a record prize purse in future years, the Albury Gold Cup appears destined for even greater heights.
