READ ONLINE
World-Class Racing and Trackside Glamour NEWCASTLE RACECOURSE WORDS LIANE MORRIS | FEATURES WRITER IMAGES NEWCASTLE JOCKEY CLUB The highlight of the Newcastle racing calendar takes place this November with a day of world-class racing showcasing and celebrating everything great about the Hunter region with live racing action, glamourous trackside fashion and inspiring activities on course. If you only go to the races one day a year, make it November 18 at your local Newcastle Jockey Club. Newcastle Racecourse, home to the Newcastle Jockey Club, is the largest, premiere provincial club in NSW with over 100 years of history. In 2019, Racing NSW inaugurated a new prestigious stand-alone Saturday racing event named after the region in which it’s held – The Hunter. This $1 million race has a quality handicap and runs over 1300m. It’s a drawcard to keep elite sprinters and the best jockeys in NSW after The Everest Cup in October, the highlight of the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival. 16
For readers who don’t know much about horse racing, this new race, The Hunter, is a big deal and represents an investment by Racing NSW to push into the regional areas of the state to grow the industry and entice a younger demographic. Newcastle already hosts over forty race meetings per year as well as several significant race days, including the Boxing Day race meeting, Pink Race Day in July to raise funds for the Hunter Breast Cancer Foundation, the Newcastle Stakes Race Day in March and a two-day Spring Racing Carnival in September. Most Saturday races, the premier race day, are held in Sydney at either Rosehill or Randwick. There are only five stand-alone races that are held outside of Sydney, and of those, only two of them have the increased prize money of $1 million to attract the elite of the industry – The Hunter in Newcastle and The Gong in Wollongong, held one week after The Hunter. Chief Executive Officer at Newcastle Jockey Club, Duane Dowell, sees the race as an
opportunity to showcase everything the Hunter region has to offer to visitors and locals alike. “We’ve got more than 5,000 people expected to attend on the day, and many of our hospitality packages sold out within 24 hours,” said Duane. “We’ve had to open new entertainment precincts to accommodate the demand. It’s an opportunity to showcase all that we love about Newcastle, and we use it to promote visitation to our area.
"THE HUNTER IS SEEN AS ONE OF NEWCASTLE’S BEST ENTERTAINMENT AND HOSPITALITY EVENTS OF THE YEAR, AND WE’RE PROUD OF THAT."
