Harness racing returns to Parkes this weekend, with the Parkes Harness Racing Club hosting a night meeting on Sunday evening.
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All eyes will be on Caribbean Pat, trained by Parkes' Malcolm Hutchings, in the Quick Shine Car Wash Heat; with the four-year-old Caribbean Blaster x Athletic River mare looking to make it four wins in a row after victories in Leeton, Bathurst and Parkes over the last month.
Despite drawing a sticky spot on the second row, Hutchings will be looking for his mare to show her customary gate speed, and he'll take solace in the fact she's often won by three-wide, inconvenienced positions.
She looks well placed in this race despite the draw, with challengers likely to come from Themidnightrambler and fellow Parkes runner Andrew Swagger, who is having his first run for the David Harris stable.
Perhaps the most exciting race of the evening will come in the Team Teal Maiden Pace, where a very open field will be jostling to register their first career win.
Brett Hutchings will be hoping Jessejames Shannon can capitalise on a promising 2.5 metre second placing last start, and with the inside draw on the front row, he can go to the front and give them something to catch.
Preacher Quince, trained in Parkes by Stephen Dowton, has six minor placings in his 11 career starts and has been performing solidly in better company since coming back from a six month spell.
In the Col Fletcher Ford pace, a strong field has been assembled for the NR 55 race, and it will be intriguing to see what condition Grenfell trainer Mark Hewitt has Patricia Mac in first-up from a spell; the mare won a two-year-old race in 1:59.9 in Bathurst last year and has prepared for this run with a trial win down in Young.
He Said She Said, Whiskiesonthebeach and the Canowindra-trained Sailalong Sinbad will all start from the second row and the trio are in super form after some comfortable victories over the past month.
From a driving perspective, Alectown's Nathan Townsend will be hoping to close the gap on Brett Hutchings in the Leading Local Driver standings; and the former will be busy all night with at least five drives booked in.
It's a jam packed nine race card, and with 18 runners trained in the Parkes Shire there is sure to be some popular winners that get the crowd on their feet.
Gates open at 5.15pm, with a Gold Coin donation for entry going to the WomenCan Team Teal campaign, where reinswomen wear teal to raise funds for ovarian cancer research.
Each time a female trained and/or driven horse wins in NSW, HRNSW will donate $200 and an additional $100 for every ambassador (of which Amanda Turnbull is one) trained and/or driven winner to the WomenCan Funding Cancer Research.