It's been 28 days since the Parkes Harness Racing Club hosted a meeting, but with two heats of the NSW Breeders Challenge scheduled for this evening's card, racing is set to return with a bang.
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Parkes will host the three-year-old Fillies and three-year-old Colts and Gelding heats for the Challenge, and Parkes Harness Racing Club meeting coordinator Tony Dumesny reckons it will be a cracker of a meeting.
"The thing is with a series like this, is you only get two cracks to make the big final, so the big trainers like the Turnbulls and Hewitts have to come out here to Parkes to make sure they can get a run - so it means we get some really strong fields," said Dumesny.
"The two reserves in the Colts and Geldings heat are both recent winners, so that's how strong the field is in that heat."
With lockdown continuing for Parkes and most other areas in the Central West, there will be plenty of people tuning into Sky Racing 1 to have a bet, and Dumesny said he is expecting there to be plenty to keep punters satisfied.
"It has been a much better financial move in regards to betting turnover to move from Sunday afternoon racing to Friday night," he said.
"It should be a really good meeting for the punters, because there are such strong, even fields with some really classy horses...I expect it will be a really interesting meeting for punters."
In the two $10,000 Breeders Challenge heats, star Bathurst trainer-drivers Steve and Amanda Turnbull will be tough to beat, with the pair accounting for eight of the 20 runners.
In the Fillies heat, Amanda secured the gun gate for her three-year-old Miss Lemon, who will start as the odds-on favourite after winning two of her last three starts.
The Bettors Delight filly has already chalked up six career wins in 18 starts across NSW, South Australia and Victoria, and is clearly a runner on the rise with a lot of class.
Steve will also have the odds-on favourite in gate 1 in the Colts and Geldings heat, with gelding Major Bracken winning four of his last seven starts in strong Bathurst races since the start of July, the quickest of which was an impressive 1:56.9 victory by almost eight metres.
The short prices don't mean the runners are a sure thing - far from it.
The Mat Rue pair of Oh One Job and Classical Music look to be very good value ($26 and $15 respectively) in the Fillies heat, with the former set to return from a spell since winning the $9000 Dubbo Show Series Final at $1.30.
The first race will begin at 6.55pm on Sky Racing 1.
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