The autumn and winter period is traditionally a busy one for Echuca Racing Club.
And this year is no exception.
Sunday’s Echuca Cup meeting headlines what will be a hectic few months.
Echuca Racing Club manager Garry Armstrong said it would be staging meetings each month.
“We’ve got the cup, which is on this Sunday,” he said.
“After that we gear up for another Sunday meeting on April 23, then a rare Saturday meeting on May 13.
“We’ve got a Thursday meeting on June 1 before the July 28 meeting, which coincides with the Winter Blues Festival.”
The meeting was run for the first time in 2022 and trackside tunes lured a big crowd to the racecourse.
The event forms a key part of the Echuca-Moama Winter Blues Festival program and is being staged for the first time.
As the races were run and won, three top-shelf acts performed in the pavilion, which offers a magnificent view of the track from an elevated position.
Echuca Racing Club’s stature on the Country Racing Victoria scene is well-entrenched with the state’s leading stables and jockeys regularly riding at meetings on the border.
Armstrong said the track recently underwent some important renovations.
“The new drainage works have been completed, that was a $220,000 project,” he said.
“That is probably the most significant amount of work in one time on the track since 1988.
“It held up very well last year when we had a number of meetings affected by rain and this latest work will stand us in good stead.”
There is also significant work off the track.
A new building that will contain jockeys’ rooms, stewards area, scales area, administration offices and television host set is fast taking shape with funding assistance from the Victorian Racing Industry Fund.
“We’re optimistic it will be open in late April or early May,” Armstrong said.
“Our current jockeys’ rooms, stewards area and administration offices were built in 1970,” he said.
“They’ve served the industry well over the past 53 years, but we’re looking forward to the new facilities.”
Echuca Racing Club caters for racegoers with free shuttle buses available to feature meetings from various pick-up points in Echuca and Moama.
For more visit https://country.racing.com/echuca or check out Echuca Racing Club on Facebook.