MOTHER nature blessed Einasleigh with clear blue skies ensuring the atmosphere at the 111th annual Oak Park races was electric.
Close to 1000 race revellers attended the two day 10 race meet which is considered an institution in the North.
Records were broken at this year’s event with more nominations than ever before guaranteeing that each race provided thrilling and highly competitive race action for onlookers. As well as the prestige of riding on the Oak Park track, the lure of a record prize money pool $143,000 plus QTIS bonuses further enhanced the attractiveness of the meet.
Oak Park Race Club secretary Deborah Woodhouse said the setting for the races this year was truly superb.
“The garden looked magical thanks to curator John Marsterson and to Sally Everingham who puts in a tremendous amount of effort growing over 100 pots of petunias to scatter around the garden area to add a splash of colour to the grounds,” Ms Woodhouse said.
For images from the Oak Park races click on the photo below.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service was the charity for this year’s races, and patrons were encouraged to wear green on Saturday to acknowledge the work that the RFDS does.
“Each year the Cairns RFDS provides the necessary medical coverage for the club to conduct the race meeting, so we thought it was appropriate to give a bit back to them in recognition of their support,” she said.
“I’d also like to say thank you to Queensland Rural who did an amazing job with the monster auction which was conducted over two afternoons after the last race.
“Almost $25,000 was raised from the auction which will help the club enormously.”
The big winner on the track was the Roy Chillemi trained Jamalka who won the feature race The Lyndhurst Shield sponsored by Bayer Australia and Booth Pastoral Services.
“This was Mr Chillemi’s third Lyndhurst Shield win and it is wonderful to see him continue to support the races at Oak Park.”
The Trainer of the meeting was awarded to Mackay’s John Manzelmann who travelled to Oak Park with 11 horses and came away with three wins; a second place finish; three third placings and two fourth place finishes.
A very impressive day saw Martin Haley win Jockey of the Meeting after he notched three wins; a second; two third placing and two fourth place finishes.
The meeting began in high style the night before the races commenced with a Rabobank sponsored formal ball.
