A substantial prizemoney increase from Category 3 to Category 2, along with a number of feature events, will make for a big month of racing at Tara Raceway in July.
Sunday, July 4 will be the South-East Football Clubs Challenge Day with supporters from East Gambier, Glencoe, Nangwarry, North Gambier, Penola, Port MacDonnell, South Gambier and West Gambier on track.
The following week will feature heats of the Exchange Printers Anniversary Cup (512 m) and also heats of John Reid Memorial Maiden (512 m).
The Anniversary Cup was first run at Glenburnie in 1985 when won by the Lane family’s Kenzel Lad (Satan’s Shroud x Gaylee Rose). Kenzel Lad won the event again the following year when trained by Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club life member Connie Miller.
The first Anniversary Cup at Lake Terrace East was run in 1997 and won by the Col Sims trained Becker McLaren (Denver x Stone Free).
The Robert Halliday trained Itza Bee (Solve The Puzzle x Lilac Time) won the inaugural Reid Memorial in 2005. The Portland-based Halliday was successful again in 2008 with Ella Rule (Elite State x Nayleen Bale).
The finals of the Anniversary Cup and the Reid Memorial will be run on Sunday, July 18 to correspond as close as possible to the South East Greyhound Racing Club’s opening meeting at Glenburnie on Saturday, July 21, 1979.
Also run on this day will be the Eric Lewis Memorial, a one-off Open event over 600 metres which was first run in 2014 and won by the Robert Britton trained Zipping Basil (Mantra Lad x Cho Chang).
And then on July 25, heats of the Foodbank Feature Grade 5 (512 m) will be run. This event is an initiative of the Tara Tipsters, a group of 14 Tara Raceway regulars who contribute each week for a six-month period to a designated charity.
As far as the Tara Tipsters are concerned this is a not-for-profit exercise. All that’s up for grabs here are the bragging rights in relation to the number of winners selected on the day.
The Foodbank final will be run on Sunday, August 1. Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club president Noel Perry, one of the Tara Tipsters, will make a presentation on course to Foodbank representatives.
As far as time-graded meetings are concerned, they will continue to be run every Thursday with prizemoney increasing in July by about nine per cent.