Over the last few days, the 2010 Stawell Gift winner has been franticly racing around and tying up loose ends so the first Albury-Wodonga Gift in 18 years goes off without a hitch.

“There’s just a lot of minor things to get done like writing out the winning cheques and all those other little things that have to be right on the day,” Burbidge said.

Having taken on the monumental task of restoring the Border gift, which has gone ahead just twice — in 1994 and 1948 — Burbidge is realistic about how hard it will be to establish the race as an annual fixture.

“It’s a lot more work than what I thought was involved with it, but I think it will run relatively smoothly,” he said.

“The Victorian Athletic League are very good at what they do and our program is looking all right, so I think they’ll take over and run the show on the day.

“If we can get through this one unscathed and everything runs as smoothly as possible I think we can start to incorporate some other things next year that will get people along to the event and generate more interest.”

“Little Athletics will be really good too ... we’re looking at making them a major part of the day.”

But despite the legwork involved in re-establishing the Albury-Wodonga Gift, Burbidge is confident he’s formed a solid enough base for the race to take off — something it’s failed to do twice already.

With Border Olympic hopeful Tabitha West confirmed as a starter in the women’s gift and Commonwealth Games Gold medallist Brendan Cole contesting the 400-metre Open, Burbidge is hoping it will attract people to Albury Sports Ground.

“Brendan’s a good mate of mine and he’ll be one of the red hot favourites in the 400 while Tabitha has had some great performances in the last couple of years and it will be interesting to see where she’s at with her preparation for London (Olympic) trials.”

Burbidge all but confirmed he’d back up his 2010 performance at Stawell and contest the Albury-Wodonga Gift.

“I’ve been a bit sick the last few days so I’ll see how I’m going.”

Racing starts at 11am tomorrow at Albury Sports Ground with the main race set to start at 4.20pm.