Albury Racing Club CEO Steve Hetherton says he has been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from industry participants after hosting the Country Championships on Sunday.
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The club made a calculated gamble to switch to a Sunday meeting after staging the $150,000 feature on a Saturday the previous year.
The switch proved to be a masterstroke after star hoop Craig Williams made the trek to Albury for three rides including Bianco Vilano in the Newhaven Park Country Championships.
Williams lived-up to the hype when all three of his mounts from the Ron Stubbs-stable saluted in Sparring ($2.70-fav), Prophet's Daughter ($1.90-fav) and Bianco Vilano ($2.60-fav) much to the delight of favourite backers.
Hetherton felt the club would derive enormous benefit from the extra exposure in both New South Wales and Victoria the club received by racing on a Sunday.
"Our strategy was to get extra exposure of the Albury Racing Club brand in both states," Hetherton said.
"We feel we got a lot more exposure by racing on Sunday compared to a Saturday where metropolitan racing takes precedence.
"You don't often get a lot of positive feedback from a lot of different people but the club has on this occasion which is fantastic.
"Several trainers, punters and racegoers were all glowing with their feedback which is satisfying from a club perspective.
"We still have to crunch all the numbers from a financial point of view but we set ourselves certain goals by racing on a Sunday.
"I think we have achieved most of those but I'm still waiting to see the financials.
"So from a club perspective it was a successful day and I think the Sunday meeting helps attract a different sort of crowd to perhaps what you would get on a Saturday.
"It was a big weekend on the Border with a huge crowd at the Albury Paceway on Friday night and the City2City on Sunday which was also well attended."
The Country Championships has been a popular innovation by Racing NSW with this year marking a decade of the feature race.
Albury has hosted the $150,000 feature on five occasions with hometown trainers winning each time.
The Andrew Dale-trained Lautaro (2017), Donna Scott-trained Bennelong Dancer (2109), Mitch Beer-trained Sky Call (2020) and Bianco Vilano (2023-24) are all previous winners.
Hetherton said it was satisfying to see another local trainer get the chance to race for massive prizemoney with the final at Randwick on April 6 this year doubled to $1-million.
"Ron enhanced his reputation with three winners including Bianco Vilano in the Country Championships and local trainers won half the card after Donna Scott also won earlier in the day," he said.
"It was a huge run from Bianco Vilano to win from midfield and out wide on the track.
"Having Craig Williams at the meeting was a drawcard and he was generous with his time and mingled with the crowd and had his photo taken with a lot of patrons.
"It was fantastic to see and getting high-profile jockeys to big meetings like this is something that we are keen to explore in the future.
"Another pleasing aspect was how well the track raced which is a credit to our track staff considering the hot weather in the lead-up."
Attention now turns to the two-day Albury Gold Cup carnival on March 21 and 22.
The Gold Cup launch with Gai Waterhouse as the guest speaker will be staged at the Commercial Club on March 1.
The club has also secured Bjorn Baker as guest speaker for a function at the meeting on Friday, May 10.
