Exciting move: The new Nyah Harness Racing Club track at Swan Hill. Picture: Greg Cruickshank Photographics, Swan Hill.
HARNESS racing at the Nyah circuit came to a close last Thursday night.
After almost 47 years, the Nyah Harness Racing Club is relocating to Swan Hill with its new track to be unveiled at its cup meeting on Saturday night, October 20.
The first meeting held at the Nyah track was back on December 18, 1965, and the club celebrated the final meeting last week in front of about 800 patrons.
The final race at the circuit was won by the trotter Dream Of Flair for Gillieston trainer Russell Thomson and in-form Toolleen reinsman Nigel Milne.
Nyah Harness Racing Club secretary Brett Moloney said everyone had a good time at the club’s final meeting at Nyah.
“The feedback on the night was that they are looking forward to the new era of our club by racing at Swan Hill,” he said.
“The decision to relocate to Swan Hill was made by the committee as we had no room to grow as a club at the Nyah complex and the infrastructure is there at the Swan Hill racecourse.
“We will use the members’ pavilion during our meetings and we are excited about our new venture.”
The new 1040-metre track is inside the Swan Hill Jockey Club’s course proper and sand training track.
“The track is looking sensational and we will be turning the light towers on for the first time tonight to light up the whole track so that is a good milestone,” Moloney said.
“The guy who designed the track stated to us that it would be the fastest track in the state so hopefully we will get a lot of good horses on cup night to put it to the test.”
The club plans to hold three trial nights before its opening meeting, which will be conducted on October 3, 10 and 17.
“Our trial night on October 10 will be like a simulated race meeting as (Harness Racing Victoria) stewards will come up for the night and we plan to invite a few trainers for the trials so we will have plenty of horses running on our new track,” Moloney said.
Moloney also said the club was looking at merging with the Swan Hill Jockey Club in the future.
“We are looking at merging with the jockey club at some stage possibly in the middle or late next year and we are also hoping to be able to increase the number of race meetings we hold each year over the next few seasons,” he said.
The Nyah Harness Racing Club is looking forward to creating history next month with its opening meeting on its new track at the Swan Hill racecourse.
A bumper night is planned with the feature events being the $30,000 Nyah Pacing Cup, $15,000 Swan Hill Mile (M0-M3) and the $12,000 Nyah Trotters Cup to be run on Saturday night, October 20.
For more of this story, purchase your copy of Thursday's Sunraysia Daily 20/09/2012.