By Jordan Gerrans
Two types of elite athletes will be on show at Kilcoy Race Club on Australia Day: equine as well as track and field.
The club will run a non-TAB five event program on Tuesday to coincide with Australia Day as well as hosting the Kilcoy Gift, which is set to feature some high-level runners, and run three mini trots races.
The feature event of the day on the race track will be the Australia Day Cup Benchmark 55 Handicap, which will be run over 1500m.
Kilcoy Race Club president Con Searle is looking forward to a big day with sizeable fields set to go around in all five events.
“We are excited about the five races and expect a very, very good crowd out here on Tuesday for Australia Day, being the annual meeting that has now been going on for 40 years,” Searle said.
“It is usually a fantastic day out.
“We have all these young up and coming runners that will be great to watch between the horse races.”
Despite hosting 10 meetings a year at the track, Kilcoy does not have any stables who train on track, with all the horses for Tuesday’s meeting set to descend on the town from Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast
The club are hopeful of installing a training track in the next 18 months, following discussions with the local council.
Kilcoy will also run a harnes meeting the day before the gallopers to make it a big few days of racing in the region.
Kilcoy Race Club on Tuesday will host more than a handful of athletics events with different age groups and distances represented.
Experienced runners set to feature at Kilcoy on Tuesday include Fejiro Omuvwie, Zen Clark, Toea Wisil, Peter Lamin, Joshua Cowley, Murray Goodwin, Liam Gander and Calab Law.
Female athlete Wisil, who is a Papua New Guinea representative and has competed in events around the world, will run against the men in the Kilcoy Gift.
Kilcoy Race Club calls itself “Moonee Valley of the North.”