THE hopes and dreams of students at the Longreach School of Distance Education will be riding on one special racehorse at the Longreach Cup race meeting in on September 26.
Kenilworth-based Craiglea Stud owner Stan Johnston will donate the prizemoney from a selected horse which will be collectively "owned" for the day by the outback school's 170 students.
The Craiglea horse will be selected from one of 13 horses on the Tuesday before the race meeting.
"We want to give the kids something they can really cheer and get excited about rather than worrying about how their mums and dads are dealing with this terrible drought," Mr Johnston said.
"Very importantly we also want to give them the best chance possible of collecting some prizemoney so we will hold off on our selection until the last possible minute."
The students will have the opportunity to rub shoulders with professional jockey Lyall Appo who will travel with the Craiglea team for the Longreach Cup.
Mr Johnston and Sunshine Coast businesses are no strangers to providing a helping hand during times of extreme drought in western Queensland.
Earlier this year the auction of a five per cent share in Craiglea Deken raised $6000 for the drought affected families.
Last year Mr Johnston and his supporters delivered Christmas hampers and Akubra hats to LSODE families.
