A fresh breeze made for a cool sunny afternoon at the Longreach racetrack as a happy crowd made the most of an afternoon of racing entertainment on Melbourne Cup day.
All eyes and hopes were on one of the Cup favourites, Mer de Glace, which the town had drawn in the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour National Sweep, a new initiative that saw 24 rural and regional destinations across Australia allocated a starting gate for the race that stops a nation.
The town lucky enough to draw the barrier of the Cup-winning horse was to be presented with $50,000 to put towards a charity supporting a local community initiative.
Longreach's number, 2, resulted in them having Mer de Glace run for them when the barrier draw took place in Melbourne, while Blackall, which also hosted the 2019 Lexus Melbourne Cup on tour earlier in the year, drew Prince of Arran and just missed out on the money.
In the end it was the residents of Bunyip in country Victoria, who drew Vow and Declare, that were the happy winners.
The Australian-trained, bred and owned horse was a popular winner trackside at Longreach, which hosted five races through the afternoon on its newly top-dressed track made possible with funds from Racing Queensland.
Read more: Longreach link to Melbourne Cup
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
