The popular Woodford race meeting to be run at the Warrnambool racecourse is on New Year’s Eve, which falls on a Monday, after the club traditionally raced on a Sunday for more than 10 years.

“We’ve decided to go with the New Year’s Eve date instead of the Sunday,” Haynes said.

“The main reason we made the change is we had a record crowd last year and we believe it had to do with it being on New Year’s Eve, not with the meeting being on a Sunday.

“The early indications look like our decision for the change are paying dividends as we’ve got more marquee bookings at this stage to what we had to the corresponding time last year.

“We’ll just have to wait and see if our decision is right or wrong, but we’re locked into the New Year’s Eve date for a couple of years.

“My biggest concern is next year New Year’s Eve falls on a Tuesday and that will really test out our theory.”

Woodford Racing Club came under fire from patrons last year with long queues waiting to get refreshments, but Haynes said the problem has been solved for this year’s meeting.

“We were caught off guard last year with a record crowd,” he said.

“It was embarrassing that we got so many complaints.

“We’ve got things in place this year  that does not happen again.

“We want our patrons to enjoy the race day experience. Our meeting is all about a day out for the family.

“We’ve got heaps of activities organised for young children who attend the day. We had more than 1000 children on-course last year, which was a great result, so we’ve aimed to cater for the families again this year.

“We’re having music entertainment from 5.30pm.”

The first race is scheduled to start at 2.25pm, with the last race due to begin at 6.35pm.

HARD work and commitment are the cornerstones for any success – just ask rising apprentice jockey Teo Nugent.

Nugent is only days away from making his metropolitan riding debut after booting home 60 winners on provincial and country tracks over the last year.

The former Warrnambool Brauer College student, who is apprenticed to Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, rode two winners at Horsham on Sunday.

“I’ve been having a great run,” he said.

“I’m ready to ride in Melbourne.

“Ciaron said I had to wait until I rode the 60 winners and learnt my craft in the country before I would start riding at the metropolitan tracks. I’ve only been riding for a year.

“I’m learning each day. I’m really loving my job.

“The success I’ve had has been a bit overwhelming.

“A lot of that (success) is due to Ciaron and Dave plus my manager Ash Beer. Ash has done a wonderful job securing rides for me.”

The 20-year-old, who rides comfortably at 50kg, has had 30 rides for five winners at Terang, Warrnambool, Moe, Wangaratta and Horsham over the last five days.

His claim for provincial riding is 1.5kg while his city claim is 3kg.

“It’s been a pretty hectic few days,” he said.

“It’s like I’ve been riding all over the state but I’m not complaining.

“I’ve found riding at the different tracks is really helping my career.”

Nugent has ridden six doubles and two trebles since he began his apprenticeship.

FORMER top Western District jockey Nigel Seymour rode his first Queensland metropolitan winner at Doomben on Saturday.

He guided Better Reflection to victory at her second race start in the $125,000 Galway Gal Stakes after winning her maiden at Rockhampton last month.

Seymour, who was based in Hamilton when he rode in the western district in 1996 and 1997 with great success, has battled various problems during his career.

RACING lost one of its stalwarts with the sudden passing of Barb Marshman last week.

Mrs Marshman, 81, trained countless winners out of her then Naracoorte stables including Superior Air to win the 1976 George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill  before training at Horsham and then Hamilton.

Some of her other winners included Snapparazi and Sir Swayze, who won 20 races and notched up 32 minor placings.

She also trained Sly Rambler to win the 2002 Hamilton Cup and had numerous placegetters in the Warrnambool Cup.  

Mrs Marshman was trackside at Moonee Valley in October to see Magic Consul, a horse she bred and part-owned, win the Dato Chin Nam Stakes.

A service to celebrate her life will be held at the Hamilton racecourse on December 28 at 2.30pm.

DECLARES War looks the obvious one to watch after notching up his third consecutive win on Saturday.

Declares War is like so many horses trained by Darren Weir – plenty of upside.

It will be interesting to see which path Weir takes with Declares War, but one would think he’ll be hard to beat going on present form.