What a blast — the Nolan’s Meats Muster Cup Race Meeting!
After rain earlier in the week, the skies cleared to a Spring-like weekend. Perfect for an afternoon at the races.
And I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
For the first time in 30 years, I was lucky to secure the second-last space in the main car park.
That was an hour before the first race!
There were, of course, factors other than the balmy weather that contributed to the large attendance on Saturday.
The Nolan family not only sponsors the Muster Cup.
They bring a host of clients from all over Queensland and interstate and entertain them at the races and throughout the weekend.
It would be difficult to estimate the benefit to the Gympie economy resulting from this annual event.
This year the Muster Cup was won, probably for the fifth or sixth time, by a horse trained by Pat Duff.
Pat, a veteran gentleman of the turf, has had a decades-long association with the Gympie Turf Club and is one of its most consistent supporters.
No one would have begrudged him the win.
Finally, the Club is to be congratulated on its usual staging of a splendid day out for what must have been close to a record crowd.
If you were there, I’m confident you would concur in the appropriateness of the cliche’ – ‘A great time was had by all’.
– Merv Welch,
The Palms
