A record crowd of people turned out to support the Buchan and Gelantipy Racing Club’s 132nd annual Canni Creek picnic race meet on Saturday.

The club put on a terrific family day that was full of fun, entertainment and activities with a jumping castle, show bags, face painting, children’s races, Mr Whippy ice creams, coffee and wood fired pizzas.

“It was a brilliant day,” secretary of the Buchan and Gelantipy Racing Club, Ian Dunkley, said.

“We had a record crowd in to watch the races. There would have been roughly 1400 people through the gate. The initial report from the gate earnings show we have broken another record.

“The weather was perfect with it 29 degrees Celsius for most of the day before a cool breeze came through in the afternoon.

“Everything went well. The crowd was really well behaved and the day’s six races were very competitive.

“The food stalls were all well attended and the fashions on the field was excellent. We had probably the biggest field ever.

“There has been some very positive feedback. I think everyone enjoyed the day as we have had no bad feedback.”

Ian acknowledged the day couldn’t go ahead without the tireless work of the volunteers.

“I thanked the volunteers for all the work they do,” he said. “As the club is non-for-profit the volunteers pretty much do everything. I went up to the club today (Sunday) and you wouldn’t be able to tell that an event was held on Saturday. “They do everything on the day and then afterwards clean it all up.”

Plans are already in motion to make next year’s event just as good.

“We are already discussing improvements we can make for next year,” Ian said.

“Around the bar there are a few rusty fridges so we are thinking of building some coolers for it.”

On the racing front, the Sharyn Trolove trained, Reward the Misses, won race one by a length, while Motific, trained by Alan Keenan, led all the way to win the second race. Reg Manning, of Sale, won race three with Melomane and race six with Unruly Student. The Paul and Tracey Templeton trained, Eclair Raider, took home the Buchan Cup as Dave a Penny, trained by Rhonda Miles, narrowly won race five.

IMAGE: Eclair Raider crosses the line.