MEGA race meetings are about a lot more than just the race itself these days.
That’s not to lessen the importance of the racing side of things, but ultimately harness racing, like all sports, is in the entertainment business.
So, the bells and whistles that went with the trackside experience at Menangle for last night’s inaugural TAB Eureka was vitally important. Organisers had to get it right.
Pulling a huge crowd, by far the biggest Menangle has seen since it replaced Harold Park as the home of Sydney harness, was great but giving them an experience they want more of and will return to was the absolute key.
You would be a hard marker to rate last night’s Menangle offering anything short of top shelf.
It started long before the night with the great idea of enlisting global sporting star Charles Oliveira as the TAB Eureka ambassador. Sure, his schedule changed and he couldn’t make it, but it still showed the importance Harness Racing Australia, HRNSW and Club Menangle (with help from Aaron Bain) placed on marketing the event.
They pivoted and brought in NRL great Benji Marshall and white-hot influencer Grace Hayden as the replacement “faces” of the TAB Eureka. Inspired choices who help increase awareness way outside the harness “bubble.”
Then it was announced the awesome Birds Of Tokyo would be the musical act. They performed their hit Lanterns just minutes before the TAB Eureka was to get the capacity crowd primed. After the last race, they belted out another 45 minutes for the adoring masses who stayed on.
Ricki-Lee Coulter added some more class and flair with her stirring rendition of the national anthem.
There was also the attention-grabbing introduction of the 10 drivers in the TAB Eureka to the crowd between races four and five.
Perhaps most mesmerizing of all was the drone light show used to support and promote the 10 runners and their slot owners. It was unique and fantastic.
All the while, Menangle’s much-loved Aussie night markets were humming away in the background to the delight of the regulars and newbies alike.
And then came the race.
While Ricki-Lee Coulter and Grace Hayden were the off-track starlets, Encipher became the queen of the night when she – the lone mare against nine boys – stormed home to upstage them as a $34 outsider.
She smashed the world record by a mare for a race 2400m or further by 1.1sec.
And, incredibly for all the megastars they have trained, she became the first million-dollar winner for Australia’s top training duo, Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.
And Menangle “king” Luke McCarthy, who answered an SOS to replace regular driver Kate Gath on Encipher, drove a glorious race for the richest win of his stellar career.
All that from a mare bred by hobbyist Tyson Linke on his farm in Kadina, a South Australian town with a population of around 4500.
Encipher defied the odds on every level, from her upbringing, to only sneaking into the field through the misfortune of another pacer (Cobber who broke down) and then being the lone mare against the boys.
And the absolute want for slot holders Aaron Bain Racing & Summit Bloodstock to make their package proudly South Australian made it alL possible.
The TAB Eureka was created to give harness racing a cut-through race and an event to proudly sell itself by.
Judging by the first instalment, it hit its mark and so much more.
