Darwin Cup Monday

Sunday, 5 August 2012: There is a very exciting atmosphere in Darwin at present with it seems the whole town involved in some aspect or other of the Carnival.

DTC Chair Brett Dixon and Carnival Ambassador Photo by Whistlejacket

Saturdays meeting was a very pleasant affair with plenty of shade, tables and chairs and liquid refreshments to keep the punters happy, which was just as well as the bookies had the best of the day especially when a 50/1 shot won the feature Palmerston Sprint.

While this was not as big a crowd as the 20,000 expected on Monday, there was a good atmosphere and a chance to bump into people from all over. Peter and Barbara Joseph were there to watch Emboldened, whom Barbara used to train and still retains an interest, run in the Palmerston Sprint. Unfortunately he did not do as well as Mcjoey, Barbara's cup winner from 2001.

Anthony Cummings was there purely as a spectator this time and seemed to be enjoying the experience,

Anthony Cummings at Darwin Races Photo by Whistlejacket

while there were tour groups large and small scattered throughout the grounds.

The Cup Ball was held on Saturday night with a sold out event - 3,500 tickets at over $300 per ticket.

The Cup will have the upper limit of 12 runners over the 2000m track. Kyneton trainer Neil Dyer has a stable here and has booked Stephen Arnold to ride Hawks Bay, who may start favourite even though he will be carrying top weight. Stephen Baster is coming from Singapore to ride Bolton for leading local trainer Stephen Brown.

We will try and have more details of these runners tomorrow although the only criticism we have of the conditions so far is that there are some problems in getting internet access so that we were forced to remove ourselves to the centre of the bookies ring in order to get a connection but where there's a will there's a way.

Peter and Barbara Joseph at Darwin Races Photo by Whistlejacket

We should also add that the weather here is about as perfect as you can get - a light breeze making the temperatures very pleasant indeed.