Wednesday, 15 August 2012: Reigning Blue Diamond Stakes heroine Samaready and proven Group One performers Rekindled Interest, Heart of Dreams and Yosei headline a star-studded card of racing this Saturday at Caulfield as the Melbourne Racing Club acknowledges the courageous deeds and contributions of Australia’s defence forces.
Dubbed ‘Back to Caulfield’ since its inception as an Australia Remembers celebration in 1995, the initiative commemorates the role of the Racecourse as a World War II military centre.
This year, the race day honours the 70th Anniversary of the Kokoda campaign and, with great privilege, will host several veterans of that battle.
As part of the Back to Caulfield celebrations, a memorial ceremony will take place at the Caulfield Racecourse Lone Pine, propagated from one of just a few Gallipoli pine cones returned by the Anzacs in 1918, at 11am on Saturday,
Various themed visual and musical features are set to fill Caulfield with a memorable military feel, including a rendition of the Australian national anthem by a Hawthorn Band that will march into the Mounting Yard to deliver its performance.
On the track, racing enthusiasts will be buoyed by an eminent card, headed by the $220,000 Group Two Back to Caulfield P.B. Lawrence Stakes, one of five black-type races held on the day.
The Club has also joined forces with the Hawthorn Football Club for Back to Caulfield day, and as a result racegoers can win a 2012 Hawthorn Football Club Kokoda guernsey, signed by the Hawthorn team.
In an effort to turn back the clock in honouring the 70th Anniversary celebrations, the Melbourne Racing Club will be offering two-for-one Carlton Draught pots in selected public bars from 12-1pm on Saturday, with members able to enjoy 80-cent pots during the same time frame.
Admission to Back to Caulfield day is free to War Veterans, Members of Legacy, Members of the RSL, War Widows, Nurses and Nursing Associations, the Defence Forces, Corps of Commissionaires in uniform, Members of the 39th Battalion Association, Members of National Servicemen’s Association of Victoria, Members of Vietnam Veterans Association, Shrine of Remembrance staff, Committee, volunteers and guards upon presentation of appropriate identification, as well as current Hawthorn Football Club members (upon presentation of a valid membership card).
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