Big Day at Back O’Bourke Picnic Races

Winners and runners up in the Back O’Bourke Picnic Races on Sunday l-r: Classic Lady runner up Jacinta Smith, Contemporary Lady runner up Lilly Hand, Contemporary Lady winner Hannah Amos, Classic lady winner Belinda Norman, Best Dressed Gentleman Jaya Sampurna and Best Millinery winner Bonnie Smith. PHOTO: JANIAN MCMILLAN OF SARSFIELD RACING PHOTOGRAPHY

The Back O’Bourke Picnic Race Club hosted a successful Easter meeting at Bourke on Sunday with an estimated 2,000 people coming through the gates.

President of the club Frank Kerr said that although a little thunderstorm passed over, the rain held off and was beneficial for the track.

“Its hard to estimate the crowd but we think it was about 2,000 and they all enjoyed the races, the fashions on the field, and a social day out in Bourke,” Mr Kerr said.

“The new facilities were well appreciated by the jockeys and trainers and were finished just in time for the braces on Sunday.”

Hammoon Thunder, the last start winner of the Hillston Cup, backed up to win the Picnic Cup before a very big crowd at Bourke on Easter Sunday.

Violet Soulsby, an apprentice jockey in the professional ranks, was aboard Hammoon Thunder at Hillston while Kembla Grange based Paul Zerafa was the rider for the Rodney Robb, Nyngan trained galloper in the 1600 metres Splashe Cola-Rice’s Back O’Bourke Cordials-Harry Hart Memorial Picnic Cup.

Owned by Paul and Bindi Frampton from Merriwa, Hammoon Thunder finished fourth in the 2400 Iron Horse Handicap at the Wellington Boot carnival before being transferred to Rodney Robb who has won the only two starts with the five-year-old gelding.

Chapel Lane led the Cup field at Bourke while Hammoon Thunder ($3) carrying the 71kg top weight raced in a handy position before finishing gamely to beat Mrs Bull (Leandro Ribeiro, $2 favourite) by almost a length with Blackhill Kitty (Todd Bailey, $3.80) four lengths away third.

The Cup winning jockey Paul Zerafa had won the opening race, the 800 metres Sleepy & J.D. Dwyer Memorial Maiden Plate on the Benno Bowen, Queensland trained Kraken Edition. […]

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