Three times from rain and twice from COVID.
A devastated club president Vicky McGillivray almost broke down thanking sponsors, her committee and volunteers and everyone who had turned up for the day, only to have the rug pulled from under them that morning.
Despite heavy rain on Friday a Racing Victoria inspection had cleared the track and it was all systems go.
But Saturday morning’s final check saw a troublesome part of the track, which has always been more affected by rain, ruled unsafe and the meeting cancelled.
McGillivray and her committee were then scrambling on phones and social media to try and salvage what they could from the disaster.
Catering was already done and on the way, food trucks were at the ground, entertainment for children and marquees and pavilions were all set up for a day which was already a sellout.
The only thing missing were the horses.
“We were shattered, five times in seven years, and the committee and all the community work so hard to bring this together, it is the highlight of the Gunbower social calendar,” McGillivray said.
“Everyone had been on such a high after we were named Best Community Event of the Year in the Country Racing Victoria awards for our 2025 meeting,” she said.
“I had the trophy in the sponsors’ marquee, and we were going to proudly wave it around, but I just couldn’t do it, we were so disappointed.”
But if the horses were missing, the near-2000 people who still swarmed to the track hardly noticed.
Racing from city tracks was beamed in on the big screens, and the hens’ parties, end-of-season football and netball trips and packed sponsor tents filled the grounds with laughter and noise.
With no cup, the crowd focus switched to the Fashions on the Field, with a small army of spectators cheering on every winner – especially if it was a local.
About the time the cup would have been run, the club cobbled together a couple of two-legged races, with a huge field of fillies followed by the colts in a pell-mell dash down the home straight.
And that had just about every other person at the track packing the running rail to cheer them on.
“This is another year where it is all about thank-yous,” McGillivray explained.
“The only thing we cannot control is the weather, and as we are only a little picnic meeting, we don’t have the funding to do something serious with the problem patches on our track,” she said.
“But as always, we have been overwhelmed by the number of people who still came – it speaks volumes for what a happy and popular event we put on each year that they keep coming back.
“We can’t even begin to thank all our sponsors, who have loyally stuck with us, many of them for years, despite our weather problems.
“Of course, there is also the committee and the volunteers from Gunny and surrounds – it might only be one day a year but they work so hard and with such passion, to make our town a showcase and they always deliver.
“We just look forward to seeing everyone next year – and seeing racing back on our track.”
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