Sport
7 May, 2025
Star horse heading to Richmond Bush Sprints
Normanton's Troy Gallagher will be out to win the feature race with Mr Hanky Panky.
Richmond Shire mayor John Wharton says shifting the town’s annual sprint races to May was not an easy decision, but one made in light of the cost-of-living crisis.
“One of the big problems we were having is that in August and September, everything else is on,” said the mayor, who also heads up the Richmond Bush Sprints team.
“The cost of living is killing people and it has been for a couple of years. They are talking about it now with an election on, but we were feeling the cost of living a couple of years ago and people just haven’t got the money to go out.
“From July, when the rodeo season starts and the campdrafts start, you’ve virtually got a rodeo or a campdraft in any one of these communities along the Flinders Highway or up in the Gulf.
“I think we’ll get a better turnout this Saturday than what we were getting back in September, because this is the first big public event in Richmond for the year.”
Cr Wharton said there were five bush sprints scheduled for Saturday, including the time-honoured Merrie Elliott Breeders Cup.
“We’ve got pretty good nominations; we’ve got six or eight in each race and that’s all we need.”
Boom horse Mr Hanky Panky is expected to contest the feature event at Richmond, with trainer Troy Gallagher confirming he would make the trip south.
Former jockey Michael Chong is rumoured to be coming out of retirement to ride the speedster.
Cr Wharton said there was a lot of hype about Mr Hanky Panky and that he would be hard to buy in the pre-race calcutta.
“He won just about every race there was to win last year but he hasn’t won the Merrie Elliott Breeders Cup, so I know Troy will be keen to grab that one,” he said.
The popular Dachshund races will also be staged before spectators are ushered back into the town.
“We’re going back to the old ways and we’re going to shut down the show earlier and send everyone back to town,” Cr Wharton said.
“There’s a number of reasons for that – we want to support the town so the people go back to the pubs and they have dinner and celebrate the night in town.
“That saves us a lot of money in security and we don’t have to get a live band. All that sort of stuff is killing a lot of our events out here.
“If they go back into town, it becomes the police’s job, doesn’t it?”
For the full day’s schedule, see the Richmond Bush Sprints page on Facebook.