The Omeo and District Racing Club will host its traditional Labour Day long weekend meeting at Hinnomunjie this Saturday with the feature race being the Hinnomunjie Cup, the 148th running of mountain picnic classic.
The meeting has a rich history and is steeped in heritage, the club laying claim to being the oldest picnic race meeting this side of the Great Dividing Range, established in 1876.
Originally thousands of people would attend and the event took place over a whole week.
Today the race day is the main social event of the year where horses and fashion mingle with the odd buck’s or hen’s party and always plenty of activities for the kids.
Racing families such as the Matthews, Mannings, Rules and Faithfulls, just to mention a few, have been the cornerstone of this event and some are still involved today.
Mick Mathews was the president for more than 40 years and was famous for having won more than 100 whips in his career for horses he had trained and ridden.
The Hinnomunje Cup, run over 2000 metres, is now named in honour of Alec Manning, a legend of the turf in these parts.
Last year’s meeting saw, Sale based Reg Manning trifecta the cup, with Mornington jockey, Henry Jaggard leading the field home on Cheeky Prince.
For Manning it was his 28th Hinnomunjie Cup victory, involved 17 times as jockey and 11 as a trainer.
Manning was delighted to train the trifecta and is keen to come back and win the race again this year.
Cheeky Prince is among three horse entered for the cup by Manning, the others last year’s placegetters, Anything But and Sarwatte.
“It’s a race that means the world to me, named after dad it doesn’t get any better, hopefully Cheeky Prince can go back-to-back, he won well the other day at Alexandra,” Manning said.
The best bet on the program, is Doctor Coto, for Ensay trainer Rob Gillahan in the 1000 metre sprint.
Off the back of two picnic wins, he ran a cracking race at the professionals at Moe last week, and appears a class above his rivals on Saturday.
