UPDATE — Friday, July 3:
Mungindi Race Club has confirmed there will be no horse racing at tomorrow’s event after the track did not pass final inspection.
The race day event is still going ahead with free entry, ticket refunds, a phantom race, novelty events, live music, Fashions on the Field, bookies, live interstate race coverage, full bar and ATM on site.
The Calcutta at the Golf Club is also still going ahead.
No one writes country racing yarns quite like Bill Poulos, so readers who know the form guide backwards may have to forgive a cautious steer from the outside rail here.
What is clear, though, is that Mungindi’s Cup day gives the district more than a field to study.
This Saturday, July 4, Mungindi Jockey Club will mark 154 years of racing when its annual cup meeting brings six races, family entertainment and one of the district’s great border-town traditions back to Mungindi Racecourse.
The meeting fits Mungindi’s identity: one town split by two states, with a racing tradition that has been part of the local calendar since 1872.
This year’s feature is the 1400m B&W Rural and LDC Mungindi Cup, scheduled as race five at 3.41pm.
Racing NSW acceptances list last year’s Cup winner Better Tomorrow among the accepted runners, with Jodi Worley booked to ride for Inverell trainer Jo Methven.
Better Tomorrow gave Methven and her son, jockey Glenn Cahill, a sentimental win in the 2025 Mungindi Cup. The horse’s return gives this year’s meeting a clear link to one of last year’s local racing stories.
Speaking to Moree Online News after last year’s win, Methven said there was “just something about Mungindi”. She described the meeting as a great community day, with a strong crowd and plenty of younger racegoers.
Final scratchings close at 7.30am on Saturday, so this remains a race-day preview rather than a tip sheet. The Cup is back, last year’s winner is in the acceptances, and Mungindi is preparing for a big winter day at the track.
Mungindi’s race meeting also includes a line-up of side events around the racing program.
Chief among them is Dash4Cash, a footrace that shifts the racing spirit from the track into the crowd. After watching the jockeys and horses do the serious work, racegoers get their own chance to test a turn of foot in front of the rails.
It is the kind of spectacle that fits a bush race day. It does not require form knowledge, a betting account or a deep understanding of benchmark handicaps. It just needs a few willing runners, a vocal crowd and a reason to sprint for the line.
The Cup is the feature on the track, but Dash4Cash gives racegoers their own race-day moment on the other side of the fence.
A kids’ footrace is also part of the program, giving younger racegoers their own moment in the race-day rhythm.
Gates open at midday, with a committee luncheon running from 12pm to 2pm. Patrons are encouraged to bring a plate to share, with everyone welcome.
Radio Club Band will provide live music, with Fashions on the Field, a jumping castle, barbecue and food stalls, a full bar, an ATM and on-course betting facilities.
Tickets are available online through Sticky Tickets.
