\u201cThe whole region is fairly racing-crazy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a big community of horse racing \u2013 trainers as well as race enthusiasts \u2013 in the Wimmera region, so it\u2019s good to have it for people to come and celebrate the people\u2019s cup, as they call it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trophy will begin the day with a visit to the Sheep Hills Silo Art at 8am, before forming the centrepiece of a community barbecue at the Warracknabeal Lions Club Flora and Fauna Park run by the Rotary Club of Warracknabeal.<\/p>\n
The barbecue, at 9.30am, is free to attend, with people welcome to hold the Melbourne Cup and pose for photos.<\/p>\n
The trophy will then visit the Yarriambiack Lodge aged-care facility before making its final stop at Warracknabeal Racecourse for the running of the Sheep Hills Cup.<\/p>\n
As part of the tour, two past Melbourne Cup winners \u2013 Prince of Penzance and Twilight Payment \u2013 will visit the town along with some prominent racing identities.<\/p>\n
Longtime Warracknabeal Racing Club committee member Lance Huebner said the Melbourne Cup\u2019s visit would be a milestone in the history of the Sheep Hills Cup, which was run at Sheep Hills for the final time in the 1960s before moving to Warracknabeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the community was there that warm summer\u2019s day in 1966 to see Justice win the cup in a three-horse field on a flint-hard dirt track. It was the last time they raced at Sheep Hills after more than a century,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s meeting at Warracknabeal, with the Melbourne Cup on course and two champions in tow, will be the biggest highlight in the Sheep Hills Cup\u2019s long history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Beaton said being part of the Melbourne Cup Tour had the additional bonus of entering Warracknabeal into a national sweep.<\/p>\n
\u201cA part of this tour is that when you nominate to be one of the host towns, you put forward a local charity and during the Melbourne Cup race in November each club draws a barrier in a sweep,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the horse from that barrier wins, $50,000 goes to the charity you\u2019ve nominated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve chosen local disability-support service Woodbine, so it\u2019s not just about the Melbourne Cup coming to town \u2013 there\u2019s a real community purpose behind the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be following it up on Melbourne Cup day with a gathering for everyone out at the race club. We\u2019ll be cheering on the horse from whatever barrier we draw, so we\u2019ll be following it here as a bit of a social day as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Beaton said the trophy\u2019s visit was a great way of bringing together the past and future of racing in the Wimmera.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good that it combines with the Sheep Hills Cup, because that race has been around for longer than the Warracknabeal Cup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s not held on the same racetrack, but it\u2019s a race at a sort of junction where the modern meets tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fits right in with the Melbourne Cup being quite traditional in nature, but then you\u2019ve got this swarm of younger people wanting to be a part of it and the excitement it brings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Melbourne Cup used to bring so much hope. It\u2019s not just for racing enthusiasts \u2013 it still is the race that stops the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe whole region is fairly racing-crazy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a big community of horse racing \u2013 trainers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-77254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}