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Thousands expected in Birdsville for racing carnival
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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9/6/2024
It's the 'Melbourne Cup of the outback' -- thousands of people have travelled to far western Queensland for the annual Birdsville races. Although organisers aren't expecting a record crowd -- it's set to be a massive two days of racing.
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00:00
13 races across the next two days with a total prize money pool of $300,000 up for grabs.
00:10
Last year's cup winner, Neodium, is back to defend his title. He's come all the way with
00:15
his trainers from Adelaide, a short 16,000 kilometres down the road. But he's back this
00:23
year in attempt, which would be quite a rare occurrence, actually, because a back-to-back
00:28
cup title has only happened four times in the race's 142-year history. But, of course,
00:36
thousands of people come from across the country. So one of the draw cards of coming to this
00:41
two-day horse race meet is the location, and that is the remote town of Birdsville on the
00:48
edge of the Simpson Desert. And while you're here, there's a lot to fit in. I'm standing
00:52
in front of the iconic Birdsville pub, which hasn't quite opened its doors yet, but will
00:56
have beers flowing shortly. There's the local bakery in town, which sells the famous camel
01:02
pies, which I'm yet to try, but it's on my list to do while I'm here. And then, of course,
01:08
people will head to the races at the iconic dirt track of Birdsville. There's been about
01:14
3,500 tickets sold, which is quite significantly down from the race's peak a couple of years
01:21
ago. But organisers say outback events like this aren't immune to people feeling the pinch
01:27
of cost-of-living pressures. And also those within the horse racing industry say it's
01:32
logistically challenging and expensive to get horses out here, whilst also keeping staff
01:38
at home to look after different horses that they're not bringing. But still, getting 3,500
01:43
people out to Birdsville, with the cost of petrol and everything going on at the moment,
01:47
is quite a feat, and I'm sure the races will keep running for years to come, and have already
01:52
been running for 142 years.
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