Echuca Harness Racing Club held its annual New Year's Day Moama Bowling Club Pacing Cup with remarkable success.

The event on Thursday, January 1had a 10 per cent increase in attendance from last year, with roughly 2,500 people ringing in the new year at Frank Ryan Raceway.

Club president Shane Gloury was buoyed by the increase in attendance and is excited to continue to grow the event in the future.

“Overall we were very pleased with the way the night went, we got really good numbers and the weather was virtually perfect,” Gloury said.

“For us, it was a good event, good crowd, got good feedback on the event and we're continuing to grow every year, which is great.

“You've got to have more than just racing to get people in the door and that's what we've identified a couple of years back.

“Now, we've got fireworks which are highly successful, we've got a live band, we've got free kids activities as well as good racing, we've got something to keep everyone entertained the entire night.”

Gloury highlighted a touching moment at the meeting, driver Leigh Sutton not only took out the marquee race, the Moama Bowling Club Echuca Pacing Cup, aboard Madigan, but the club held an all-female driver race The Tiffany Murray Memorial Pace to honour Sutton’s late partner.

“The highlight from a racing point of view was the win of Madigan in the pacing cup, putting up an outstanding performance to win,” he said.

“The first half of the race was run quite slowly, but driver Leigh Sutton took off about 1,200m from home and basically just made it into a really fast and solid last half of the race, his horse was just too good so, it was an exceptional performance.

“It also held an extra special meaning on the night for Sutton as his former partner, Tiffany Murray, we honour her on the night.

“Unfortunately, Tiffany Murray passed away about 15 years ago after a battle with cancer and she was a local.

“So, every year on our cup meeting, we remember Tiffany and we ran the Tiffany Murray Memorial, which is a race for female drivers earlier on the night, and Leigh was there and spoke at the event.

“For Leigh to be able to back up a few races later and produce a very exceptional drive on Madigan to get up and win the race added that extra special touch on the night.”

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Saturday, 25th July 2026

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