Sapphire Coast Turf Club manager Rob Tweedie said previous race meets at Kalaru have had strong female representation although only four female jockeys featured in the Eden Fishermen's Club Eden Cup Race Day.

“Lady riders generally win a lot of races at our club, they were only lightly represented on Sunday, but they did take out the first two races,” Tweedie said.

Another female shining in the spotlight is Theresa Bateup of Kembla Grange who will be awarded at the next race meet as the district’s trainer of the year. On Sunday, it was confirmed Bateup had trained the highest number of winning horses throughout the season. 

Tweedie said each race was keenly contested on good sized fields, with a crowd of 400 attending the day.

Batemans Bay trainer Bernie Connell had two winners on the day, City of Shadows and Interventions.

“It was a great effort from Bernie who had two wins out of three horses he has in work,” Tweedie said.

Cornell is also the man with possibly the world’s heaviest oyster –  straight out of the Clyde river he is aiming to see his oyster make the Guinness Book of Records.  

The main race event, the Eden Fishermen’s Club Sapphire Winter Sprint was taken out by Nick Olive of Canberra with horse Rhomlo and jockey Billy Owen. 

The race was neck and neck between Owen and hot favourite Uno Best ridden by Kayla Nisbet. Owen took charge and secured the win giving the crowd a big thumbs up when returning to the mounting yard.

Tweedie presented the trophy and thanked local club sponsors.

“I would like to thank all of the local club sponsors for supporting the day which is so great for the community,” he said. 

“The social aspect is such a wonderful thing and is important for a rural area, for everyone to be able to enjoy a day out with like minded people,” Tweedie said.

In other news from the day, the brand new $125,000 horse racing barriers were put to use for the first time.

With thanks to Racing NSW, Tweedie said the barriers worked a treat.

“They worked perfectly and were a pleasure to work with.

“They are very modern and streamlined, just beautiful,” he said.

The next Far South Coast race season start will be on the first Thursday of November this year.