By Tony McMahon
The Capricorn Coast’s Yeppoon Turf Club is gearing for an outstanding day of spring racing at the picturesque Keppel Park racecourse on Saturday with pleasing entries falling into place.
Coinciding with the time-honoured Victoria Derby Day races at Flemington, Keppel Park will be alive with spring colours while the black and white theme will be present in keeping with Derby Day tradition.
The feature race on a card which could stretch to six races will be the $12,000 Yeppoon Country Cup Challenge Qualifier (1400m) which has lured 11 entries from as far afield as Dalby, Eidsvold, Emerald and Mackay.
As expected, there is also a representation of Rockhampton-trained horses making the trip down to Keppel Park for the races.
Such is the class of the Yeppoon Cup field that it includes the David Reynolds-trained mare Rather Salubrious.
Some four starts back on June 26 at Eagle Farm in Brisbane, the six-year-old mare claimed the $200,000 Battle of the Bush Series Final over 1200 metres.
At her last start six weeks back, Rather Salubrious - which incidentally is the only female in the field - looked impressive in carrying 58.5kg to victory over the Yeppoon Cup trip of 1400 metres at Dalby.
With such impressive credentials, Rather Salubrious is likely to go to the post in the Yeppoon Cup as a pronounced favourite.
Both Emerald trainer Glenda Bell and Mackay’s Olivia Cairns have two nominations apiece set for Yeppoon’s premier race.