With prize money of $15,000 up for grabs per race, the TAB meeting draws horses from Toowoomba to Dubbo and just about everywhere in between, club president Anthony Diprose said.

Trainer Martin Fernando and his son Doug will be the best represented locals, running three horses in the eight-card event. 

Fernando is confident his well known 10-year-old gelding will get an early win for the locals in race two.

“Dandy Kat will be up against a couple of good horses and they’ll all have a chance, but he is at home and that always brings an advantage. They know the track and they know when to go, and we’ve got the right jockey on board.

“Dandy’s just about right to rock, he put the writing on the wall with a good run at Coonamble and (jockey) Vad Bolozhinskyi has won a treble on him, so he knows the horse,” Fernando said.

Bolozhinskyi and Dandy Kat won the 1600m at last year’s tradies meet in Moree, with Quirindi and Inverell making up their hat trick. 

Dandy Kat’s race record to date is 12 wins from 94 starts with prize money of $110,830. His most recent win was the Wean 1600m in July. 

The Fernandos will be up against two other local trainers in that race with Collarenebri’s Joe Willis fielding Bis Kho Cho and Peter Sinclair running Planetarium.

Sinclair’s seven-year-old gelding has a record of four wins and won $196,360 from 46 starts. His last win came at Eagle Farm in June last year. But the trainer from Moree said he’s been disappointed with the gelding’s first four races of the season. 

“If it doesn’t come good in this race I’ll put him in the paddock and give him a good rest and bring him back after Christmas,” Sinclair said.

Willis also talked down his seven-year-old gelding.

“I bought him on June 9 this year and he’d been out in the Pilliga scrub for 12 months. I’d seen him race before and he’s a nice type, he’ll make a good show horse but as far as racing goes…” 

Bis Kho Cho’s problem to date has been an unwillingness to run between two other horses, but Willis said he would be ridden by a jockey Geoff Snowden who knew this problem and how to overcome it. The horse has two wins from 41 starts, claiming the Coonabarabran 1400m in October 2010 and the Gilgandra 1300m in July 2011. 

Jockey Bolozhinskyi will also ride the Fernandos’ other two horses, Little Hulla over 1300m in race seven and Flying Ash over 1200m in race four.

The six-year-old Flying Ash has been another successful runner for the Fernandos, winning two races and claiming $40,575 in prize money over its 37 starts. 

“She’s a very good mare and she’ll go all right. She’s just come back from a spell of three months off with a run at Inverell [on October 18],” Fernando said. 

Bolozhinskyi rode the mare to her last win at Narromine in December, 2013. 

Fernando said he’s hoping the home advantage would see Little Hulla deliver on her potential. 

“She’s a maiden horse but she can do anything on her home track. She works well on that track, she’s shown a bit of potential — a few problems with her back feet but no major dramas.”

The four-year-old mare is yet to notch a win from eight starts with a third place in the Naracoorte Patrons Maiden Plate in May her best result to date. 

Little Hulla will be up against Collarenebri trainer Kelly Smith’s Miss Preserva.

Smith said he was “very confident” his five-year-old mare would claim its first win this Friday. 

Coming back from a 10-month rest the horse came second over 800m at the Maiden Handicap at Collarenebri in September. 

Smith recently bought the mare from the Sinclair stable, saying the horse was “finicky” and needed more space than it got in Moree. 

“We’ve been trying to get her right and now we are very confident we’ve overcome her issues.”

The races will have full TAB facilities, an on course canteen and courtesy bus service afterwards.