By COLIN HODGES

Racing was off to a bright start in 2022 with an outstanding two day carnival conducted by the progressive Gilgandra Jockey Club.

Kicking off on New Years Day, a highlight was a thrilling finish to the feature event, the Gilgandra Services Club-Kate Smith Memorial Cup, a Benchmark 50 Handicap over 1600 metres.

In front close to home, Annie’s Missile ($4.60 equal favourite) was overhauled in the final stride and beaten a nose by Pop Power ($19) with Chuck’N’Paul ($8.50) three lengths away in third place.

The finish was a real family affair as Pop Power was ridden by Chelsea Ings for her mother, Bathurst trainer Wanda Ings, while Annie’s Missile is trained at Parkes by Sharon Jeffries and was ridden by her daughter Tiffany Jeffries.

Some big bets at long odds were collected when the Kieren Hazleton, Gilgandra trained Bacinblac won the 1280 metres Royal Hotel Benchmark 50 Handicap.

Gilgandra based apprentice Zara Lewis had to overcome the outside barrier in the big field and she did a great job to bring Bacinblac ( $26 ) from well back with a strong run to beat No Debt (Clayton Gallagher, $2 favourite) and Ritzy Diva (Tiffany Jeffries, $31).

Hard working Gilgandra president Jason Tate also sponsored a race through his Electrical business and the 1100 Benchmark 50 Handicap saw an all the way win by the grey gelding Purple Cup ($10) ridden by Queensland jockey James Baker for Scone trainer Lyle Chandler.

This completed a big day for Lyle Chandler as he had earlier won the Highway Handicap in Sydney with Banju.

To run a racing carnival over successive days is not an easy task and curator Grant Zell again had the turf track in very good order for Sunday, January 2.

Earlier in the campaign, Notabadidea had won the Coonabarabran Cup and it was another top performance by the Clint Lundholm, Dubbo trained six year old gelding to win the $45,000 Nutrien Ag Gilgandra Cup over 1600 metres.

Travelling in fourth position, Notabadidea ($6.50 equal favourite) was given more rein approaching the home turn by Clayton Gallagher and shot away to win by over four lengths from the Bryan Dixon, Gilgandra trained Ecker Road (Elissa Meredith, $11) and the leader Ballast (Jackson Searle, $8).

The 1100 metres track record was broken by the Luke Thomas, Cessnock trained Superior Witness in the feature sprint, the $35,000 Gilgandra Newspapers-Bob Foran Memorial Gilgandra Town Plate.

Superior Witness (Jake Pracey=Holmes, $4.40) flew out of the gates and won by nearly four lengths from Herzegovina (Matthew Palmer, $17) and Bombdiggity (Jackson Searle, $7.50).

Bookmakers operating at the meeting suffered their biggest losses for several months with some losing more than $10,000 on the day.

Clint Lundholm was the leading trainer over the carnival with 4 winners, Rubick Sun, Obey, Volterra and Notabadidea.

Gilgandra will next race on Saturday 5th February.