Christmas has come early in Invercargill.
A large crowd is tipped at Ascot Park tomorrow as the Southland Racing Club hosts its Christmas at the Races meeting.
The event, which still went ahead last year when many other events "pulled pin" due to Covid-19 restrictions, had about 90 marquees pre-booked, and racing manager Jason Spencer expected more than 2500 people to attend.
"It’s rebounded quite well," Spencer said.
All Blacks Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown and Stephen Donald will be taking part in the day and helping judge Fashion in the Field.
"They’re very excited about being here and we’re very excited to have them."
Just eight races would take place tomorrow but there were "reasonable numbers" across the races, Spencer said.
"We’re got some quality horses in there — horses that were competitive at the New Zealand Cup meeting.
"There’s a fair bit of pull."
Each year, the Southland Racing Club gives back to the community, picking a charity to support.
The club makes a set of colours and selects a horse in each race to wear the colours. If the horse wins the race, the club makes a donation to its chosen charity.
Traditionally, there had been a good success rate, with money going to Southland Charity Hospital, Koru Care and Riding for the Disabled, Spencer said.
The club hoped to make a "sizeable" contribution to this year’s chosen charity, Gumboot Friday, he said.
Tomorrow's feature races are the $40,000 Southland Crystals, an open handicap race over 2200m, and the $40,000 Olphertsprint. Racing will get under way at 12.20pm.
