BY TOM BARBER - Daily Liberal 10 April 2023

The Queen of the West Ladies Race Day has been on Sam Fitzgerald's mind for some time, but now the Dubbo Turf Club are turning his dream into a reality.

The club's general manager and his team are hard at work preparing for the first-ever Mercedes-Benz Queen of the West Ladies Race Day which is set to take place on May 6.

Derby Day and Gold Cup Day are two of the biggest events the club holds and it is Fitzgerald's hope their newest event can create a legacy of its own.

"It's coming together really well," he said.

"We had some race dates change on us earlier in the year and we are very mindful that we are lucky to get some good race dates and have to make the most of them.

"It's a concept that I've had in my mind for a little while, it's great to see it come to fruition.

"Hopefully it can become a really important racing and social event for many years to come."

The seven-race meeting will be headlined by the $40,000 Queen of the West Benchmark 74 Handicap (1200m) which has been restricted to only fillies and mares.

The May 6 meeting will be the first time the Turf Club has hosted races since early March, a break which Fitzgerald said has been well spent.

"We were meant to race at the start of April but with some date changes it gave us about a nine or 10-week break," he said.

"Sometimes that can be a bit of a blessing, we were able to do our winter track renovations.

"It's given our track an opportunity to respond to the work that has been done, we've got plenty of renovation projects around the club so a bit of a break has done us the world of good."

Around Dubbo, places like the Commercial Hotel can be seen already advertising the event with a high-end marquee being on offer.

"It's really taken off, I think the key thing is that the people in Dubbo are looking for unique events and looking for high-quality products," Fitzgerald said.

"That's kind of the thing we've been going for with this event, we are just trying to think outside the box and provide a quality event.

"As things stand, the marquee is actually sold out as of Sunday which is fantastic.

"We've got plenty of interest from a lot of parties who are interested in having packages and coming to enjoy the first-ever Queen of the West."

For the main race, the winner will take home $19,700 but Fitzgerald admitted there has been an exciting new prize on offer for the victor.

"The race itself has had a bit of positive development in the last couple of days," he said.

"Arrowfield Stud have come on as a sponsor for the race itself, and Mercedes Benz Dubbo are the sponsor for the day.

"Arrowfield Stud have kindly nominated us a stallion nomination to Castelvecchio, a dual Group 1 winner and runner-up in the Cox Plate.

"That's worth $27,500, the winner of the race will get $40,000 plus a nomination so effectively they are getting roughly $70,000."