A crowd of about 800 is expected to attend the long-awaited return of thoroughbred racing to Tamworth on Thursday, with the staging of a bumper Country Showcase meeting.
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The feature race on an eight-race TAB card is the $30,000 Tamworth Golden Guitar Cup (1200m).
Tamworth Jockey Club general manager Wayne Wood said the track "was in superb order". (Track safety concerns resulted in two Tamworth meetings being abandoned in December.)
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"We've got plenty of horses to go around, plenty of entertainment, good fields, great betting: we'll have five bookmakers on-course," Wood said.
He added: "Everything looks great ... The weather prediction is, it will be a fine day."
Wood said there had been 128 acceptors and all bar two of the races had full field, and the two races that did not still had 12 and 13 horses respectively.
Seven of the races will be worth $30,000 - $8,000 more than a regular meeting. While race two - a maiden handicap over 1200m - is worth $40,000.
On Wednesday, the Brett Cavanough-trained Eiger (Ashley Morgan) was the $4 favourite for the Tamworth Golden Guitar Cup.
Tamworth Regional Council Mayor Col Murray will present the trophy to the race winner.
Wood said: "We're very appreciative of Tamworth Council and Destination Tamworth getting behind the Tamworth Jockey Club at this meeting."
The first race jumps at 1.15pm.
