The tiny town of the Gregory came alive over the weekend as they were inundated with locals from nearby towns and tourists from as far away as New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
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The Gregory Downs Jockey Club and the North West Canoe Club hosted the annual horse races and canoe marathon called The Saddles and Paddles Race Meet.
The 6-card race meet kept punters busy when their excitement peaked as Harcourt Street sprinted past the finish line in race one. Race two was 1150m and Echelon Rose took out the favourite Gallant Saga in a spectacular finish for trainer Jay Morris. No.6 Scarlet Jane came in first in race 3 and Bowie Rocks took out the Handicap 65 in race 4 in a time of 1:11.28 minutes.
The open Handicap 1300m, race 5, was the feature race of the day with Anchor Chain crossing the finish line first and the Benchmark 60 Handicap race 6 was taken out by Night Wolf who beat the favourite Rock Spark who came fifth.
The fashions of the field categories included best dressed boy and girl along with the best dressed lady and gentleman.
Deputy Mayor Paul Poole said the event is always a lot of fun.
“Burke Shire is the premium Shire where we are always able to do more with less,” Cr Poole said.
The canoe marathon has been running on the Gregory River for over 43 years and although the past couple of years have seen numbers down, this year saw a great spike in competitors and onlookers, event coordinator Larry Wilson said they had 153 competitors in 80 crafts.
“The Canadian Team Challenge commenced at 8am on Sunday morning and within minutes Carnage Leap had taken down it’s first team,” Mr Wilson said.
Carnage Leap situated within metres of the start line was a small obstacle for most competitors, whether they were in a Canadian canoe or kayak, in a team or alone, the idea was to miss the rocks and avoid capsize.
“Local legendary paddler, Steve Jenji and Alan Cross were the favourites however Sunshine Coast paddler, Geoff Lovell won in a time of 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Second place was Steven Jenje from Mount Isa and third place went to Alan Cross also from Mount Isa.
