BJC elated with quality of Golden Mile day fields

The nine-race card carries more than $1.4 million in prizemoney and has attracted quality fields across the day.

"Not in my time have we had fields quite as strong as this across all nine races,'' BJC chief executive Aaron Hearps said.

"This is the 11th running of this meeting and our bookings are well in advance of what we had pre-COVID.

"We're expecting a crowd of more than 4000 which would be a great result.

"Pre-COVID we had a lot of momentum with this meeting and in 2019 we had the strongest crowd we'd had.

"Then in 2020 the Golden Mile was the first major meeting of significance that we lost. Last year we were able to have some patrons on track, but it was still restrictive.

"This year we expect the experience to be as great as 2019 or even better. We have more entertainment on course and the strength of the fields makes it a really exciting day."

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The field for the $200,000 Golden Mile (1600m) is the deepest it's been in 11 years of the race.

The full field is headed by multiple Group-race winner I Am Superman, former European Group One winner Nancho, Ballarat Cup winner Zaydani and Bendigo galloper Hi Stranger for trainer Shane Fliedner.

The $200,000 Bendigo Guineas, $200,000 St Leger Trial and $200,000 Gold Bracelet have also attracted high quality fields.

The $250,000 VONIS Gold Rush for two-year-olds is always one of the highlights of the meeting.

This year's event has attracted a full field, with some of the leading stables in the state targeting the race with well-bred juveniles.

"These feature race meetings are why we get out of bed,'' Hearps said.

"We're pleased that trainers and owners have shown their support for the meeting.

"We're excited for those that are going to be on course to experience a great day of racing and entertainment.

"Those that can't make it on course are going to find it very tough to find nine winners because the fields are so strong."

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