Race club working to improve racegoers’ experience

Cobar Miners Race Club president Jarrod Marsden is pleased to see the new men’s and
ladies toilet blocks at the Dalton Park Horse Sports Complex are almost complete and
will be ready for racegoers to use at the club’s main race meeting next month

The Cobar Miners Race Club has been
working hard to ensure racegoers will enjoy
their racing experience even more thanks to
a number of improvements to the club’s
facilities.
Club president Jarrod Marsden said a brand
new toilet block will be ready for use at their
May race meeting.
“The toilet block at the racetrack was badly
in need of upgrade and replacement.
“It did not meet any modern standards and
wasn’t big enough to handle the crowd numbers
we see at race meetings,” Mr Marsden
told The Cobar Weekly.
“After a few years of having to pay to hire
toilets, the Cobar Miners Race Club, in conjunction
with Cobar Shire Council, applied for
grant funding and were successful.”
Mr Marsden said one of the key elements of
the grant funding was that local companies and
professional services had to be employed to
carry out the works.
“As such we have had input from Brian Cain
at Westcad (civil, survey and design), Murray
Harland Electrical, Josh Crook at JCAus
plumbing and Jade Macdonald from Countrywide
Constructions.
“The old toilets only had three female toilets,
and the men’s side had two toilets plus a two
person wide urinal,” he said.
“There was nothing for mothers/babies and
no ability to cater for disabled persons.
“The new female toilet block has seven toilets,
one is an ambulant toilet plus a disabled
toilet/mother’s room with change table and
shower etc.
“The new male toilet block also has seven
toilets, one of which is an ambulant toilet, plus
a disabled toilet with shower.
“The total project cost sits around $325k.”
Mr Marsden said the new toilets were the
first of a number of projects the Cobar Miners
Race Club will be undertaking as part of a long
term plan to upgrade the facilities for race day
patrons.
He said the upgrades will also allow for more
use of the facilities throughout the year.
“The next stage will include a commercial
kitchen, more undercover areas, better fencing
(to keep people and horses separated) and a
bore to enable us to be less reliant on the town
water supply.”

The club also has plans to improve the track
by installing a full outside running rail which is
one of several pre-requisites for the club to be
able to host larger race fields.
It will also mean that their main annual race
meeting in May can be upgraded to TAB meeting
status which, Mr Marsden said, is one of
the long term goals of the club.