Jockeys, punters and fashionistas will again embrace bold colours at the 151st Annual Cooktown Races. Photo: Lyndon Keane.
Cooktown will be chock-full of horse racing enthusiasts and bold fashionistas when the 151st Annual Cooktown Races jump on Saturday.
The six-race program on 8 November will bring thousands of locals and visitors together to place their bets, try for best-dressed in the field, run in the footrace for cash and party to live entertainment.
Cooktown Amateur Turf Club president and Cook Shire Mayor Robyn Holmes said the event and town’s economy had been met with fantastic support.
“Corporate area tickets sold out within a few weeks with many requests for upgrades that we are unable to make a reality,” she said.
“Accommodation shortages are having an impact on patrons wanting to travel to Cooktown for the event.
“Cooktown is pretty much booked out.”
Patrons are reminded to change up the garb for this year’s event, which will embrace vibrancy with a Bold Summer theme for The Seaview Fashions on the Field (FOTF).
Returning judge and Seaview owner Kate Fraser said she has been involved with FOTF for almost 30 years since her aunt sponsored the event as the Seaview owner in the 1990s.
“It is a bold call to move away from the traditionally conservative race wear theme, pastels, black and white and tailored, but that is what makes this year’s event so exciting,” she said.
“I can honestly say that just when you think you have seen the best of Cooktown’s fashionistas and wonder how the next year will stack up, our colourful fashion-forward racegoers always come through.
“Whatever the day brings, I am confident this year’s entrants in The Seaview Fashions on the Field will put on a colourful, stylish show. I, for one, will be looking for confidence, creativity and bold summer colours combined with a little magic and je ne sais quoi [a quality that cannot be easily described].”
