It will be the first official race held on the Tuncurry race track and it was locked in following last week’s announcement that the jockey club had finally been granted a racecourse licence.

NSW Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene issued the licence on Wednesday.

Mr McQuillan was over the moon following the announcement, admitting it’s been no easy task.

“The last 29 years has been an epic adventure – it’s bigger than Ben Hur.”

He is referring to the years following the formation of the Tuncurry Forster Jockey Club back in 1980.

First step was acquiring the land at Tuncurry and then of course came the construction of a track. More recently Great Lakes Council approved a development application for the construction of four observation towers around the track, horse tie-ups and a betting ring.

Now the minister has signed off on the racing licence it’s full steam ahead on the construction work and Garry says plenty of local tradespeople have already committed to helping out on an in-kind basis.

“We held a meeting at the Tuncurry Bowling Club last year with over 100 tradespeople pledging their support and they signed their names to it too, so I’ll be following up on that,” said Garry.

Although he admits it will be a ‘hard push’ he’s convinced everything will be ready for the first official race on January 17 which he’s tipping to be the biggest social event the twin towns has ever seen.

“I reckon we will have a minimum of 5000 people there.

“Racing is such a wonderful social event and there’s often other things organised like fashion parades and entertainment for the kids – there’s a million things we can do.”

Garry admits that with the overthrow of NSW Premier Morris Iemma early last month and the ensuing shake up in state politics he was worried the club’s licence application would be put on the back burner.