Marble Bar Races returns after three-year hiatus and it’s the best one yet according to club president

It’s been three years since the last Marble Bar Races but it returned in style with more than a thousand people taking to the East Pilbara town to watch the horses compete. With COVID-19 restrictions no longer a barrier, the club could once again host the popular East Pilbara event. Marble Bar Race Club president Lee Anderson said the return of the event on Saturday, July 8 had been well received with some people calling it the best race they had ever been to. “It was pretty amazing to get it up and running again and all the feedback we’ve got has been very positive,” he said. “I’ve had some Facebook comments this morning from some life members who said it was the best race they had ever been to.” The first race was won by jockey Ava Catarino and trainer Tom Pike with the horse Al Magico. Trainer Pike made it back-to-back wins after jockey Kyra Yuill on the horse Exile Ted won the next 1200m race. Mr Anderson said the success of the event was because of the club listening to previous years’ feedback and making the appropriate changes. “We had some suggestions around the toilets and to make sure we had enough, that they were clean, and maintained. “Another change was that this year was the first time we’ve had an MC on all day and the other change was we had live music during the day as well. “Historically, the band would only come in after the races were finished and the day was really just a race round.” In the third race, it was a hat-trick of wins for trainer Tom Pike and back-to-back wins for Kyra Yuill as she crossed the line first on the horse Shy Boy in the 1200m race. In race four trainer Kevin Mahoney and jockey Zephen Johnston-Porter won another 1200m race on the horse Sixpence Spent. While the club had thought they might get 1800 attendees, about 1400 people attended the race. Mr Anderson said this year they wanted to focus on the quality of the event and try to bounce back well before trying to attract big numbers. “It was a reasonable turnout, not as big as we’ve had, I believe we’ve had nearly 3000 people at some stage, but we didn’t want it to be that big this year,” he said. “The bigger it is the harder it is to manage.” Race five, the Marble Bar Cup, was taken out by jockey Johnston-Porter and trainer Michael Ball on the horse Whim Creek. The last race of the day was won by jockey Kate Witten and trainer Dean Cocivera on the horse Desjardins. But the race that arguably makes the whole event popular is the undie run and this year it returned and Mr Anderson said it was just as popular as ever. “We had the undie run and there was a huge gathering for that,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you how many were in there but there were a lot of people on the track.” Mr Anderson said the event was only made possible through the help of numerous people. “We had a lot of kind sponsors that just supported us and the Shire also did a lot to support us,” he said. “We just wanted to thank them all because we hadn’t run it for three years so it was a bit of an unknown and all the committee were new as well.” The race has been held annually since 1893 and went on a three-year hiatus because of COVID-19.