They’re off!

We were under Starters Orders from the time the gates opened at precisely 7.00pm as Toastmaster, I mean Race Starter, Christine lead us into her Melbourne Cup themed meeting.

A wonderful occasion with many members dressed in their finest racing finery – fascinators everywhere and some of the guys looking pretty sharp as well.

Clark of the Course Steve introduced his Stewards.  Coral running her first race as Grammarian chose "Frenetic" as the word for us to use and race timekeepers Carol assisted by Ashley told the jockeys what to expect if they ran too slow or too fast a race.

Jane and Graeme

Jane lead us into Table Topics in a no handicap free for all race. Members were asked to draw a speech topic from her race bag to speak on. All racing themed topics such as having to explain how you won the race, what would you do if you struck it lucky, horse racing is the same as cock fighting and should be banned, how to monitor your wins and losses and is race day all about fashion in the field and not the horses?

Our Race Starter was completing an assignment from the advanced manual "Speciality Speeches' which required her to introduce all the horses – that is speakers.

First horse out of the gate was Karen with her speech on "NZ's Wonder drug – Pure". A well crafted speech that had the audience wanting to know more as she described the benefits of this new drug she was selling. Better for you than food, alcohol and sex! We all wanted more, until she described the side affects and suddenly the atmosphere changed and no one wanted  it. A very cunningly and well told story about the effects of Methamphetamine.

The second horse out of the gate was Kelly, repeating his speech – "Oh, the places you will go". A presentation from the Pathways programme that required him to repeat a speech taking into account the recommendations received from his previous presentation. Kelly showed that he had taken on board the previous recommendations.

Third horse out of the gate, Daniel, involved us in "The Hidden Dangers".  The pitfalls of buying off the internet.  Some times an item is cheap, because it is! Humorous, with great use of visual aids as he was required to do.

Carolyn and Jan then gave feedback on the free for all no handicap Table Topics. Incorporating racing terms with commendations and recommendations as required. A good "tag team" event.

The meeting was then interrupted for an inquiry, which allowed the punters to get in a cup of tea and some delicious home baking provided by Peter and Karen's daughters.

After the completion of the inquiry, it was onto the evaluation of each horses performance by the jockeys.

The first jockey up was Sarah commenting on Karen's effort with "Pure". She thought Karen ran an excellent race with the objectives in mind and gave her some thoughts on how to improve her performance at the next event.

Second jockey Bill, showed he had followed Kelly's race performance very well with some astute observations on his race and comments on how Kelly had taken on board suggestions following his performance in his previous race.

Jockey No 3, Graeme, although much older than his horse Daniel, still managed to keep up with the performance with great feedback on his delivery and use of visual aids  and gave helpful hints on how to use visual aids to improve his next race start.

Our final horse to race was Peter. He repeated his award winning Humorous Speech with the aim of taking out the winners cup at the next weight for age race at the Area Council meeting this Saturday. His performance was evaluated by all the punters providing verbal feedback which will hopefully make him a winner on Saturday.

Racing Club President Jan showed she had studied the race card with a sharp Business Session. Lead by Jane inducting our newest member Maureen in race commentator style. A frenetically paced delivery showed Jane had potential for a new career.

The Presidents session finished with presentation of contest certificates for the Humorous & Table Topics contests run at a previous meeting.

Awards!

In Table Topics, 1st place went to Brenda, 2nd to Jan, 3rd to Karen

In Humorous, 1st place went to  Peter, 2nd to Jane, 3rd to Daniel.

Jan encouraged us all to get along to the Duke of Gloucester by 3.00pm on Saturday to support our winners at the Area contests.

Back into the final event on the race card, Clerk of the Course Steve brought back his Stewards. Coral gave a rundown of her word of the night, commended all those who did not use filler words in their presentations and noted who had used her word of the night. A good performance for her first race event. Time keeper Carol read out the race times and was pleased to advise there were no disqualifications for overly slow or fast horses.

A well thought out and run race meeting. Theme with a difference that all engaged in. Well done to the Race Starter for galvanising all the punters to take part and for her homework in providing introductions for all the horses.

Meeting winners were: 

Best Speaker Kelly

Best Evaluator Bill

Best Table Topics Sarah

Best Dressed Carol

Overall Race Winner Carolyn