The Country Hotels Challenge, the brainchild of Maitland sponsorship and promotions manager Fred Robertson, brought in a good crowd of pub owners and patrons from the Kearsley Hotel, Tattersalls Hotel Greta and Commercial Hotel Morpeth. The Neath Hotel and Pedens Hotel Cessnock also threw their support behind the event.

The hotel owners and patrons weren’t shy in digging deep to help raise money for the RSL sub-branch.

Maitland Greyhound Club also donated half of its gate takings and the proceeds of a raffle to the sub-branch to assist with the many programs it operates for veterans in the Maitland area.

Maitland RSL Sub-Branch treasurer Henry Meskauskas and his wife Carolina were special guests and presented the Anzac Day Cup to winner Black Jack Opal and trainer Les Hudson.

Black Magic Opal worked hard from box seven to bring up his seventh win in 13 starts in a slick 22.41 seconds to beat the Gordon Beard-trined Misty Jaya by four lengths with the Rob Stojanov-trained Brilliant Shot third.

A big thank you to the NSW GBOTA for agreeing to donate half of the Maitland gate takings to the RSL, Greyhound Racing NSW for donating the raffle prize, Maitland staff member Rachael Maguire for putting the raffle prize together and Maitland Supporters Club members Margaret Enright, Barbara Rees and Margaret Bright for selling the tickets.

A cheque for $511.70 will be presented to the Maitland RSL Sub-Branch this week.

A big thank you to the five pubs that took part in Maitland Greyhound Club’s annual Country Hotels Challenge.

In a change of format this year the hotel owners and patrons were moved to a new area under one of two trackside marquees that Maitland Supporters Club kindly donated to the club.

Each of the hotels were competing for bragging rights and a perpetual trophy in the Country Hotels Maiden Final and the Country Hotels Challenge Final.

Ray Webb and his team from the Commercial Hotel Morpeth were the first to celebrate when Zipping Chang won the Country Hotels Maiden Final for Richmond Vale trainer Jason Mackay.

The son of Magic Sprite and Cho Chang was the $1.20 red hot favourite in the 450m race and didn’t disappoint with an all-the-way win from box one in a sizzling 24.94s.

Kearsley Hotel publican Steven Don, who is still recovering from a motorcycle accident, was all smiles when Espanyol won the Country Hotels Challenge Final for his team.

Steve was lucky enough to win both perpetual trophies last year and was delighted to be taking one of them back for another 12 months.

The John Callaughan-trained Espanyol led throughout from box two in the Challenge Final and beat the Ron Bell-trained Bintang Radler by a length with the Jeff Jaeger-trained Gadooga third.

Maitland will host heats of the Lochinvar Pet Motel 400m sprint this Thursday with the final the following week.