Passion and hard work behind Bedgerabong picnic meet's 105 year history

The township of Bedgerabong, near Forbes, holds a picnic meeting every year - and has done since 1919.

Greg Hodges, Clearview, near Bedgerabong, is a former club president and is the current track curator, along with Tim Currey.

Mr Hodges said the track was held on several private properties in the meeting's early days, before a group of locals - including his grandfather - pegged the track at its current site on Crown Land.

In the 1980s the committee invested in irrigation for the turf.

"It was a big thing for a one-day-a-year race meeting," he said.

"Back in the day, my father, the Hodges family, and the Constable family, used to bring our irrigators up and actually irrigate all this with their irrigators from the farms.

"That's how committed they were."

Irrigating the Bedgerabong turf set the club apart from a lot of other picnic meets, which either raced on dirt or were at the mercy of the weather.

"They had such a high standard back in the day and we've tried to maintain that standard as the generations and the people come through," he said.

There was a strong committee that worked hard behind the scenes, he said.

Watering began around Christmas time to ensure the turf was ready for the meeting in early February, he said.

It was a strong committee and the club was always looking to improve the grounds and had recently put in a secretary's office and upgraded the bookmakers ring.

"The commitment is pretty big - everything is voluntary," he said.

"It nice to receive compliments from the owners and trainers ... that's part of the reason we do it."

It's not just the current committee members who are dedicated to running the best meet possible.

Former club president and Bedgerabong resident Jimmy Rodgers moved with his family to Brisbane just over a year ago.

For the past two race meets he's made the 1000-kilometre trip back to Bedgerabong to help out on the day.

"It means a lot to me - I was the president of this race club for 12 years," he said.

"It's something I wouldn't miss. No matter where I lived I'd try and get back."

Alongside Henty's Seb Collery, Mr Rodgers rode as clerk of the course, which involved keeping the jockeys safe by leading any highly-strung racehorses out to the barriers.