Two small towns in South Australia's Mallee are celebrating the return of the region's only horse racing event after it was controversially axed last year.
The Mindarie-Halidon races attracts more than 1,000 punters to the two towns, with a combined population of around 50 people, a fixture of SA Racing for 107 years.
Issues with the condition of the track and sorting a club committee to organise the event led to Racing SA taking it off the calendar for 2022 and beyond.
Community members launched a petition to save the event in March, with Racing SA yesterday confirming the races would not only return this September but remain a permanent fixture in years to come.
Future events would be subject to the club maintaining a strong committee and suitable track conditions.
"Just the outpouring to keep the club going was fantastic," Mindarie-Halidon Racing Club president Geoff Redden said.
"We've restructured, we've got 10 people on the executive committee, and each one's got a specific area that they'll be looking after."
Mr Redden added losing the event would have had a detrimental effect on the community.
"We get probably 300-500 people who aren't even from the district come and camp and have a good time, and forget about their woes outside the gates."
Racing SA says no mistake made in cancelling event
When the petition was circulated in March, Racing SA said it had an agreement with the Mindarie Halidon Racing Club that the 2021 event would be the last.
The meet has encountered a number of challenges in recent years, including cancelling the 2019 meet due to an unsuitable track.
Racing SA CEO Nick Redin said the cancellation had energised the club.
"We went back to the club with a list of items that needed to be addressed at the track from a structural perspective," he said.
"We also wanted to gain a greater understanding of the commitment of the people they'd identified to run the club and assist going forward to make sure it wasn't just a sugar hit and in place for the long term.
"I'm really pleased to say the club has done an outstanding job working through the issues we had."
Mr Redin defended the Racing SA's initial call to cancel the races.
"The club came to us and said they were struggling and we came up with a final race meeting for them," he said.
