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The 27-year-old jockey is waiting for Devine Miss to enter the mounting yard. Punters are lining the Thoroughbred Park fence to get a look at the horse that will soon claim the first race of Canberra's premier two-day carnival.
But I'm not interested in getting one last look at the horses. No, I'm already in the betting ring. I'm standing by a man with a bookie's bag draped over his shoulder, surveying the betting board to make sure everything is in order. A look at the numbers tells you the Norm Gardner-trained filly ridden by Nisbet is considered a red-hot chance.
These are this bookie's final few moments of solace before the chaos begins.
Before punters flock towards them, trading bank notes for betting slips, rushing out to cheer on a winner or commiserate a loser before heading back inside ready to chase a few more dollars. Black Opal Stakes day follows the same template from here on out.
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Thoroughbred Park is alive again. This is racing's revival, a new beginning for the sport in Canberra after two years of catastrophic financial damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kings and queens would rein in the Black Opal Stakes on Sunday, with Rachel King piloting Queen Of The Ball to victory and booking a ticket to the weekend's Golden Slipper in the process. The roar was deafening.
Twenty-four hours after Nisbet rides the first winner of the carnival, she is on board Desert Rose, again in the first race of the day, but the atmosphere provides a stark contrast. Canberra Cup day is different.
Trade the bookies for a jumping castle in the middle of what was yesterday's betting ring. The roller doors for the bar have been slammed shut, pinball machines standing in place of a line for the bar which a day earlier had snaked across the entire room. Kids wait their turn for a ride on the ponies or the teacups.
When the barriers fly open for the first race, your eyes and ears are drawn towards the two kids being held up on the fence by their father.
Come on! Go! Come on!
They don't relent for the entire 1400m as Gratz Vella's Onya Lional salutes in the first race of the day. Vella and the owners are waiting nearby when Tommy Berry steers the four-year-old bay gelding back into the mounting yard for a presentation.
"The owners, they fork out all the bills and everything like that," Vella said.
"They look forward to it. I had a group of owners who went to Braidwood just to have a day out and they said 'can we start the horse there?' I said 'we can, but we can win at Wagga'. They said 'we want a day out at Braidwood', so I took the horse there and the horse won.
"It was enormous, that's what they're looking for."
And what they're looking for matters.
Ask Canberra Racing Club chief executive Andrew Clark about the tumultuous period the club has been through over the past two years and he won't pull any punches. The financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been crippling.
But a long weekend like this, yearned for by racing fans and families, shows the sport has more than a pulse.
These moments, like a bookie taking a breath before the barrage, or kids and parents cheering a horse as one, are all the proof we need.
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