The Muswellbrook Cup is the annual feature of the local club run over the 571m.

Dale Leary won back to back Cups in 2017 and 2018 with Stratavon Kasey, while in 2019, the Cup went to Kevin Brennan and Fran Sannette.

The race then took a four-year sabbatical before being run again in 2024 on the new upgraded facility, with the Mark and Daniel Gatt-trained Ritza Debra claiming the richest race in Muswellbrook history.

Not only did the Gatts win the Cup, their other runner Leg Speed – who set the track record last week in the heats at 32.62s – ran home to grab second albeit eight lengths behind his kennelmate who smashed the track record with a 32.45s performance over the 571m trip. Third place went to Group 1 winner Embrace for Craig Chappelow.

“I thought off last week she (Ritza Debra) had the most improvement out of our two,” Daniel said. 

“Her future is unlimited, I think. I think we could still drop her back to 500m and I think she's got some a future over the 500m, but 600m eventually is going to be her’s and then dream about the 700m. If she's going to run 700m she will be anything.”

“This has got that extra feeling to it. I brought my son Liam up with me this morning so it means even more. It's great."

“This industry it’s a generation to generation thing, and it’s family. We're a close family, and to be able to share this with my son makes it even better...You look at. It's like your husbands and wives, your brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters. It's fantastic. It's what it's all about.”