Cleaves said he had no inkling of moves to close down or merge Cessnock.

"Cessnock is registered by country racing for 13 meetings a year and we average in excess of 11 runners in a race," he said.

"We can have a maximum of 14 runners per race.

"The Broadmeadow number two grass has a limit of eight runners and might be able to squeeze in one more."

Cleaves questioned how Broadmeadow would cope with the extra meetings.

"There are 32 meetings at Broadmeadow each year, and that would increase by 14 if the Cessnock meetings were staged there," he said.

"I do not know if the course could find the water needed to maintain the courses for that number of meetings."

Cleaves said the trainers at Cessnock owned their facilities and the relocation of them to Newcastle was "utterly impractical".

"Importantly, the accounts from Cessnock show it is profitable," he added.

"We might use Newcastle once a year, usually because our track could not race because of wet weather.

"We do that because of the great link we have with the NJC, but there has not been any talk that I know of at board level for the move.

"I think we should simply be allowed to get on with providing good racing at Cessnock."

The next NJC director's meeting is on Monday, and the old line about wanting to be a fly on the wall certainly applies here.

Wyong Race Club officials are expecting a big turnout for the promotion of their trial session today.

The club has received 72 nominations for the trials which start at 11am.

"We have 10 trials with 72 runners and that would equate to a winter race meeting," Wyong CEO Tony Drew said.

Gai Waterhouse is bringing 24 horses for the trials, including Craven Plate winner Lorne Dancer, promising stayer Music Maestro and Princess Quality.

Patinack Farm's John Thompson also has 13 entries, but the show-stopper will be Kris Lees's filly The Opera House.

Lees has eight runners, but the pure white filly has become a talking point in Australian racing and is the one most will go to see.

"We had 400 people last time Gai Waterhouse came to the trials, and I am sure we will get more tomorrow," Drew said.

"Gai will be interviewed as will the jockeys, and John Singleton is putting on the refreshments."

Gosford's newest apprentice Jake Hull truly has the sport racing through his veins.

The 16-year-old had his first ride at Taree last Sunday and rode again at Scone on Tuesday.

Jake's brother Ben is a jockey and their father Mark rode for many years.

To top off Jake's racing background, his cousin is accomplished jockey Josh Parr, who last week won the Gosford Cup.

Jake was sent to Mudgee where he learned to ride under the guidance of ex-jockey Tracey Bartley, who trained Sniper's Bullet to win the Railway Stakes in Perth last Saturday.

Hull is now apprenticed to Grant Allard at Gosford.

Newcastle Jockey Club has received praise from the bookmaking fraternity.

The commonsense decision to move the three bookmakers from a furnace-hot betting ring into the air-conditioned member's bar for last Friday's meeting at Broadmeadow, which was transferred from Cessnock, was well received.

Those who attended the benefit day for badly injured jockey Paul Goode are still laughing about one of the feature acts on the day, comedian Ray Seagar.

Here is one of the jokes he told.

A bank robber comes out of a bank, but in his haste to get away he trips, falls and his mask comes off and his bag full of money spills open.

He picks up the money and puts it back in the bag and tries to run again, but by now a crowd has gathered.

The robber goes over to an onlooker and asks him if he saw who robbed the bank.

"Of course I did, it was you," the onlooker says.

The bank robber reaches into his bag draws out a shotgun and shoots the man dead.

The robber then goes to the next man in the crowd and again asks if he saw who robbed the bank.

"No I did not," the man replies, quickly adding: "But my wife standing over there, she did."