Heat, dust and normally a hot dry northerly wind, will greet those that attend the annual Carrathool Jockey Club’s Cup tomorrow.

With an expected 42 to 45 degrees heat, permission has been allowed for horses to arrive on the course one hour prior to the advertised time of each race.

Carrathool, known as one of the last of the bougher shed tracks, has a unique way of beating the rising temperatures.   

The bougher sheds comprise of open steel mesh stretched between poles, the day before the race meeting the station hands go out and cut the gum suckers from the giant gums that line the banks of the Murrunbidgee River.

Once the boughers are placed on the mesh, a fire truck comes along spraying water over the mesh; if it gets too hot sometimes the crowd has to be cleared while a second spraying is carried out.

Carrathool is about 250 kms over the river from Echuca, going towards Hay.