It was photo-finish stuff at the Reenascreena Rodent Derby... well, maybe not, but it was an entertaining night. The crowd started to build from about 9:30pm, and there was great interest in the names of both mice and owners for the 12 scheduled races. At about 10:30pm the first six mice were under starters orders and racing continued unabated until well after 1am.
Andrew O'Sullivan and Maurice Sheehy demonstrated admirably that experience with larger farm animals is a skill that transfers seamlessly to smaller creatures as they skilfully readied the mice for each race. Getting the animals back down the track and into the starting gates again proved a little bit trickier. In the end perseverance and gravity prevailed and the mice were re-housed.
The atmosphere was laced with excitement as owners and punters cheered their mice to victory in each race, and a team of three bookies were kept busy by punters eager to place wagers on their chosen rodent. The final race of the night was an auction race, with punters bidding against one-another to secure a runner in this high-stake finale.
All in all it was a very successful night, and great fun for everyone involved.