The racing gods have not been kind to the Lismore Turf Club's Scott Jones and Daniel Kedraika in recent years because of rain.

2024 saw the first ever Country Championships to be held in Lismore were cancelled, and later in September, the 2024 Lismore Cup was cancelled and run at Grafton.

The 2025 Country Championships is looking highly likely to be run and won this Saturday. The Bureau of Meteorology are forecasting 0-6mm on Friday (70% chance) and 0-4mm on Saturday (60% chance). If the 10mm fell on the course over the two days, the race would still go ahead. Of course, Scott and Daniel are touching whatever wood they see.

"It's looking good, really good," said Daniel Kedraika, Operations Manager at the Lismore Turf Club. "The track is really well. I think we're about a soft five into a good four. A little bit of rain today, not much of note. But yeah, it's looking really good.

"There is rain in the forecast but nothing of concern. We can take a little bit of rain, which is good. They were considering putting water on the track but thought we'd hold off until we saw what fell."

Saturday will be one of Lismore's biggest raced days, with an eight-race program.

"Fields are really strong, which is good, especially in the championship race itself.

The Country Championship purse is worth $150,000, which is double the prize money of the Lismore Cup of $75,000. Not only that, the winner and runner-up will qualify for the Country Championships final at Royal Randwick in April with a prize pool of $1 million.

Lismore is the first of seven regional races across NSW; others include Albury, Mudgee, Tamworth and Scone.

The first race is at 1:25pm and the last about 5:40pm.

As is the case with larger race meetings at the Lismore Turf Club, there will be a live band following the conclusion of the last race.

"The 'Funny Goats' have jumped on board. They're doing a bit of a tour around this area and up on the Gold Coast. They play pub rock covers, so it should be a bit of fun once the racing is done for the day."

The gates open at 11:30am on Saturday. Daniel is expecting a really good crowd.

"We have a few VIP tickets available, but we should have about 150 people down there, about 60 to 70 along the fence on the Track Side Tables, and we're putting extra seating in the members area upstairs.

"We've given out a bunch of tickets to a few local sporting clubs, such as Thistles, Marist Brothers rugby league and Daley's netball, so they can sell them to raise funds for their clubs.

"People can buy tickets at the gate on Saturday as well, or they can still go to the Lismore Turf Club website.

For those wanting to enjoy a few drinks as well as the races, the Turf Club is putting on a shuttle bus.

"The shuttle bus will pick up at the Lismore Workers Golf Club and then along Keen Street to Browns Creek carpark. It will run a constant loop every 15 minutes from 11:30am to 2:30pm, and then it will start taking them home from 6pm."