Using the annual meeting as an opportunity to 'catch up' with neighbours and friends, graziers, expats and locals turned out in their finest, and in one case, weirdest attire to experience a great family day at the track.

Kids were well catered for with quizzes, footraces and assorted competitions running throughout the day, and the load of hay bales dumped on the edge of the spectators arena once again proved that you don't need swings and merry-go-rounds to keep kids occupied.

This year, 20 bike riders from the Great Australian Bike Ride en route from Melbourne to Darwin and back, chose the Maxi Races as an R&R venue. The team is pushbiking over 17,000km to raise funds for mental health education and research programs conducted by Australian Rotary Health.

Categories in the Fashions on the Field competition had a distinct rural theme including Best Dressed Breeders won by Clay and Karen Kennedy, Gracedale Station; Best Dressed Broodmare, Trace Lively; Studly Stallion, Lindsay Friend; Maiden Mare, Bianca Murray; Ab Fab Hat, Judy Brown; Best Dressed Filly, Mia Semple; and Best Dressed Colt, Tom Scott.

The feature race, the Landmark and Olsson's MacDougal Cup, was so close at the finish, you could have thrown a blanket over the first four horses, but it was the Andrew Saunders-owned Crypt with Aaron Spradau aboard that got the judges decision from Centgeorge, jockey Dot Slack-Smith, second, and Brass Cutter, Shaun Mossman, third.

Credit for the success of the meeting must go to the race committee and new president, Scott Geary, and the great support from sponsors who will surely be lining up for next year's Maxwelton Race Meeting.