A Great Southern Star-style event for the lowly-graded pacers will provide a major highlight at Stawell Harness Racing Club’s Good Friday meeting this Easter.

The newly-created series will see horses contest two $4500 heats over the 1785m sprint trip, with qualifiers progressing through to a $10,000 final later on the same card.

The Pleasant Creek Plate, as it’ll be known, is restricted to pacers five years and older who have not won more than three lifetime races (and none in their most recent five starts). Preference in field selection will be given to horses with the highest number of starts since their last victory.

“With the help of the racing operations team at HRV, we have created the Stawell Toyota Pleasant Creek Plate, a race specifically targeted at lower-rated horses to give them a chance to race for significant prizemoney and a great trophy that they would not otherwise have,” Stawell HRC racing manager Mark Percival said.

“These horses and the people who care for them should be recognised as they really are the backbone of our sport.”

The Pleasant Creek Plate will form part of a blockbuster meeting that’ll include a participant sprint down the home straight as well as a senior drivers’ pony trot race.

The action on and off the track will be covered with an expanded TrotsVision production as the industry looks to cap its Good Friday Appeal fundraising effort in style.

Stawell will put the finishing touches on the campaign when it hosts one of just three harness racing meetings Australia-wide on that day.

“The Easter weekend in Stawell is one of the iconic weekends in sport in Australia,” Percival said.

“When the opportunity opened to host a race meeting on Good Friday, we saw an opportunity to connect with a group of patrons that may not have considered our sport.

“After the race meeting, we will host the Powercor Stawell Gift Calcutta and have partnered up with the Stawell Athletic Club along with other local clubs to try and maximise exposure to our great sport.

“Thanks to the generosity of local sponsors and the committee of the Stawell Harness Racing Club, we have already raised $3000 for the Good Friday Appeal through race name sponsorships.”

To donate to Harness Racing Victoria’s industry-wide Good Friday Appeal effort, click the link here.