PAKENHAM will host its last meeting for the current season next Monday, 2 July, and a big day’s racing is assured with trainers and owners ready to support the event after being frustrated by the recent cancellation of race dates at other venues.

The 2006-07 Pakenham Racing Club premierships, sposored by Cremin Frank Facey, will be decided at Monday’s meeting and all three categories are still up for grabs.

Mick Price is four points ahead of Robbie Laing in the trainer’s award, which looks the most settled, however only one point separates the leading riders in both the flat and jumps race categories.

Danny Brereton leads the flat riders’ tally with 29 points from Daniel Smith (28) and local hoop Vlad Duric (22), while Adrian Garraway has nine points in the jumps award with Gerrad Gilmour one point back and several rivals on six points.

All are expected to be in action at Monday’s meeting.

The event was previously a Traralgon fixture but is now a permanent date at Pakenham, negotiated after the release of the original dates.

Strong nominations for the meeting saw 142 horses entered to compete, including 36 nominations for the Maiden Hurdle, meaning an extension to the scheduled eight-race program is likely.

Pakenham is one of the few tracks that has coped with the extreme weather conditions over the past 12 months and anticipation for Monday is high after the recent Moe meeting was cancelled after two races and last week’s Sale meeting was abandoned.