A crowd of around 1, 500 people turned up at the annual Forbes Cup on Monday to see jockey Andrew Banks win the $30, 000 Forbes Cup on Zarlu. “It was a really good race,” said Allan Black, Secretary of the Forbes Jockey Club after Banks had to replace an indisposed Brad Clark. Zarlu is trained at Wagga Wagga by Peter Morgan and defeated J Kissick riding Leucura and Clayton Gallagher on Dark Mojo in the seventh race of the day over 1, 600m. It was a first time entry for Zarlu in the Forbes Cup.

The main sponsor of the Forbes Cup for the past 21 years is Bankstown Sports Club from Sydney. Almost 200 supporters travelled all the way to Forbes to enjoy the day, with some of them doing it for the 16th year in a row.

The Forbes Services Memorial Club has also been supporting the biggest race in Forbes for 22 years. Last week Wayne and Denise Richards, President and Director respectively, handed over a $6, 600 cheque to John Rennick of the Forbes Jockey Club.

Another exciting event on the day was the unveiling of the Club’s new $110,000 irrigation system for the race track. Present at the unveiling were Michael McCormack, Small Business Minister, Phyllis Miller, Mayor of Forbes, Gordon Lindley and Scott Kennedy of Racing NSW.

The Boscars 2016 have been launched officially and now is your chance to enter. Is there something you’re doing really well in your business or do you have a star performer? Have you launched any new initiatives or made improvements over the past two years?

Entries are open now via an easy to use online system. Visit www.
forbesbusinesschamber.com.au/boscars to access the system and review the questions for the nine award categories open for entry:
Excellence in Business Ethics, Excellence in Innovation, Excellence in Small Business (<20 employees), Excellence in Business (>20 employees), Employer of Choice, Business Leader of the Year (age 36+), Young Entrepreneur (age 18 – 35), Employee of the Year and Apprentice or Trainee of the Year.

Entries close at 5pm on Monday, 29th August. An independent panel of respected business leaders from outside the region will review and judge the submissions. Finalists will be announced on Friday, 30th September – don’t miss your chance to be one of them.

The news that our school captain, Oliver Carlisle had tragically passed away on Saturday morning came with great sadness to the Forbes High school community.

Olly was well-known and well-liked by students, staff and parents. He was a charismatic character who had a great sense of humour and always enjoyed a chat, a laugh, a joke and a game of chess. Olly will be remembered for his contribution as a respected leader of our school both as captain this year
and as an active member of the Student Representative Council throughout his school years. His commitment will be remembered as will his input into a variety of projects at our school.

Olly was a great role model and always supportive of younger students. His active involvement in sports not only focussed on his strengths of long distance running and athletics, but spread to other team sports in which he was always happy to contribute to help Forbes High put on the best possible showing in knockout competitions.

In his final months preparing for the Higher School Certificate, Olly had a particular passion and skills in Design and Technology and was completing a multi-functional entertainment table as his major assessment project.

The entire Forbes High community joins us in extending our deepest sympathy and love to Olly’s family.

Five students of the Forbes High School Support Unit will have a fantastic experience later this year when they become part of the cast for the 2016 Schools Spectacular. Following the success of previous students, Support Unit teacher Lauren Jordan submitted an audition video. She was delighted when they were notified of the success, but not nearly as excited as the five aspiring dancers.

The dancers will now attend rehearsals in preparation for a week long excursion to Sydney where they will rehearse with their specific dance ensemble prior to two matinee and two evening performances at the Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday, 25th and Saturday, 26th November.

The Schools Spectacular is an outstanding showcase of talent in NSW public schools. The show is unparalleled in the world with a 2,700 strong choir, 2,300 diverse dancers, an 80-piece symphony orchestra, a world-class stage band and a huge number of outstanding solo performers.

This iconic cultural event engages and showcases students of varying ages,
cultures, skills and socioeconomic backgrounds from metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW. The Forbes and District Lions Club has shown their support for the Support Unit’s success with a donation of $1, 000 to assist with the costs of accommodation, travel, food and costumes.

Head Teacher, Debra Slack-Smith, recently attended the Lions Club dinner to accept this generous donation on behalf of the class.

White Ribbon ‘Boys Night In’
Forbes High School is a White Ribbon School and is continually advocating and raising awareness for the development of positive relationships and breaking the devastating cycle of domestic violence.

The second annual ‘Boys Night In’ takes place tonight. Male students and another significant males in their lives are invited to participate in activities at the school from 3.30 to 6.30pm with the aim to build capacity to support being a positive male role model. Forbes High is also in partnership with Forbes Domestic Violence and other organisations showcasing ‘Iceberg’, Kirrily
Dear’s documentary of her ultra-marathon run to raise awareness of domestic violence.

The screening will be at Town Hall from 7.00pm tonight.

“At the Forbes Preschool we celebrate Education Week every day.” According to Amy Shine, Director of the Preschool, “everything we do is play to learn”. The move to the Preschool’s new $1.3 million premises has gone well, and after a term in the beautiful, spacious and light rooms “Everyone is really settled and happy.

Best of all, the kids are really happy here.” With the addition of another room recently, around 150 children come and go over a week. As well as working with a speech therapist, an occupational therapist has also started working with staff and children recently.

An added bonus of the new premises is the community room that is used regularly by many community groups. “It is lovely to see the Preschool support the wider community with lots of different people coming here,” said Amy.

Orange resident, Daniel McGregor is turning the financial planning industry model upside down with a revolutionary idea of giving people the ability to create their own financial plan. Daniel, who will be writing a regular column called Wealth Train in The Forbes Phoenix, said he wanted to be a catalyst for change after spending 15 years in an industry plagued by bias.

“Australians pay around $20 billion in fees and expenses on their superannuation and they pay another $5 billion in fees to financial planners,” he explained. “The more of these fees people can keep in their own pockets and the more they have their money appropriately invested, the better off they will be in the long term.

Daniel said he wanted to show people the simple changes they can make that can have a profound impact on their ability to generate wealth. Visit www.wealthtrain.com.au and start your journey to financial freedom.

The McLachlan Group bull breeding business will be holding its annual bull sale at the North Logan property on North Logan Road in Cowra on 10th August at 1pm.

The sale will be the business’ fifth annual sale, and McLachlan Group’s Warren Miller expected it to be a popular sale. The sale will have 35 Angus bulls, 20 Charolais bulls and two Polhereford bulls. Angus bulls are the most popular for beef, and Warren said these should sell fast.

All the bulls are grass fed, meaning they live longer, and produce better quality beef. According to Warren, the McLachlan Group’s bulls are very valuable. “Our bulls are of the highest quality, which means our buyers get the best grass fed beef they can.” The past four annual sales have been hugely popular with bulls selling for about $4, 000 each.

Grass has grown very lush after good rains and has lead to very good cattle sales across the region.

Riverina Nationals’ MP Michael McCormack, who is the MP for Forbes as well, feels honoured by his appointment as Minister for Small Business. “Having owned and operated my own small business in Wagga Wagga for more than eight years, I understand first hand the vital role small business plays in many local communities,” Michael said.

“Since coming to Parliament, I have seen how the Coalition’s small business policies, including the instant asset write-offs and a lowering in the company tax rate, have seen an increase in confidence, investment and jobs in the Riverina electorate’s small businesses.

“With the Coalition’s focus on ensuring Australia’s small businesses have a champion and voice in the Ministry, I follow in the steps of two outstanding Small Business Ministers in Bruce Billson and Kelly O’Dwyer. Michael said he would remain focused on his role as the Member for Riverina and being the voice for the Riverina and Central West in Federal Parliament.

Michael, who is the first Small Business Minister who is a member of The Nationals, was sworn in on Wednesday.