SAPPHIRE COAST - BEGA CUP

Presenter: Jack Mercer

I was on my own for the Sapphire Coast this time. Just me, the car and a few hours of decent road once you drop south past Batemans Bay.

I don’t mind travelling solo occasionally.

You notice different things when there’s nobody to talk to.

The Sapphire Coast isn’t really one town. It’s Bega, Tathra, Merimbula and a string of smaller places scattered through the valleys and along the coast, with the racecourse itself sitting out at Kalaru.

So I made a loop of it.

 

CHEESE, OYSTERS AND AN OLD WHARF

Started in Bega, which everyone in Australia has heard of thanks to the cheese. There’s something satisfying about a country town that’s genuinely known for the thing it makes.

 

THE OLD WHARF

From there I drove out to Tathra and down to the old wharf.

Timber, weathered and sticking straight out into blue water, Tathra Wharf is a remarkable survivor from the days when coastal steamers connected towns like these with the outside world.

I stood on it for longer than I needed to.

 

AN AFTERNOON IN MERIMBULA

Merimbula got the afternoon. The lake, the oyster sheds and a pub lunch that involved considerably more oysters than I’d planned on.

Lucy would have had opinions about the light on that lake.

I just enjoyed it quietly.

I’d come down for the Bega Cup at the Sapphire Coast track, and it gave the trip its shape without ever becoming the whole point of it.

If a coastal loop with cheese, oysters and an old wharf sounds like your kind of weekend, keep the Bega Cup in mind next time it comes around.

AND BRING SOMEONE TO SHARE THE DRIVE.

I missed the company.

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THE BEGA CUP
1 February 2026

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CARRYING THE GRANDSTAND

Just over two weeks had passed since Ballina when the cruiser rolled into Kalaru.

Kenny looked at the top of the Cup field.

“Sixty-two kilos.”

Tommy whistled.

“That’s not a saddle. That’s luggage.”

Finn was looking at the same horse.

Zouatica.

Local stable. Barbara Joseph, Paul and Matt Jones.

And Billy Owen aboard.

When the gates opened, Owen didn’t complicate things.

62 KILOS AND STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT

Kenny watched him rolling along in front.

“That’s a fair weight to carry all the way.”

Finn nodded.

“He doesn’t seem worried.”

Neither did Zouatica.

 

THE WEIGHT NEVER TOLD

Around the turn, Owen asked him to go.

For a moment Kenny waited for the 62 kilos to tell.

They never did.

Zouatica kept rolling.

Behind him came Super Helpful, another horse from the Joseph and Jones stable, but the leader wasn’t coming back.

 

A HOMETOWN ONE -TWO

Zouatica had won the Bega Cup.

A local stable had run one-two in its own Cup, and the winner had done it carrying the grandstand.

Tommy looked at Finn.

“Sixty-two kilos.”

Finn smiled.

“Still won.”

Kenny tucked the race book away.

“Good horse.”

For once, nobody argued.

Seven Cups down.

The cruiser was heading north again.