This is the second of several articles looking at currently active regional tracks of Victoria. A brief review will be taken of the history of a club (previous/closed/current).
Regional Track : BOORT
Boort is located beside Lake Boort in the Loddon region 250kms northwest of Melbourne and 100kms from Bendigo. Annually from 20 March 1885 to 1891 celebrating Queens Birthday two trotting races were featured on the race card at Boort. The oldest surviving continuous trotting club (later amended to Boort Racing and Trotting Club) in Australia, although like many others no racing held during the Second World War. It used the original Boort racecourse positioned on western side of town, the site of a local sports ground and Boort Show venue for fifty years. The club formed on 28 May 1891 (Ballarat and Cesswick; Sandhurst were earliest two clubs) held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday 5 August 1891. This meeting consisted of a Maiden trot, Time Hcp trot and Hcp Consolation Trot as well as a pony and hack races.
In 1929 a six furlong racecourse and agricultural showground was developed on the opposite side of the town – Boort Park. The inaugural Boort TC meeting was held here on 13 November 1929. In 1969 the track was revised to a 704m harness racing circuit and an amenities block constructed with additional facilities added in later years. Boort held the first registered race for modern day female drivers in 1978 (winner : Debbie Turner). It’s first full TAB race date was 3 February 1984.
The Boort TC celebrated the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary in 2015 being home to trotting greats Bill McKay, the Butterworths, Handos, Robertsons and many more. The first Boort Pacing Cup in 1921 was won by Hall of Fame trotter Grand Voyage from 240 yards behind while the Boort Trotters Cup has a more recent history commencing in 2012, these feature races running annually in March. The Boort TC continues to hold two meetings each season at New Year and in March.
In 2018 the club embarked on a major project to relocate four light poles outside the trotting track. The move improved horse and driver welfare by preventing horses from becoming spooked by shadows cast across the track from the poles’ existing locations. Funding was provided from the Victorian Racing Industry Fund, Harness Racing Victoria (HRV), Loddon Shire Council and the Boort TC. Jointly funded by the Labour Government and HRV, a new $20,000 horse wash has been installed. These recent projects complement the on track facilities which include large veranda, dining, air conditioned sports bar, seating and under cover on course tote.
Regional Track : CHARLTON
Charlton, a small agricultural community straddling the Avoca River, located at the junction of the Calder and Borung Highways and positioned in the last of the foothills of the Great Dividing Range approximately halfway between Melbourne and Mildura.
The East Chariton and Lower Avoca Turf Club was the first club formed to conduct annual meetings on a course near the township in 1871. The first known trotting event occurred at a mixed meeting four years later according to a report in the St Arnaud Mercury of 31 December 1875 – ‘meeting of the East Charlton Turf Club held on 30 December on a new course two miles south of the township. In a field of seven Mr R Faulkner’s Ginger Ale defeated Mr J McDonald’s Lady Mary Ramsey in a trotting race worth eight sovereigns’.
In 1910 the initial Charlton Trotting Club was formed following a meeting at Barry’s Globe Hotel on Monday 19 September. The club’ s inaugural meeting was held on 1 December in conjunction with pony gallop races which featured a double harness trot in buggy over two miles (winner : Erin O.M driven by Mr W O’Meara) and a match race for £100 between two locally owned horses Prince Almont and Nellie H, which were won in straight heats by Prince Almont. The club’s first race had been won by Foley’s Hazel Direct before a crowd of 1,000 in attendance at the seven furlong (1400m) old Charlton racecourse. Occasional meetings continued to be held on this course for the next twenty years.
An opportunity arose to move to an expanding recreational reserve opened up by the golf club. The Charlton Agricultural and Pastoral Society moved to the newly named Charlton Park in 1928 providing the Trotting club with ready-made facilities and a useful racecourse. nestled on the banks of the picturesque Avoca River. The first meeting of the Charlton Trotting Club at Charlton Park took place on 11 November 1931 with Valma Wood winning the first; Dark Hope, Charlton Hcp feature race over ten furlongs for a purse of £25; with noted horsemen Charlie Robertson, Bill Rothacker and Paddy Glasheen in attendance. After a promising start at Charlton Park, the ongoing depression years led to the expiry of the Charlton TC with the A&P Society taking over its facilities and bank overdraft for a payment of £84 in 1935.
In 1948 the reformation of the club occurred following a meeting on 1 September the Charlton Trotting Club burst back into life. The first race meeting of the new club was held at Charlton Park on 4 December when a six race programme was held. Steps were taken to build a new 800m harness track at Charlton Park being opened on 16 March 1951 by the Hon. Keith Turnbull. The new track was a unique design with three straights, known as the ”egg”. It was triangular with starting chutes to cope with large fields.
In 1965 the first TAB meeting held on a Friday in Victoria was granted to the Charlton club. An upgrade of facilities in 1968 funded by the Trotting Club Ladies Auxiliary, the Football Club, A&P Society and a government grant included changing rooms, pavilion, kitchen and dining room. Later a kiosk and cool room were added to provide patrons with more functional and comfortable amenities together with the development of a viewing area and grandstand. 1970’s –a bar, administrative offices, driver’s changing rooms, totalisator and ladies’ rest rooms were added.
In 1976 a proposal for a new half mile track to bring Charlton into line with most other Victorian circuits was suggested. Despite initial resistance from some trainers, strong persuasion from committee member Les Lock convinced everyone that progress was needed. The new 850m track was designed along similar plans and specifications to those at Beckley Park – Geelong and Bendigo. The local community provided assistance in the form of trucks carting gravel and manpower at working bees. The total cost for the project was $35,000 (grant from Racecourse Development Fund) with the new track being officially opened on 21 December 1979. The track was a stone dust surface atop a limestone base. The main facilities block included tote, bar and dining together with committee room and office.
1997 ushered in another era in the history of the Charlton Harness Racing Club, plans were submitted for a new 960 metre track with construction completed in 2005. The harness racing track is a central feature of the town and region with meetings run by the Charlton Harness Racing Club which are televised and broadcast on radio nationally. The modern day Group Three Charlton Harness Racing Pacing and Trotters Cups date from 1996 and are held every March.
Regional Track : COBRAM
Cobram is located 261 kms north of Melbourne on the Murray River which forms the border between Victoria and the small New South Wales border town of Barooga.
The original Cobram racecourse was first utilised by the Cobram Turf Club in 1890. Trotting events were conducted in the Cobram area in the late 1800’s and were a feature of the Cobram Show in later years. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that harness racing really gained a foothold in Cobram.
In 1953 work commenced readying the old course for racing, an unregistered trial meeting of both racing codes was held. On 12 March 1955 the opening six race meeting of the Cobram and District Trotting Club was held on the 1350m Cobram Recreation Reserve racecourse. A proposal to reduce the track size to five furlongs was prepared and in 1982 the Racecourse Licences Board supported this with a grant of $5,000 over five years. With local finance raised, the project commenced in February 1983 to construct a 1008m track at an estimated commercial value of $100,000 (cost was one quarter of this estimation).
The inaugural meeting on the new track was held on 7 January 1984 with a ten race programme. TAB coverage of summer meetings followed and in 1985 the Kilmore stand was moved to Cobram for a cost of $25,000 and renamed the PF Brooks Stand.
In late July 2008 work commenced on a $500,000 upgrade at Cobram increasing the camber on the 1008-metre circuit from four percent to a preferred-standard 12.5 percent, innovative spiral turns were added reducing the stress on the horse and providing a smoother transition into bends. While most of the funding required for the work came via HRV’s Development Fund, much of the work was done on an in-kind basis including a massive voluntary contribution by club committee members. Work was completed enabling racing to resume by late October 2008.
The Cobram Harness Racing Club holds eleven race meetings a year, including Melbourne Cup Day and the Group Three Cobram Pacers and Trotters Cups in January. Qualifying Trials are run monthly on Sunday mornings.
Regional Track : HORSHAM
Horsham is located on a bend in the Wimmera River approximately 300 kms (190 miles) northwest of Melbourne. Horsham Harness Racing Club conducts regular meetings at the Horsham Racing Centre located in the heart of the city. It boasts a sweeping outlook across the thoroughbred and trotting tracks, sporting fields, wetlands and commercial district.
It is believed there were horses racing in Horsham in the 1850s and Horsham Racing Club records show the first Horsham Galloping Cup was run in 1861. It is not clear exactly when official racing started in the town but it certainly has a long history. With regard to trotting the first recorded instance in Horsham came in 1883 when Maude (rider Mr Ball) defeated The Hummer over three miles for 50 sovereigns. A trotting race was a feature of the annual Horsham Cup day carnival of the Horsham Racing Club from 1892. Match races continued and an exhibition of trotting between Osterley and Granger Jnr was part of the August 1897 Horsham Show at the A&P Showgrounds.
A fleeting attempt to form the Horsham Amateur Trotting Club in 1900 ended without a successful meeting held and it was a further ten years in 1910 before the first Horsham Trotting Club was formed in the May. The A&P Showgrounds track was then of 3½ furlongs circumference and plans were drawn up and tenders issued for its extension to a half mile track. With the costs proposed being excessive nothing further occurred until 1913 although the 1912 A&P Show did include time tests for trotters and pacers. Finally the inaugural meeting consisting of six races of the Horsham Trotting Club on the 3½ furlong Showgrounds track was held on Wednesday 7 May 1913. A second meeting was held in October and a further three meetings in the 1913/4 season.
The feature race annually from commencement had been the Horsham TC Hcp which was upgraded to the Horsham/Wimmerra Cup in 1925. The final meeting of the original Horsham Trotting Club occurred on 28 April 1927 with the name retired in deference to the death of the club’s first president Thomas Shearwood who passed away on 17 March 1927.
The Wimmera and North Western District TC was formed at a meeting at the Horsham Town Hall on Saturday 20 August 1927. Their inaugural meeting was held at the Showgrounds on 3 December 1927 when six races were run. Meetings continued at the Showgrounds until the 1933/4 and 1934/5 seasons when due to a rental dispute with the Horsham Agricultural Society trotting races were held as part of the St Patricks Day races and during the thoroughbred Horsham Cup carnival at Horsham racecourse. Back to the Showgrounds for the annual Cup meeting on 4 April in 1936 while the April 1937 meeting would see the last race run under the auspices of the Wimmera and North Western District TC which went into recess.
Reborn three years later as the Horsham Trotting Club held its initial meeting with a six race card on Saturday 13 April 1940 at the Horsham Showgrounds. After racing again in 1941, World War II intervened to the extent that the next meeting in Horsham did not take place until 1946 although there were a couple of trot events at the Horsham Racing Club meetings.
1946 marked a return of the Carnival trots, Racing Club trotting races, St Patricks Day trot and the Trotting Clubs revival on 2 November 1946 racing at Horsham Racecourse. The club moved its racing onto a new half mile track at the Horsham Racecourse with the first meeting held on Saturday 18 November 1950. In total eleven meetings were run on this track prior to discussions involving night trotting coming to Horsham which resulted in a return to the Showgrounds track in November 1951. The final meeting on the old half mile Showgrounds track took place on 2 May 1953.
The Horsham Trotting Club merged into a new organisation with the formation of the Wimmerra Trotting Club in 1953. The new club’s first night trotting meeting was held at the Horsham Showgrounds on Wednesday 6 January 1954 before a crowd of 6,000.The seven race programme included Eric Rothaker’s future ID Pacing Champion Gentleman John (1956 Harold Park) winning the Wimmerra FFA in a 2:16.0 mile rate for twelve furlongs. South Australia’s greatest ever pacer Minor Derby finished third. The new 3½ furlong track (706m) was officially opened by Victorian Chief Secretary and Deputy Premier Bill Galvin (Labour Party).
The wooden lighting poles replaced with steel ones in the 1960’s, the mobile barrier arrived for its first use on 30 March 1963. The club’s inaugural TAB meeting was held in 1965, photo finish was installed in October 1965, eighty new horse stalls were available in 1966 and champion Reichman won his first ever race at Horsham on 5 April 1968.
Greyhounds arrived at the Showgrounds track in the seventies together with the forfeiture of non-TAB meetings, the inaugural Wimmerra (now Horsham Pacing Cup at Group Two level) Pacing Cup in 1974 won by Seldom Sure and the parading of Victorian Hall Of Fame Legend trotter Maoris Idol. A change of name to Horsham and District HRC in 1981 and proposals to close/relocate racing to nearby venues, in Horsham’s case to Stawell. The development of a 1,000m track back at Horsham Racecourse and a return to day time racing emerged.
The last night meeting at the Horsham Showgrounds was held on Thursday 9 April 1992 with the inaugural ten race meeting at the new Horsham Racing Centre taking place on Tuesday afternoon 12 May 1992. The Horsham Trotting Club had joined forces with the Horsham Racing Club with a dual code complex and function centre being built with $600,000 made available from the Racecourse Development Fund. The new complex featured a 1000m harness track with flexible pylons, tote building, judge’s tower, electronic timing, upgraded float and car parks ad landscaped gardens with an $800,000 price tag.
The first two minute performance at Horsham fell to the Graeme Lang trained Imperial Atom on 7 December 1992 (1:57.2, 1700m, dr Gavin Lang). The inaugural Horsham Trotters Cup was run in 1996 and is now a listed race. A Tabaret was built in partnership with the thoroughbred club at a cost of $870,000 incorporating a grandstand and viewing terrace. The Noel Smith Memorial Invitation Drivers Championship series having commenced in 1990 is held annually. A recent $470,000 rebuild of Horsham’s 1000 metre circuit had the addition of a sprint-lane with a new finer grade racing surface and a substantial increase in camber on the turns.
For more extensive history, refer to the excellent publication on “Horsham Harness Racing History” by author John Peck.
Regional Track : KILMORE
Kilmore located 60 kms (37 miles) north of Melbourne, first conducted trotting on St Patricks Day 17 March 1896 when the District Hcp Trot was run over approximately two miles for a stake of £5 with Molly Ketts the winner in 4:40.0.
The Kilmore Trotting Advancement Association met at the Kilmore Recreation Ground on 15 March 1959 with a view to forming the Kilmore Trotting Club. In the preceding twelve to eighteen months volunteers had built the original three and a half furlong track inside the nine furlong grass thoroughbred track at the Recreation Ground. When applying for a licence the Victorian Trotting Control Board decreed that all new provincial tracks had to be of at least a half mile circumference. This edict delayed the eventual running of the clubs inaugural meeting.
However, the Kilmore A&P Association ran the 1959 Show Hcp Trot on the 3½ furlong track (two heats and final), again in 1960 while in 1961 two trotting events featured on the Kilmore Show programme (Maiden and Broadford Hcps).
An amount of up to £5,000 was anticipated being spent on the installation of a half mile track inside the existing galloping course. In February 1963 legislation was passed to allow Kilmore (Kellor, Cranbourne) to conduct day trotting meetings in the winter of 1963. Despite being allocated three meeting dates for the 1963/4 season, Kilmore had to relinquish two and move their original date plus race on the thoroughbred track because of wet weather delaying completion of the new trotting track. Kilmore’s inaugural meeting was held on Thursday 10 October 1963 and consisted of eight races. The honour of winning the first went to George Gath’s Tara Royal, future high class mare Angelique (VIC Oaks, SA Cup, two ID heats) was part of Gordon Rothacker’s driving treble.
Commencing on Friday 22 May 1964 seven winter meetings in total were to be held at Kilmore, six being in June and July on the now completed new four furlong track (814m). The honour of winning the first of eight races on the new gravel track went to Don Dove on Playalong, one of two winners for Dove on the day. The Kilmore Trotting Club’s (now Kilmore Harness Racing Club) final meeting of its inaugural season (1963/4) on Monday 20 July 1964, featured the running of what is now regarded as one of the premier country cups in Australia, the time honoured Kilmore Pacing Cup won by You Crovotte.
Kilmore Trackside, a $1.6 million function and entertainment facility was built in 1997/8 jointly financed by the Kilmore Turf and Harness Racing Clubs, Kilmore Harness Club borrowing $450,000 from HRV as part of its contribution. A state of the art 1000m harness track was opened in the year 2000/1 with lighting installed for night racing in mid-2000’s. In 2007, the Turf and Harness clubs ceased to exist as such, and today there is one consolidated body, Kilmore Racing Club Inc, which conducts all operations of Turf, Harness and the Trackside Bistro. Function facilities at the Kilmore Racing Complex include a 300 seat function room with full catering and bar, a 120 seat Bistro open every day for lunch and dinner and a Tabaret with 76 of the latest poker machine games.
The feature races of the Kilmore HRC are run in early Spring (September/October), namely the Group Two Kilmore Pacing Cup run since 1964 boasting an impressive list of winners (Welcome Advice, Paleface Adios, Pure Steel, Koala King, Poplar Alm twice, Golden Reign, Safe And Sound, Robin Hood, Sting Lika Bee, Make Mine Cullen, Lennytheshark, Soho Tribeca) and Kilmore Trotters Cup since 1969 (Touch Merchant, Scotch Notch, True Roman twice, Melpark Maid, National Interest, Sammy Do Good, I Didn’t Do It) .
Reference should be made to Bob Cain’s publication “Kilmore The Cup That Grew” for additional information.
Next Time : Victorian regional tracks of Shepparton, St Arnaud, Terang, Warragul, Wangaratta and Wedderburn
Peter Craig
14 July 2021
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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