The Bendigo Harness Racing Club (BHRC) began putting together its history and memorabilia collection in 2014. Under the guidance of a sub committee of the Bendigo Harness Racing Club, volunteers Noel Ridge, Norm West and the late John Hall have done a marvellous job in a short space of time with the collection of memorabilia they currently have.
Lords Raceway is home to an impressive collection of harness racing history and memorabilia. The rooms under the grandstand house a collection of driver’s silks, walls with photos of champions, the entire trophy collection of Mother Courage, sulkies, newspaper articles dating back to the 1880s, race programmes, books, presentation rugs, vinyl recordings of old race calls and much more.
Lou and Neville Welch’s 76rpm vinyl race recordings commencing 1956
As a member of the Bendigo Historical Representative Group (BHRG), the club is one of over twenty five organisations aiming to preserve and share the unique history of Bendigo and district. The club’s aim is to “uncover, preserve, celebrate and share the rich history of Harness Racing in Central Victoria”.
The Bendigo collection has been established thanks to generous donations of memorabilia from local families and individuals. The club have recently received a grant, support and encouragement from the Board of Harness Racing Victoria to assist with further enhancements.
The collection of items from the Allan Family encompassing three generations including
Tom (Pop) Allan, his sons Hall of Famer Clarrie and Tom Jnr, and grandson Kevin
The scope of the collection at Lord’s Raceway covers events from 1840’s to the Bendigo Cup/Maori Mile meeting on January 5 this year (2019)
- 1840: The Mount Alexander North pastoral run of 114,000 acres settled
- 1851: Gold discovered in Abendigo’s Creek. Prospectors rush to the Bendigo goldfields from all over the world, to what became “Quarztopia”, the richest mining area in the British Empire
- 1855: The first trotting races are held at Myer’s Flat
- 1856: Organized trotting matches publicised in the press were conducted on the main roads. One match from the Glasgow Arms hotel Kangaroo Flat, to the Black Swan hotel Sandhurst (Bendigo) was for £100 a side
- 1859: Trotting races held at the newly established Bendigo Jockey Club racecourse at Epsom
- 1880: Boccacio arrives. The first American trotting stallion imported to Sandhurst
- 1883: Sandhurst Trotting Club formed, racing on country Australia’s first purpose built 1 mile trotting track inside the Bendigo Jockey Club course at Epsom
- 1890: Princess (dam of Prince Imperial NZ) and Dave Price give exhibitions of trotting in The Mall.
- 1890 -1910: Stud farms established. Hunter’s Burnewang Park, Matchett’s Adelaide Hill and Busst and Glasheen’s Belmont Stud. Stallions at stud included: Hambletonian Bell Boy, Directway, All Style, Honest Harry, Siam, First Voyage, Billy Mac, Tennessee Direct, Direct Argot, Rex Derby and Victor McKinney
- 1890 -1940: 29 district tracks raced on. Most were dual code gallop and trotting, or picnic meetings
- 1891: Bendigo Racing Club holds its first meeting at the 7 furlong South Atlas Racecourse, Mc Ivor Road
- 1916: Last meeting at the Jubilee Park Racecourse ( formerly South Atlas)
- 1922: Globe Derby wins at Bendigo Racecourse on 24th May off 180 yds. handicap
- 1923: Bendigo Trotting Club established. Races from 1924, lapsing in 1936. Includes seven Bendigo Cups
- 1928-29: Bendigo school teacher George Daniel, Gallipoli veteran, trotting trainer/driver trains two consecutive Richmond Thousand winners: Percy Direct and Diana Wood while later trainer of champion galloper Sailors Guide
- 1951: Bendigo Trotting Club (later Bendigo Harness Racing Club) formed
- 1954: Lord’s Raceway opened under lights, with 14,000 in attendance
- 1958: The mobile barrier introduced to Lord’s Raceway
- 1970: B.J. Lodge established at Goornong by Bernie Ahern with Kentucky and Hilarious Way at stud
- 1977: Roma Pocock time-trials Royal Gaze over a mile in 1:58.3. A world record for a lady driver
- 1990: Bendigo Harness Racing Training Centre established
- 1992: The Australasian Breeders Crown commences at Bendigo
- 1997: Knight Pistol smashes the Australasian trotter’s race mile record by 2.5 seconds, trotting 1:56.4.
- 2006: Champion trotter Maori’s Idol died on 20 October 2006 at Homevale Stud at Fern Hill. The 34yo stallion was buried next to the admission gates at the Bendigo Harness Racing Club’s track.[
- 2014: Sixty Years at Lord’s Raceway Anniversary Cup
- 2019: A huge crowd fills Lord’s Raceway for the 2019 PETstock Bendigo Cup and the Aldebaran Park Maori Mile
Champion trotter Maoris Idol is buried at the entry to Lord’s Raceway. The US speed Sulky used in an exhibition mile at Moonee Valley in 1978 is part of the Bendigo collection
Bendigo and District has been the home to star horses and famous participants, who are represented by memorabilia.
These include:
Influential foundation NZ sire Prince Imperial (foaled in Bendigo), Globe Derby when owned by Alex Hunter, 1917 NZ Cup winner Adelaide Direct, Lightnin (the ancestress of NZ champion Lordship), legendary trotter Grand Voyage, Glide Away ( Duneden Cup), Percy Direct ( Richmond Thousand), Diana Wood ( Richmond Thousand) , Miracle Mile winners Adaptor and Popular Alm, Gosh, Mother Courage, Inter Dominion winners Gentleman John, Derby Royale (T), True Roman (T) , AG Hunter Cup winners Gentleman John, Royal Gaze and Popular Alm and many more.
Local Hero Royal Gaze, with trainer/driver Ken Pocock
The participants represented include:
Robert Matchett, and Bob Crowe of Adelaide Hill Stud, , Robert and A.G. Hunter, Bill Tomkinson from Richester who became NZs leading trainer, , Paddy Glasheen and Harry Busst of Belmont Stud, Dual code Group 1 winning trainer George Daniel, star driver Wilkie Lee, the Rothacker, Redwood and Rawiller families, the Pocock, Zimmer, McDermott, Gath, Graham and Wills families.
Bill Tomkinson from Rochester, later to become leading NZ Trainer
The BHRC’s extensive collection contains significant literary items such as Alan Gillies collection of bound publications; a huge collection of magazines; North American Harness Racing book collection; Cochran family historic USA year book collection; complete sets of Australian Stud Books and Year Books; Sandhurst Trotting Club documents from 1886; BHRC race books from 1954 onwards and for myself personally, a real gem in Ron Bisman’s extensive library collection. Ron Bisman’s wife Eunice contacted the Bendigo club and offered her late husband’s (well respected NZ harness racing journalist, author and historian) collection of books (NZ/Australia/North America) to the club. Ron was responsible for the colossal book “Salute To Trotting” (1983), a complete history of harness racing in NZ up until the early nineteen eighties.
The Ron Bisman Collection
The collection contains many framed photos among them Bendigo Cup winners, Glide Away’s fourteen Richmond and Ascot wins; video and CD recordings of all Bendigo races from 1991 onwards; 78 and 33 rpm audio recordings dating from 1956 as well as Mother Courage’s trophy collection; Rothacker family scrapbook and Allan family collection covering three generations.
Mrs Susie Rothacker’s scrap book.
She recorded the exploits of her three sons Des, Eric and Stuart, and her nephew Gordon
There are a number of race sulkies including those of Grand Voyage (Paddy Glasheen), Gentleman John (Eric Rothacker) and a local cart developed in the 1950’s by Wes Hammill of Hammill Coach Builders in Kangaroo Flat together with significant Drivers colours and Knight Pistol’s Harley Davidson Trot (Norway) winning rug.
Father Brian Glasheen (The Pacing Priest), with the sulky used by his grandfather Paddy Glasheen on Legendary trotter Grand Voyage
John Peck’s Trotting Annals of Bendigo and Environs, a massive 320 page searchable pdf digital resource containing full results of over 15,000 matches and races from 22 Bendigo District tracks has been purchased by and installed at the Bendigo Library.
The “gem in the crown”for a New Zealander is without doubt Adelaide Direct’s 1917 New Zealand Cup trophy. Brought to Christchurch specifically for the 2017 New Zealand Cup (100th year anniversary), this trophy has pride of place at the entrance way to the Museum located at the rear of the Lords Raceway grandstand complex.
The trophy won by Adelaide Direct, winner of the 1917 New Zealand Cup was of particular interest to the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club (NZMTC) which celebrated the 114th running of the New Zealand Cup in 2017. Thanks to Bendigo Harness Racing Club’s Racing and Marketing Manager Brendan Baker and Leigh Graham from the Harness Racing Training School, Adelaide Direct’s NZ Cup took a trip back to make an appearance at the 2017 NZ Cup carnival.
Adelaide Direct’s NZ Cup at Addington Raceway, November 2018
Having had the privilege of briefly viewing this collection during the recent Melbourne Interdominion tour with Harness Racing Travelworld, if you ever get the chance to visit Lords Raceway, make sure you allow sufficient time to view the BHRC collection.
View at : www.bhrc.com.au (click on BHRC History), facebook @bendigo harness, twitter @BendigoTrots
Contact details : BHRC Office (03) 5449 3205
Noel Ridge 0400 923 956 (ridgennoel@gmail.com)
Peter Craig
6 Feb 2019
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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