This is the fifth of several articles looking at currently active regional tracks of Victoria. A brief review will be taken of the history of club’s in the Bendigo area (previous/closed/current).
Regional Tracks : BENDIGO, early days – 1800’s
Bendigo is located near the geographical centre of the state of Victoria and approximately 150 kms (93 miles) north west of Melbourne with an urban population of 100,000+ making it the fourth largest inland city in Australia and fourth most populous city in Victoria.
For detailed results of trotting in the Bendigo area over the past approximately two centuries, refer to newspapers of the day; listings on www.classicfamilies.net and in a huge digital database “The Trotting Annals of Bendigo and Environs” by John Peck, available at the Goldfields Library in Bendigo – a massive 320 page searchable pdf digital resource containing full results of over 15,000 matches and races from 22 Bendigo District tracks.
In addition, both the website of the Bendigo HRC (under BHRC History) and the extensive memorabilia contained in Victoria’s Harness Racing Heritage Collection at Bendigo Harness Racing Club’s Museum add much colour to available information/history concerning harness racing in the Bendigo area.
Accordingly any review of the trotting tracks in the Bendigo area can only be superficial and endeavour to give you a flavour of the tracks used, when and salient facts, the first of which being that Bendigo was originally known as “Sandhurst”.
Sandhurst was the official name given to the township surveyed in 1854, its name was probably inspired by the chief commissioner of the goldfields, William Henry Wright born at Sandhurst, England and attended the Royal Military College there. The local parish was also given the name of Sandhurst as was the local mining district.
The Sandhurst municipality was constituted on 24 April 1855, and the name was retained with subsequent proclamations as a borough (11 September 1863) and a city (21 July 1871). The name was not limited to the municipality as there was a Sandhurst newspaper. However the founding name Bendigo, was kept up with the Old Bendigonians Society (1871).
In 1891 a local campaign began for the city’s name to be changed from Sandhurst to Bendigo partly motivated by a belief that the name so long associated with gold would attract British investment. A poll of all residents was decisive and the change affirmed (1,515 in favour and only 267 against) and the city’s name chmaged to Bendigo on 8 May 1891. ‘Sandhurst’ continues to be the name of the diocese, the football club and numerous local businesses.
Before relaying information concerning Bendigo tracks it is pertinent to comment on the impact of the discovery of gold and gold mining in the Bendigo area and how it affected the Epsom racecourse in Bendigo. During the period from October 1855 onwards attempts were made to force a move from the original Epsom course so that digging for gold could take place on the racecourse reserve. The Bendigo Advertiser reported on 19 June 1863 that a party of gold miners “rushed a large share of the ground between the main road and the railway line within the enclosure”.
On 20 June 1863 the Advertiser reported “That the meeting, being convinced of the existence of gold on that part of the Racecourse Reserve lying between the main road and the line of railway, determine to seek permission from the proper parties for the pubic to mine upon the same”. Only trifling amounts of gold was found or mined. The ultimate outcome of this situation was that in December 1864 formation of a new Epsom racecourse located contiguous to the old course and incorporating some of the old site. Enough said that having the railway line intersect the first course or having it dug up by those prospecting for gold was not ideal.
The Epsom grass thoroughbred racecourse opened on 18 April 1854. The ten furlong track was to host its last harness race on 27 January 1954 prior to the opening of Lords Raceway. A lot of water was to pass under this particular bridge in the intervening one hundred years as Epsom is an outlying northern suburb of Bendigo on the Midland Highway. It adjoins the White Hills district of Bendigo with both places first mined for gold during the 1850s.
Epsom was likely named after the horse racing town of Epsom Downs in Surrey, England. When the railway line was later built north of Bendigo, the area separated from Epsom by the line was named Ascot, another famous English horse racing location.
In 1855 the first trotting races were held at a new club that emerged in the Myer’s Flat area. The club held a two day meeting on Thursday/Friday 15/16 November. The track was located adjacent to where the Allies Hotel is now located. The trotting match over twelve furlongs (1½m) was won by Mr Tennant’s Bobby who defeated Mr Brown’s “horse”. A trotting race contested by a field of four for £20 was won by Dickson’s Tomboy.
Among the organised trotting matches conducted in 1856 on the main road were :
- a match from the Glasgow Arms hotel Kangaroo Flat, to the Black Swan hotel Sandhurst (Bendigo) for £100 a side
- on the Epsom Road on Thursday 18 September 1856 over a distance of two miles, Dr Vetts Beauty defeated Mr Wiliams Bully after both horses broke requiring them to be turned around. It was Bully who broke several times, turned frequently and being distanced his rider gave up the race ensuring Beauty’s victory
On 15 September 1858 the Australian Harness Racing Council files list a match race over four miles on the McIvor racecourse (Heathcote, 45kms from Bendigo) for the glittering prize of £650 (2020 equivalent of $110,869). The clash between Kettle’s Rambler (rider : owner at eleven stone) and Roberts’ Old Joe (rider : Wilson at eleven stone four pounds) resulted in Rambler winning by two lengths in a time of sixteen minutes thirty one seconds.
In September 1858 at Epsom, Mr Rankin’s Spider (rider : Kettle) time trialled twice over the mile distance, the first in four minutes and the second in three minutes twenty four seconds, the first official Australian trotters mile record. A month later at Epsom, a match race between Mr Keighrans’ Waggoner and Mr Rankin’s trotter Lark saw Waggoner victorious over the three circuits of the Epsom track.
In addition to match racing on the roads, trotting started at thoroughbred race meetings held at the new Bendigo Jockey Club course (Epsom), about three miles from Sandhurst. On 29 January 1859 a four mile event was won by Warren’s Long Tom from Tommy and two others. On 29 November 1859 unofficial trotting matches took place after the last galloping race and then six months later on 10 May 1860, a three heat trotting race, three times round the Epsom track for twenty sovereigns was one of the races on the day’s card. Schellenberger’s Brown Stout (Kettle) won the first, placing second in the remaining two heats to Waites The Maid (G. Smith) who had finished second in the first heat. On 21 December 1860 Schellenberger’s Tommy defeated Bowes mare Dinah in a match race from Kangaroo Flat to Sandhurst. Further trotting races were programmed on the Bendigo Jockey Club programmes in 1861, 1862, 1865 and 1866.
As indicated earlier, a new Epsom racecourse was formed due to the Government taking some of the land of the former course for the Echuca railway line. The Bendigo Advertiser 13 December 1864 reported :
“there seemed at first but little chance of forming a new course, which, with a grand stand and other requisites, was estimated to cost little short of a thousand pounds.
Some of the club……., managed to squeeze some six hundred pounds out of the Government for compensation for taking up their ground for the railway, and with this and the prospect of assistance from the public a new grant of land was obtained contiguous to the old race-course—a portion of it indeed including some of the old site. This has all been fenced in, a splendid course of a little over a mile in length formed, and the greater portion of the timber within the fence removed. The grand stand has been erected by Mr. Ross—from a design and plans furnished gratuitously by Mr. Barry, of the firm of Collier, Barry and Co…….
The new building, which looks as permanent as if the designer expected generations to come would patronise it, is 100 feet long by 90 feet in breadth. It has accommodation alone for 1,000 persons, comfortably seated, who will be protected from the summer sun by a shingle roof, instead of canvas, as is sometimes used for such a purpose. A portion of the sitting accommodation will be reserved at higher prices, although in all parts a comfortable seat will be afforded to visitors. Underneath is a bar of the same length as the building, which will, during the days of the races be occupied by Mr. Crowe, of the British Queen Hotel At one side of the stand—and not at its rear, as was the case on the old course—is the saddling paddock of four acres in extent, and at one of its corners is the judge’s chair. The paddock is closely fenced in from the general public, in order to prevent any rush or confusion after the race, when the jockeys are going to the weighing room; the latter, together with a large private room for the steward, being attached to the Grand Stand.”
Following the victory of Archimedes in a £50 trot at Bendigo in August 1865, the “Great Trotting Match” race over four miles was run in front of a crowd of 600 at the Epsom track between Archimedes (winner) and Magic.
Sir William Don went a record mile rate of 2:43.3 for four miles at Ballarat in 1866 and two months later at Epsom won again over four miles pacing the first mile in 2:50, the first two miles in 5:34 and the first three miles in 8:22, all new Australian records.
In May 1867 Sir William Don from 600 yds behind handicap over three miles, covered the first mile in a sensational 2:25.0 (Australian record, 7½ seconds outside Pocahontas’s world record of 2:17½ set on the Union Course, New York on 21 June 1855), second mile in 2:37.0 (Australian record) while the third mile was not timed. His 2:25.0 mile made him the thirteenth fastest pacer in the world at that time. His 2:25.0 time was not equalled by a pacer or trotter for nearly thirty years and his two mile split time of five minutes two seconds stood for a quarter of a century.
In 1867, only 16 years after the discovery of gold had transformed Sandhurst (Bendigo) from a pastoral run into a booming town, trotting races became a fixture for over eighty years on Bendigo Jockey Club programmes at Epsom Racecourse. Often on the same card as the Bendigo Galloping Cup, in the 80 years between 1867 and 1947 harness horses raced for significant prize money, some ridden, others driven, in the 195 editions conducted of the Bendigo Jockey Club Open (some years not run). Sir William Don was the winner of the inaugural contest in 1867.
For a period in the 1870s, the Bendigo Jockey Club (BJC) Open vied with races at Ballarat and Geelong as the state’s richest harness race. The three clubs often offered stakes equal to or exceeding those available in Melbourne. In 1873-74 the BJC Open was the third richest race after Geelong and Ballarat. However, in seasons 1874-75, ‘75-76, ‘76-77, ‘77-78 and ‘78-79 it became the richest harness race in Victoria.
The prize of fifty one sovereigns in season 1874/75 would be worth about $12,000 in 2020 dollars, while the June edition of the 1877 race had a prize of sixty four sovereigns and a gold cup valued at twenty guineas (in 2020 dollars this would equate to a total of over $21,000). The Bendigo Jockey Club Open handicap was the longest running grass track harness race in Australian racing history.
In 1873, the Bendigo Jockey Club converted the Bendigo Racecourse to left hand running and the grandstand which stood on the opposite side of the course was replaced by a new structure. This stand was replaced in November 1902 by the stand that still graces the Bendigo Turf course to this day.
On 2 December 1875 P Dixon’s Tom Sayers conceded the longest handicap in a race – 1000 yds at Bendigo. Tom Sawyers was placed fourth in a field of seven in the 12 furlong event won by J Weddell’s Teviot (front mark of 1000 yds), J Hanley’s John Brown was second (300 yds) with A Thunder’s Jack Spratt (450 yds) third.
Epsom in Sandhurst was the venue for an unusual match race in July 1876 where both horses contested three heats – first over three miles, second over four miles and the last over five miles. With a crowd of over 3,000 patrons at the Epsom course, the winner of the £200 a side contest was the horse winning the most heats. In the first heat under sulky, Teviot of Sandhurst defeated Alice May (Castlemaine) easily in 9:06.0; Alice May was ridden in the second heat over four miles which she won in 11:40.0 and carrying Paddy Bell with twelve stone seven pounds on her back she surprised in thrashing Teviot in the five mile heat in 15:52.0. The two combatants met again on 29 November 1876 at Epsom with Alice May successful in two of three heats over twelve furlongs. Teviot placed third in a three mile event the same day (Alice May unplaced) and the following day the same result occurred again.
In 1879 a forty sovereign race with twenty five guinea Cup at Epsom attracted some good contestants which fuelled the desire for a trotting club to be formed. In June 1882 at Epsom, possibly the best field ever assembled in country Victoria in the nineteenth century contested a forty sovereign three mile trot. The field included colonial champion Wanderer (winner), imported American stallion Contractor, country pony star Frederick The Great and 4yo mare Fright, winner of the inaugural event at Elsternwick Park, Melbourne.
Wanderer, winner Bendigo JC Open 1877 and 1882
A meeting at Henry Burridge’s Beehive Hotel on 26 September 1882 where details for the inaugural Sandhurst Trotting Club meeting were discussed and in November 1882 the Sandhurst Trotting Club was formed. It was the second Victorian country trotting club after Ballarat and Cesswick (1861). The one mile dirt trotting track built inside the Bendigo Jockey Club steeplechase course at Epsom was country Australia’s first (outside metropolitan areas) purpose built trotting track. Two months later on Wednesday 24 January 1883, the newly formed Sandhurst Trotting Club conducted its initial meeting. The Sandhurst Trotting Club rented the Epsom course for their meetings, having to juggle dates around the thoroughbred racing calendar, it is believed that the fee for hiring each day was £25.
Epsom racecourse, laid out in 1883, mile dirt track, 1930’s photo
There were over 2000 in attendance with four races programmed although only three were conducted (one of three heats). There was a fair attendance of bookmakers from Melbourne, a special train having been placed at their disposal. The races run were :
- Trotting Purse of fifty sovereigns (first £40, second £10 10s, best of three mile heats in five – for horses that had never beaten three minutes in saddle or harness. T Pitman’s three year old Dick (sulky) won all three heats while Dick Goldsborough was runner up on all three occasions
- Walter Scott Stakes (mares only) with the winner to receive entrance fees. The service (s) to Walter Scott only applied if a time of three minutes ten seconds for the mile was achieved. The winner, R McConnachie’s Dinah (sulky) recorded three minutes thirty seconds
- Sweepstakes of £2 10s for local horses over two miles. Mr S Lazarus’s Dick (sulky) was she winner in six minutes thirty seven seconds
Carded as the main event for a purse of 75 sovereigns (best three in five) for such horses able to complete the mile in between two minutes forty seconds to two minutes forty six seconds, did not take place. Only Brown Hawk had been entered to trot in wagon, owing to having broken 2 minutes 46 seconds while Contractor and Von Moltke Jnr were to race in sulkies. The owners protested and as there were no other wagons on the course but the one mentioned, the event had to fall through much to the disgust of those present. In its place, exhibitions by Captain Dearborn, Contractor and Brown Hawk trotting over two miles while Von Moltke Jnr trotted several short distances occurred.
The Sandhurst Trotting Club members held regular Wednesday afternoon social meetings to time trial and match race their horses. Another full trotting meeting was not held until Wednesday 5 August 1885 (postponed from 29 July) with a Handicap Selling Trot; Handicap Trot; Sweepstake and Handicap Ladies Bracelet. This proved to be the last ever meeting held by the Sandhurst Trotting Club. The Bendigo Jockey Club continued to program a trotting race on their racing programmes and in the period 1878-1888, scheduled one a year four times and twice a year five times.
By 1888, harness racing was conducted on at least eight tracks in the Bendigo area including the one mile Marong racecourse, Raywood, Strathfieldsaye, Goornong, Runnymede and Axedale (now the golf course). There were six dates at the Myer’s Flat racecourse and four at neighbouring Marong. Special trains for patrons and horses with their trainers and drivers ran to these venues as they were both adjacent to railway stations. In the period between 1890 -1940 twenty nine district tracks were raced on with most being dual code gallop and trotting or picnic meetings. By 1898 there was harness racing in the Bendigo area at Sebastian, Fosterville, Raywood, Knowsley, Kamarooka, Lockwood, Muskerry, Myers Flat, Goornong, Elmore, Bendigo Jockey Club racecourse at Epsom and Jubilee Park, Bendigo (see below).
In 1891 the Bendigo Racing Club held its first meeting at the seven furlong, one hundred yard straight South Atlas Racecourse, McIvor Road. Situated three miles from central Bendigo on the road to Heathcote (now McIvor Highway) at the South Atlas Hotel, the new race track provided for thoroughbred, trotting and pony racing. The South Atlas Hotel owned by the Colin Brothers was located just to the west of where Lord’s Raceway was built in 1954.
The Bendigo Advertiser reported on 12 March 1895 that the South Atlas Hotel burned down while the racecourse grandstand was saved. “Yesterday afternoon between 2 and 3 o’clock, a fire occurred at the South Atlas Hotel on the McIvor Road. The licensee Mrs. Spittle detected the smell of something burning, and saw smoke issuing from the hotel. In the meantime a man named Samuel Diamond, who is employed at the premises, returned from Bendigo, and with the aid of a young man, he cut away a portion of the fencing which encloses the grandstand at the South Atlas Racecourse, and thus prevented the fire extending further in that direction. In the absence of water it was impossible to save the main building which was totally destroyed, only the bare brick walls remaining. A temporary shed adjoining, used as a bar when races are held on the course, was also consumed”.
During 1897 to commemorate the 60th anniversary (Diamond Jubilee) of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne, the South Atlas Hotel was renamed The Jubilee Hotel and the racecourse changed its name to Jubilee Park. There were a number of clubs that conducted harness racing at the South Atlas Racecourse/Jubilee Park track including Bendigo Racing Club, Bendigo and Eaglehawk Driving Club, Sandhurst Driving Club and the short lived Golden City Racing Club. The inaugural race meeting of the Golden City Racing Club at the South Atlas/Jubilee Park racecourse on 9 June 1897, included the Tradesman’s Trot over two miles which H Reeds mare Florat (Reed) won in a time of five minutes thirty eight and a half seconds.
The short lived Miners Amateur Race Club held its inaugural meeting on the Jubilee Park course on 21 January 1903 with a mixed programme of racing. Of the five events, Mr H McGowan’s Marvell won the mile and half Tradesmen’s Trot from Phyllis while the two mile Open Trot winner was hot favourite Flora from Sultan and Integrity. The Jubilee Hotel was delicenced in 1907 and races on the Jubilee Park track discontinued with the last meeting held during 1916.
The annual Bendigo Agricultural Show staged every October catered for harness horses with the show society including them in judging rings, scheduled Time Tests (one mile against the clock) and programmed non-betting harness races. The horse and high wheel sulky races around the tiny track with four laps to the mile were conducted at what is now Tom Flood Sports Centre. In October 1898 champion racehorse and sire Osterley came from Truganina Stud at Werribee and was driven by his wealthy owner John Robertson at the Show.
Next Time : Bendigo part two
Peter Craig
11 August 2021
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
