Graeme Prosser will wind down from the trots having given so much over 62 years, but he leaves a legacy of triumph and joy that is splashed across the walls of winning owners.
Most recently a photographer at Tabcorp Park Melton, Cranbourne, Geelong and Yarra Valley, Prosser’s involvement in the sport has extended much further.
“I have been involved in horse racing for 62 years as a trainer, driver, farrier and then photographer,” said the 80-year-old from Narre Warren. “I’ve been working for more than 60 years and haven’t really had a break. I never had a holiday, the only time I did was when I was in hospital for a couple of months.”
Tomorrow night’s Empire Stallions Vicbred Super Series semi-finals will be the last time Prosser snaps winning picture portraits for owners at Tabcorp Park Melton. He will finish at Geelong on June 30, but will continue to operate at nearby Cranbourne. It’s an end of an era that began in suitably humble style.
“My interest was sparked during World War II when I lived with my grandparents, because they were from New Zealand and would get the Auckland Weekly sent over and there were pictures of harness racing on the front page,” Prosser said.
“In 1946, after dad had come home from war, he took me and a mate to the show and there was a trotting race on at the Royal Melbourne Show. I came home afterwards and got out a couple of pieces of two-by-four wood and made a little sulky for my fox terrier dog, hooked up some reins and ran around after him.”
In 1954, after Prosser finished his own service with the Army, he and his father, Jack, turned their hands to trots training.
“Dad would have a horse, I would have a horse, and probably there’d be a third, but we didn’t have anything special,” Prosser said. “We only did it as hobby racing.”
They first started training at East Bentleigh, but when a milk truck almost bowled them over it was decided a move to Dingley would provide a quieter life, and there Prosser lived for 45 years.
“We won a few races, nothing special. We didn’t have a top horse, but a couple who won half a dozen races here and there.
“I never really thought I would be without a horse, but when my father died 20 years ago that was it. Dad and I trained and drove horses and as soon as he passed at age 91 I really couldn’t be bothered. It’s something that you need to do with someone else. When you lose you talk about your losses, and when you win it’s a quick trip home together.”
While training and driving had been a pastime, for Prosser working as a farrier had put bread on the table, having shod horses, including Pure Steel, around Cranbourne, with about 70 trainers on his books at one stage.
“I was working seven days a week until I got hurt one day and then I said, ‘that’s it, I’m done with Sundays’,” he said. “There were plenty of kicks, bites, bad backs and knockdowns, you have to wear the hits.
“When you cure a horse’s problem it was gratifying. It was good to see a horse that struggled for their smaller stable and then you help and they win a couple, it makes it all worthwhile.
“I shod horses for a good length of time, including being the course farrier at Moonee Valley for 20 years and at the showgrounds for two or three years before it closed. After 30-odd years I said that’s enough and went on with the photography. I had been doing it at the same time previously, and that’s taken me through to my 80th birthday.”
For the trots lover, initiating Graeme Prosser Photography was a way of staying in the game as well as making a crust, and took more than a little innovation on his part.
“I was teaching myself colour printing. I never had the time to go to school – I was working too much – so I went through the process of learning colour printing and had a terrific darkroom at home. Then it all went to the tip when everything went digital,” he said.
“I also used to sit at home for two nights just doing the calligraphy for the winners’ photos, but I don’t even have a pen now. It’s all done by computer.”
Producing a product that captured an unforgettable moment in time for owners was something he cherished. It’s a role he would later share with Geoff Ampt, who struck up a friendship with Prosser when he photographed the trots at Moonee Valley for The Age.
As the newspaper industry reduced its workforce, Ampt finished with Fairfax and aligned with Prosser’s business, a partnership made all the smoother when Prosser moved across the road.
“He’s here every morning about half past eight, looks at the emails and sorts out those things and has been a tremendous help,” Prosser said. “People have had our pictures and said they have been some of the best they have seen in Australia. We tried to make them unique when the opportunity arose. We tried to do a bit extra.”
Stepping back will bring its challenges, but his legacy will live on in winning moments spread across Victorian living rooms, pool rooms and glitzed up sheds.
“It will be a transition period, but it was the same with giving up the shoeing and training of horses,” Prosser said. “It hasn’t been a spectacular life, but I’m satisfied with it. We’ve done a lot of good work.”
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
