I recently was made aware that the oldest horse-racing meeting still being held in the state is the Apsley event.
Now held at the lovely Edenhope course, the race was first conducted in 1855 when local people formed the club and the races were held at Apsley, with the finishing post at Joseph Botterill’s “Border Inn” hotel.
As with our own Rainbow publicans of the 1900s and 1920s, Botterill was a generous sponsor of the early Apsley meetings, 50 years or so before ours.
Our Rainbow events flourished annually for some years on the course to the west of the town.
The keenly-contested Rainbow Cup first up for the taking in 1907, and went to the rather inaptly-named “Slow Tom”, owned by J. Cordner.
We have a list of later winners up to 1923 as listed in the February 2 edition of the Argus, however, the full history of our club is yet to be researched.
1907 “Slow Tom” (J.Cordner), 1908 “Abel” (J.Byron), 1909 “Camarilla” (R.Miles), 1910 “The Coil” (H.Jenkins), 1911 “Alavena” (J.Cordner), 1912 “Werringa” (J.L.Gillies), 1913 “Theatre (R.Lambert), 1914 “Miss Merriang” (R.McKenzie), 1915 “Kioth” (A.Beckwith), 1916 -1917 “Merri Bridge” (J.Cordner), 1918 ”Ptah” (J.Besanko), 1919 “Bidgee Bee” (G.Walliss) 1920 ”Lord Antony” (J.J.Britt), 1921 “Marble Saint” (M.Kennedy), 1922 “Stockton” (A.N.McArthur), 1923 “Epistle” (J.J.Britt).
No doubt there were controversies like the situation which took place at Apsley in 1871, though hopefully less vigorous.
The story goes that winning jockey John Brewer “was pulled off his horse and attacked by racegoers from Naracoorte who had placed their money on the beaten favourite.”
No racing club can operate without a core of hard-working stalwarts who are prepared to put in time, money, inventiveness, versatility and sheer hard work.
They must include among them people with a vast array of skills: accounting, knowledge of rules and conditions, green-fingers, builders, public relations expertise, ability to seek sponsorship, etc.
Sound familiar? It will indeed be understood by the current crop of leaders and helpers in all of our stretched volunteer organisations.
Today’s photograph, the original being from Dexter West, is of our club leaders from around 1920.
Back: Bruce Tonkin, Jack Riby, Bert Williamson, Arthur West, James Fisher, Tom Livingston, Jack McDonald, Wally Fischer
Front: Joe Wishart, Tom Raggatt (Judge), Ern Raggatt, Arthur Beckwith, Tom Mellington, and either Dave Inness or John Hardingham
Here we see the secretary’s thatched office behind, a banner advertising the coming Murtoa event, the standard boot footwear worn by all, the sun smart hats, ID ribbons, and Sunday best suits.
- PETER RALPH
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