Bout 1200 people there. Considering where the town is and its population, pretty amazing turnout. A great day had by all. No one wanted to go home after the last.
Many congratulations to all involved.
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Bout 1200 people there. Considering where the town is and its population, pretty amazing turnout. A great day had by all. No one wanted to go home after the last.
Many congratulations to all involved.
Thanks to the amazing John Peck.
In response to information about Bob Crowe, studmaster of the Adelaide Hill Trotting Stud at Huntly in the early 1900's , he produced the racing records of Larry and Little Larry, both driven by Crowe.
Larry and Little Larry raced at many of our now Ghost Tracks, including this 3 mile race at
Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN 13-06-1883
TROT – 15 sovs – Three miles
R Moortheads BB, 40secs (owner) 2p1
Touchstone, 55secs (owner) 1p2
J Charltons Frederick the Great, 55secs (owner) 3
Others: Kilwarlin, scr (T Jensen), Dick, 25secs (S Lazarus), Black Bess, 25secs (W Gunn), Hector, 65secs (Starr) (sulky), Little Larry, scr (Crowe), Black Jack, 40secs (Rule).
NOTE: Touchstone won by lost race on protest
Margins: Won by neck
There is a half mile training track at Sebastian that is used for training and trialing.
http://mymapstreetview.com/earth/?t2...kaAjcHEALw_wcB
Brave move, seems to have attracted a lot of attention... But they are racing at Wayville
Hope the drivers can count. " And they come into the straight with 4 laps to go..."
http://www.harness.org.au/news-artic...?news_id=33881
https://www.cootamundraherald.com.au...-races/?cs=584
Cootamundra joins the ghost tracks sadly. Kalgoorlie has also had its dates removed next season
:(
A friend recounted driving around the remains of the old Port Albert Racecourse, in south Gippsland when on a golfing trip recently.
Lo and behold, Youtube and Kyle Galley show us that they raced trotters there.
Here's a trot from 2002.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTguoCveDM
Yep, that clip is from 2002, the Tarra Festival each Easter Saturday attracted students and horses from the Gippsland Harness Training Centre and other horsemen for "workouts".
The course was a sand one of 1400 metres and had a rich racing history particularly with other breeds of horses. I called the Mixed Sports Day a couple of times in my early days in late 90s. No trots then though but bookies betting on locals, Melb and interstate, woodchop, rides, food and drink etc. A mini Oakbank in many ways but sadly killed off by insurance and lack of workers.
Port Albert's track is still there, a few gallopers still use it. We used to work horses there when we lived nearby but we found the local roads better for conditioning them and sending them away for race preparations.
Of course, Port Albert Racecourse had other things going against it. The good - the mosquitoes thinned out during the afternoon. The bad - it was the bloody sandflies that drove them away!!!
They raced at Runnymede (south-east of Elmore) as early as 1871.
The patrons and horses were delivered to Elmore by train from Bendigo, then made their way to Runnymede.
The backmarker in the trot, Fan was off 600 yards !!
A 600yd handicap - I hope the track was bigger than 600yds Noel or else he would be giving the outmarker a lap!