Reply With QuoteThe Bega track in southern NSW came alive last Saturday night with Show trotting on the 400 metre main arena.
Here is a video the Bega Show crew took of the night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ubrOkJqV4
I think possibly the board of the time could not comprehend the possibility of such a facility being located on "that" side of town.
Too much individual influence rather than the overall good of the industry as to whether Keysborough (or Keilor) could have set the sport up Melton style decades earlier.
At least it would have been paid off by now. And they lost money on the sale of the land anyway!
The Bega track in southern NSW came alive last Saturday night with Show trotting on the 400 metre main arena.
Here is a video the Bega Show crew took of the night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ubrOkJqV4
Is the Grandstand now at the Junction Oval at St Kilda ?
Although the racecourse at Elsternwick Park did not survive for long, it did hold a unique place in Melbourne’s sporting history as Victoria’s first track dedicated to trotting.
The Australian Trotting Association (later changed to the Victorian Trotting Club) applied in 1881 to Brighton Council for the use of the land at Elsternwick Park, then largely swampland and with little resemblance to the well-preened parklands of today.
The Association was in something of a race with the Australian Trotting Club to establish the first track for trotting, the latter having purchased land in Northcote, the latter’s aims target scuttled when the Railways Department compulsorily acquire their land for part of a planned (but never built) line from Spencer Street to Heidelberg.
The application for the land was initially refused by the Council as they did not believe they had the authority, but later granted after the intervention of the Minister for Lands.
This is believed to have been the first more-or-less permanent trotting track in Australia, but squabbles over the rights and wrong of the park being used in part for racing continued for another decade, the Trotting Club being later denied use of the track.
The matter was finally put to the vote of Brighton ratepayers in September, 1893, the usually conservative district voting nearly four to one in favour of parts of the Park being leased as a racecourse.
After the meetings were abandoned, the Elsternwick Park grandstand was taken down and re-erected at the St. Kilda Cricket Ground (Junction Oval).
Just where in today’s complex the racecourse was situated is uncertain - the cricket ground in the northern section was in use at the time and the likelihood is that the track was the site of today’s golf links.
The first meeting, then known as American trotting was held at Flemington in the early 1860's. Trotting then started at Bocasio Park in Brighton then moved to Elsternwick Park, though there never more than two trots on a programme that included hurdle races, steeplechases and flat races. Trotting events were run at Kensington, the first track owned by the Cox family before they moved to Moonee Valley, and later a short stint at Maribyrnong.
Thanks Kyle,Originally Posted by Amlin
not sure how I haven't seen this until now but that clip from the show race is bloody GOLD mate, 4 laps to the mile...brought back lots of fun memories, this silly game we play is more than fast mile rates on fast tracks, its about people and their horses having fun.. and that clip sure reminded me what this game is really about,
thanks again,
Dan
Speaking of ghost tracks, the biggest of all in Victoria, and perhaps it's biggest moment - which occurred 30 years ago today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNmWtXVr30
It's amazing....just to see how many were there, and compare it to Melton on Saturday night.
Great run in the race from Game Oro !
Richmond, just a short distance from the CBD in Melbourne was the home of trotting early in the 1900s.
Tram to the gate, or walk from the neighborhood.
And the crowd came...
One of the three Ballarat (Vic) tracks ..Miners Racecourse first raced in 1861
Dummy ( Grattan Bells from Florrie C) one of three Bendigo Cup winners in 1924 wins under saddle ridden by Bill Forthington from Horsham, at the Ballarat Miners racecourse.
In the Richmond photo you can see the piano factory in the background which became the soup factory, followed by the television factory, as GTV9. So audiences gathered for one form of entertainment or another in that area for decades!
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