Reply With QuoteThe Showgrounds season until around 1970 finished at the end of May. It was then extended to the end of July, the popularity of the Penthouse Club on Channel 7 may have been a catalyst for that. The new season always opened on the second Saturday of October, which was two weeks after the Royal Melbourne Show closed. The RASV was the landlord and, in reality, the master of the Trotting Control Board. The RASV had two representatives as board members of the TCB to make sure it could dictate to a great degree how the sport was run. The TCB's offices were even rented from the RASV, located in the A.G. Hunter grandstand.
While the two weeks to prepare for the new season's racing always seemed fair enough, you could question the two and a half months required to prepare for the Show. TCB ran a pretty good dining experience (by early '70's standards) in conjunction with Dennis Catering and could cater for up to 2000 patrons. Wouldn't they love to get that many feeding their their faces at Melton? One of the buildings used for functions was the British Tobacco centre. Once the trots season was over it was converted to full-on fag production. No doubt this was solely to educate kiddies about the state's wonderful tobacco growing industry in the Ovens Valley.
Winter meetings at the Melbourne Showgrounds were pretty miserable affairs, both in the quality of horses and weather. The TCB, led by the super promoter Bill Burns, ran VFL football club nights. Participating clubs usually had a "cup" as the feature of the night, usually a 2:20 class front (M2).
They started to race some Saturday night meetings during the off season, I remember going to Shepparton on a few occasions. Midweek racing was pretty light on until Monday afternoon racing was promoted by radio stations 3DB and 3UZ. Kilmore and Cranbourne were clubs still in their infancy in the late 1960's and, along with Stawell, were the backbone of the winter Monday circuit. Hamilton and Ouyen were other daytime clubs that raced on Tuesdays.
The Royal Melbourne Show itself was the starting point for the new season with many events conducted over its nine days and 8 nights. The program included three $500 show penalty free for alls (2:19 or C9 country front). The first and last Saturday nights were mobile miles, the Thursday night (Show Day holiday) race was nine and a half furlongs. With no running rail, the times were never officially recognised but the spectacle of good class horses scampering around the three furlong saucer attracted many new fans.
The best performance over the week I ever saw was Greenwald at the 1974 Show. From memory, he ran 2:02 the first Saturday, then back home to the hamlet of Greenwald (between Heywood and Mount Gambier). He came back on Thursday, rated 2:03, and returned home again. Two days later, back at the Show and he ran 2:01. As a reward, he got to stay at Rockbank that night. It was supposed to be an easy run because he was in at Kilmore on the Monday!
My source of information for the 1971/72 season is the 1971 "The Purple Book of Victorian Trotting" published by the TCB. There just wasn't that much racing then. For the season, Stawell had 6 meetings, Terang 8, Wangaratta 8, Warragul (then a night club) 12, Shepparton 16, St Arnaud 5 (3 non-TAB), Ouyen 7 (4 non-TAB), Mildura 15 (5 non-TAB), Wedderburn 3 non-TAB, Nyah 8 (4 non-TAB), Hamilton 6, Gunbower 1 non-TAB, Geelong 12, Echuca 5, Maryborough 5, Cranbourne 8, Kilmore 7, Healesville 6 (3 non-TAB), Charlton 7 (3 non-TAB), Boort 2 non-TAB, Bendigo 12, Ballarat 12. Ararat did not rate a mention, publishing oversight.
Much simpler times.
Originally Posted by Messenger
