Bendigo Harness Museum News & Historical and Breeding Articles by Noel Ridge

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It is past time to gather Noel's fantastic research pieces together.
Here is a link to his latest on the Adelaide Hills Stud Huntly (Bendigo) home of Directway and others

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-the-man-behind-the-stud-farm/

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More compulsory reading from Noel

Belmont Stud's Grand history

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/belmont-studs-grand-history-shared-ahead-of-hall-of-fame/

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This is going to be a fantastic but long read so I am adding here so that I can find it easily when I have the time to read it at my leisure

Trots History: The Bendigo Jockey Club Open - Part One

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-the-bendigo-jockey-club-open-part-one/

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This is going to be a fantastic but long read so I am adding here so that I can find it easily when I have the time to read it at my leisure

Trots History: The Bendigo Jockey Club Open - Part One

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-the-bendigo-jockey-club-open-part-one/

Thanks Kev. Believe it or not this series of races ..80 years and 201 editions is the longest running race on grass tracks in Australia. I was hoping that it would be Australasi ( hence Southern Hemisphere) , but Peter Craig in NZ assures me that tracks like Methven and Winton have always raced on grass, and a look on www.classicfamilies.net confirms that.

It's wordy, but we've all got plenty of time for a read !

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Trots History: Bendigo Jockey Club Open (part 2) - Boom times

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-the-bendigo-jockey-club-open-part-2-boom-times/

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Trots History: Bendigo Jockey Club Open (part 3) - Hall of Famers

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-bendigo-jockey-club-open-part-3-hall-of-famers-to-the-fore/

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Trots History: Bendigo Jockey Club Open (part 4) - The final quarter

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/trots-history-bendigo-jockey-club-part-4-the-final-quarter/

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Noel's analysis of the breeding of the Twelve 2020 Vicbred Winners is a most interesting and easy read (Table)

https://thebarn.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/twelve-vicbred-winners-twelve-different-families/

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The two youngest families from the table may not seem to have the credits that some of the others have but

20 distinct classic winners for the N235 family that Always Ready comes from, may not seem like many
however 6 of them have been Gp1 winning trotters from just the last 20yrs and they have won 20 Gp1's so far
Sundons Gift won 9 and Let Me Thru 6
All 6 trace to Landoras Pride (1979) who won 3 Gp1's herself

The same with Banglez's A63 family. Although they have only had 21 distinct classic winners
6 of them have been Gp1 winning trotters from just the last 20yrs
5 of them tracing to Fionas Flair (1986) who was a Gp2 winner herself

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A new treasure to see at the Museum - if you call 1886 new!

The pic is only the cover - I cannot show you everything ;)

(Excuse the pic quality, the pic Noel sent me looked fantastic but the forum has download limitations)

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A new treasure to see at the Museum - if you call 1886 new!

The pic is only the cover - I cannot show you everything ;)

(Excuse the pic quality, the pic Noel sent me looked fantastic but the forum has download limitations)

This latest gem came from Perth, where retirees were downsizing assisted by their niece. The card went west with ancestors when they moved from Ballarat to WA in the 1890s. The card belonged to Wm Bennett, who we think raced trotters at that time.

The Victorian Trotting Club Membership Card is for Elsternwick Park, Australia’s first purpose built trotting track , and was headed fro the bin. Luckily, the niece spotted it’s historic value and used Google to find the current Victoria Harness Racing Club, and called.
it was then passed on to us at Bendigo.
It is a real treasure !

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Sunday week is the Centenary of the first Boort Cup and Noel has penned this

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A Walk Through Time: The House That Glideaway Built

https://thebarn.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/a-walk-in-history-the-house-that-glideaway-built/

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A great piece of research from Noel (Adaptor)

The Age, Friday 16 August 1929

BENDIGO, Thursday. While taking two horses from the stable of "D.George" to Bendigo Racecourse today, H. Storey a well-known trotting driver had a nar-row escape from serious injury. Storey was driving Tennessee Direct in
a sulky and leading Diana Wood. As he entered the outside enclosure of the course Tennessee Direct swerved suddenly causing the sulky to capsize. Diana Wood immediately broke away and Tennessee Direct bolted. Storey's raincoat having been caught in a wheel of the sulky he was dragged helplessly along the ground in a perilous position. Before reaching the main entrance gates the sulky struck several trees. Galloping through the gates Tennessee Direct careered along the road towards the railway crossing, about a quarter of a mile from the course, where Constable Naughton made a plucky attempt to stop the runaway. He was knocked over and landed in a pool of mud on the roadside. Railway employees who were on duty at the crossing managed to stop Tennessee Direct and to release Storey who was found to be little the worse for his exciting experience. Later in the afternoon Storey drove in the Handicap Trot at the Bendigo Jockey Club's meeting. Both Tennessee Direct and Diana Wood competed in the race.



Had Tennessee Direct come to grief, there would have been no Adaptor as he sired her 2nd dam

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HOW GOOD IS THIS!
From Noel
With the guidance of an expert and help of 6 BHRC club volunteers and amazing equipment..2 DSLR cameras, light boxes, backing screens, a mannikin, and computer, we were able to digitize all the colours, trophies, sulkies, and much more.
We received the USB of the images of ...all 32 GB last week, and will slowly add these to the site. There are 344 items on the site so far.

https://victoriancollections.net.au/collections?enable-tuning=false&q=harness+racing

In case you forget where to find this link, just think Victorian Collections and do a search for harness racing (or Bookmark the above link)

Absolutely fabulous Bendigo team

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Noel and the team have been busy digitalizing the collection and there is lot more online for you to look at now
The racing colours look brilliant
If you forget the link above just google
'Victorian Collections Harness Racing Bendigo'

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The impact of seven Adelaide Hills (Huntly, Bendigo) sires from 100yrs ago (written by Noel)

https://hbv.org.au/news/adelaide-hills

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About the Allen family (and much more)

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/articles/harness-history-how-the-allens-from-glenloth-reshaped-the-trots/

Once you start reading this, you won't stop - more brilliant work by Noel

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Noel has just been telling me about a recent addition to the Museum - what a treasure!

Annastere's 1972 Victoria Derby and Oaks winning trophies and sashes etc.
Hers may be the last time that a filly wins both especially when you consider that this year the Derby and Oaks were on the same night!
When Annastere completed the double, the races were a month apart which gave the owners of a champion filly the option to tackle both, although they had to be adventurous as the Derby was first.

I may have been at the Showgrounds those nights as 1972 was around the peak of my teenage attendance years. I cannot say I remember Annastere (that is a bit of a worry lol) but I certainly remember Neville Welsh (2012 Rothacker Medallist) and other winners at those meets like Bold David, Gallagher, Valencia Bay

Rob Auber initiated an interesting discussion on TrotsVision the other week as to whether some races should combine the sexes for a greater prize pool (particularly 2yo's I think). The Museum's new treasure makes we wonder whether we shouldn't at least be giving fillies the opportunity to compete in the Derby


PS funding has been approved to renovate the museums existing spaces into one - complete with painting, shelving, and museum quality moveable display cabinets

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I found a pic of Annastere in the 1972 Year Book which states underneath that she was the first to win the Derby-Oaks double since Argent in 1956. So it has been 50yrs since it was done and only twice in 66yrs

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I found a pic of Annastere in the 1972 Year Book which states underneath that she was the first to win the Derby-Oaks double since Argent in 1956. So it has been 50yrs since it was done and only twice in 66yrs

I was there for both her wins, driven by Neville Welsh and trained by Johnny Collins.

NZ has gone the same way with the Derby and Oaks on the same meeting in December. Amazing Dream will most certainly be the last Oaks / Derby double winner, albeit the Northern Oaks and Derby in 2020.

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I found a pic of Annastere in the 1972 Year Book which states underneath that she was the first to win the Derby-Oaks double since Argent in 1956. So it has been 50yrs since it was done and only twice in 66yrs

Argent stands alone, having completed the double in Vic AND NSW. What a filly! Of course she went on to leave top racehorses and successful sires Gyro, Gyration and Sperry.