Quote Originally Posted by PremiumEdition View Post
Nice to hear from you Noel, your note on Jimmy Brocks win on Violoncello reminds me of a horse named Mad Hatter who won at cricket score odds in a Qualifying Stakes driven by Les Turner,
a mate of mine who is still in the game, Peter Robertson purchased the horse from a bloke named "Scotty" McDonald, back to Jim Brock he also had a horse called Teleceles who I think may have won a Geelong Cup at the old Geelong track on Portarlington Rd.
You mentioned Alphalite, yes a brilliant pacer, I actually backed him in the 1974 Vic Derby after a great effort in the heat previous.

I saw in a link regarding old tracks about a track in Kensington owned by WF Cox can you give me more information about that please Noel.

Regards
Bob
Bob:
William Samuel Cox (1831-95) opened his first venture, Kensington Park Racecourse, in 1874, and it operated with considerable success until 1882. Cox took pains to ensure that the racing was honest and to offer sufficient prizemoney to attract a good class of horse. He also had a flair for timing, and he secured an October meeting on the Saturday before the VRC Derby, which remains today as the meeting at which the Cox Plate and Moonee Valley Cup are run.

Looking for a larger property Cox bought land at nearby Moonee Valley, and opened his new racecourse there in 1883. When Samuel Cox died in 1895, his son A.H. Cox, one of the first VRC stipendiary stewards and an acknowledged expert on racing, took over as Secretary of the private Moonee Valley Racing Club. \\V

Private entrepreneurs also developed racecourses. Croxton Park in Northcote opened as a proprietary track in 1869, was not successful and closed in 1873. W.S. Cox, however, established a successful career based on his courses at Kensington Park (1874), Brighton Park and Elsternwick (1882) and the new and larger Moonee Valley in 1883. Other proprietary racecourses opened at Oakleigh Park (1888, renamed Sandown Park in 1892), Mordialloc, Mentone (1888), Epsom (1889), Maribyrnong and Aspendale (1891) and pony tracks at Thornbury (called Fitzroy), Oakleigh (1891) and Ascot (1893).
Cheers,
Noel