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1858 : The Sport of Kings in Preston |
Preston has a long history of involvement with many sports, but horse racing is not one that many people would associate with our area. But there were a couple of attempts to establish the sport in the area, the most promising of which came at Thomastown in the late 1880s .... |
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The first two hotels in the Preston area were the Shamrock in Plenty Road, just north of Tyler Street (1852), and the Preston Alms in High street on the site where today's Preston Hotel now stands.
The latter was built in 1853 by Edward Poole and later was transferred to Henry Plummer. Under Plummer's patronage, the hotel became part of the site for Preston's only racetrack.
"Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle", the main sporting paper of the day, advertised a four race program on August 21, 1858; the events being :
The Butcher's Purse (of 25 sovereigns, with a sweepstake of 2
sovs. added, for horses the bona fide property of wholesale or retail butchers,
one and a half miles with heats).
The Farmer's
Gift Steeplechase (of 40 sovs with a sweepstake of 3 sovs. each added), for all
horses, for three and a half miles (less or more) of fair hunting country.
The Hie-Over Scurry (of 20 sovs. with a sweep
of 1 sov. added, over such distance and jumps as may be pointed out, for all
horses that have not entered for the Farmers Gift)
The Hack Race
(For a purse of 10 sovs., with a sweepstake of 1 sov. added. The winner to be
sold for £40 and any balance to go to the
funds).
The day must have proved popular as the reports after the meeting included another race, "The Flat Scurry", for a purse of 20 sovereigns. The "sweep" was effectively an entry fee added to the advertised prize money. A "scurry" was a sprint race and the word is believed to be adapted from "hurry-scurry", an old English expression meaning "to hurry along".
Just why there was a race restricted horses owned by butchers is a a mystery, and the fate of the Mr. Burkett's six year old mare "Jenny" can only be guessed at as she was tailed off in both heats!!
When advertising the meeting, "Bell's Life" noted "the entries for these country races this afternoon are satisfactory in both number and quality. The course laid out at Preston is a pretty one and will someday be a favourite tryst". and when reporting the results, added :
"The first meeting on the racecourse laid out at Preston, a village about seven miles from town took place on Saturday and was fairly attended" "The course is very pleasantly situated commanding a fine view of the surrounding country. The straight run in is up a tolerably steep hill and is decidedly trying coming as it does at the end of a long race. "
"The fences in the steeple-chase ground are none of them light and the jump in and out of the road would not be considered a trivial affair on much more pretentious courses".
Just whether he was a local resident isn't known, but the organizers of the meeting were lucky to have George Watson acting as the starter. Watson was the Master of Hounds for the Melbourne Hunt Club and in later years went on to become the official starter at Flemington in the days when the position required a great deal of judgment with the big fields and open strand rope barriers. One of Watson's horses, "Seventy-Four" won the Farmer's Gift steeplechase at the Preston meeting and he was also prominent in coursing and dog racing circles in later years.
Despite the apparent success of the meeting, it was to be several years before the Sport of Kings returned to Preston.
April 27 1867 also saw another race meeting at Preston, with six races advertised, the meeting having been postponed ... "the affairs were to have been cnducted on the preceding Saturday, but Father Pluvius was having a day out and consequently the residents of Preston wisely decided to have a day in."
The meeting appears to have been held at roughly the same site as the earlier meeting. One of the stewards appointed for the meeting was a Mr. Wood, but whether this was Edward Wood, one of the district's leading traders, is not known.
The grounds around the Preston Arms were used by many of Preston's earliest sporting groups, and even after Preston Park in Cramer Street became well-established, the hotel played host to junior teams like Preston Star, who effectively acted as Preston's seconds side during the 1890s.
At the time of the earlier Preston meeting, there was also a racecourse at Heidelberg (although sometimes referred to as Ivanhoe), and by the mid-1860's, meetings were being in Croxton Park, behind the hotel of the same name. The Croxton track at the time was a little over 600 metres, the course proper being supplemented with a steeplechase course through the open paddocks.
The remaining section immediately behind the hotel was used from the late 1890's through to around 1920 as a track for ponies, trotters, and dogs of varios breeds, as well as for football and athletics. The Northcote V.F.A. team played there until 1915 when they were ordered by the V.F.A. to shift to Westgarth Street.
Race meetings were also held at Thomastown in the 1860s and regular meetings were revived in the 1880s. The Thomastown racecourse was on a level 40 acre property adjoining McCoy's Belmont Hotel.
The Northcote Leader once remarked "… the course is about 10 miles from Melbourne and the Exhibition Buildings are plainly visible. The celebrated Preston Heights Estate is close by".
Many regarded the course as one of the finest outside of the then Melbourne metropolitan area. Operations were restricted when the Victoria Racing Club in an attempt to control the activities of the many suburban courses around Melbourne ruled that no race worth under £400 could be run under V.R.C. rules within 10 miles of the G.P.O. In the case of the Thomastown course, the location was marginal, and the V.R.C. subsequently extended its monopoly to a 20 mile radius of Melbourne.
The restriction meant that no "licensed" person (jockey, trainer or bookmaker) could participate under the threat of being barred from the lucrative Melbourne meetings controlled by the Club. The V.R.C. at one point resorted to using private detectives to visit suburban courses and report on any licensed persons in attendance.
As well as Croxton Park, Northcote also boasted the John Wren-controlled Fitzroy racecourse, which despite its name was in St. George's Road, Northcote, just south of Arthurton Road. The course was one of Melbourne's favourite unofficial pony tracks, races being restricted to horses of under 14 hands.
Fitzroy closed down in 1921 after a crack-down by the State Government and the V.R.C. on privately-owned courses, but the area in the middle of the track was used for football up until the site's redevelopment in 1941.
Around the turn of the century, an ambitious plan launched by Penders Grove Estate Company was to establish a major racetrack in Thornbury with amenities the equal of the existing major tracks, but the venture never got past the paper stage before major economic depression saw the land boom in Melbourne burst.
Preston still retained a link with the sport of Kings as late as 1920, when a little-known club called the Preston and Metropolitan Racing Club held meetings at Kyneton.
"Last Saturday being a holiday a large party of the sporting fraternity mustered at Preston, the country folk in that quarter having got up a day's racing. The affairs were to have been conducted on the preceding Saturday, but Father Pluvius was having a day out and consequently the residents of Preston wisely decided to have a day in."
"About twelve, preparations were made for a start and "Now then, who's for the races" was reiterated by a host of cabbies outside the Albion, the headquarters of the racing lot."
"The entries as they appeared in the papers were good and turned many heading to the regatta on the Saltwater River to thoughts instead to the Yan Yean, on which road, about seven miles from town the hamlet of Preston is situate ... the well laid course was reached after a drive at about 14 miles per hour ..."
'Peeping Tom', The Australasian, February 12, 1870
"… cool days are the exception this summer and racing with the thermometer at 140 degrees is following amusement under difficulty and the scorching sun rendered Croxton Park decidedly hot."
"The Croxton Park hostelry formerly known as the Red House lies about four miles out of town on the road to Preston and the racecourse at the back of the premises is in a truly rural part of the country."
"The easy mode of transport by 'bus or cab ought to have made it a favourite resort of the public, but somehow it has not received the patronage which its well-appointed appurtenances and good management desire and I am afraid that the speculation has not turned out sufficiently remunerative to encourage the proprietors to continue their pleasant holiday gatherings".
"... arriving some time before the business of the afternoon, I had a stroll among the Brahma-pootras, Dorking and other game fowls imported by the proprietor and what a fine lot of birds they are. I was somewhat astonished at the prices paid for young chicks and imagine fowl breeding is not a bad little game …"
"Peeping Tom", The Australasian, February 19 1870
1865 The Irishtown Grand National Steeplechase
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