AJC CELEBRATED 150 YEARS OF RACING AT ROYAL RANDWICK.
On the 29th of May this year the Australian Jockey Club celebrated 150 years of racing at Royal Randwick.
There were races held in New South Wales from about 1810 but these were mainly races between officers of the regiment and between those settlers well heeled enough to afford a handy horse. In those early days Hyde Park in Sydney was the venue for racing. The races were held in heats and it was not unusual for a horse to compete in several heats prior to the final. In the straight there was a pole called the distance pole about 240 yards before the finishing line The term 'distanced' fell into the parlance of racing as any horse that was behind the pole when the winner crossed the finishing line was disqualified from later heats.
Horse racing was popular at this time especially in the Hawkesbury region. The first organised meeting was held at the Windsor course in 1829. Our local Hawkesbury Race Club was formed in 1871 and held its first meeting the same year at Clarendon.
With the return of Governor Macquarie to England wowserism stepped in in the form of Governor Brisbane who enforced restrictions on horse racing which sounded the death -knell of racing for three years after which Brisbane returned to England in 1835.
The same year saw the formation of the first Sydney Turf Club (no connection with the present day STC) which held meetings at Bellevue roughly where the Royal Sydney Golf Club, the Bondi Bowling Club and surrounding area now stand. Highjinx at an STC dinner in Sydney brought down the wrath of the new governor, Darling, which led to the demise of the club a few years later.
The formation of the Australian Racing and Jockey Club quickly followed, possibly as a club for members who wished to distance themselves from the STC dinner and the subsequent roll of heads. Race meetings were held at Homebush and Parramatta. Another body was formed called the Australian Race Committee. It held its first meeting at Homebush in 1841. In 1842 this committee decided to call itself The Australian Jockey Club and so the AJC was born.
The future of racing improved with the arrival of Governor Bourke. In 1833 he set aside a parcel of land along the Botany Road (approximately where Anzac Parade now stands) for a racecourse which we now know as Royal Randwick. It was commonly called the Sandy Course on the Botany Road. It was used for training purposes for some time as well as match races as the centre of organised racing remained at Homebush. However the Homebush site by 1859 was becoming uneconomical and public disquiet with the AJC committee meant a rethink resulting in a new committee. This committee decided to up sticks and make its headquarters at Randwick.
The inaugural meeting on the Randwick course was held on 29th May, 1860. This was a three day event attracted crowds of about 10,000 spectarors. Numbers were down on the second day as a result of rain. It might be added that the 150th anniversary meeting also was rain affected, a case of history repeating itself.
The races at Randwick quickly became a social event in the colony. It was not uncommon that on Randwick race days a throng of sightseers would gather outside the Royal Hotel in George Street to witness the cavalcade of horse drawn vehicles accompanied by liveried footmen and coachmen all drawn up outside the hotel waiting to carry the movers and shakers of the town off to the races at Randwick.
As a part of the centenary celebrations in 1960, the Committee of the AJC commissioned Douglas M Barry to review the 150 years of horse-racing in Australia and the AJC's hundred years. The resulting book is called Turf Cavalcade and was published by the AJC. This article has borrowed heavily on the formative years of the AJC as told by Mr Barry. If you can lay your hands on a copy you won't be disappointed with the read.
