PICNIC racing at Moree, Mallawa and Garah is steeped in history.
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From the moment a mob of grass-fed gallopers paraded at Garah’s inaugural picnic race meeting in 1911 to the modern era that sees bush racing in the region grow from strength to strength, an historic – and interesting – timeline has evolved.
Moree Amateur Picnic Race Club, under the leadership of John “JY” Black, held its inaugural meeting in 1924.
Mallawa Amateur Picnic Race Club, with Robert Garland installed as first president, followed in 1930 at the property Narba.
There is however contemporary evidence that race meetings of sorts were held in the area in the 1920s, also at Narba.
They featured short-course events exceeding no further than four furlongs, similar to “all-height” meetings that were popular – albeit illegal – in the day.
There is even evidence that racing was held at Garah prior to 1911.
The news at the time however was not good for bush racing.
The Melbourne Argus, dated Thursday, May 7, 1908, reported: “George Bonnor was riding at a picnic race meeting at Talmoi, in the Moree district, on Monday last when his horse came into collision with a tree. He sustained frightful injuries to the head, and died in half-an-hour”.
The accident happened on the Talmoi property Noona Vale, owned by Patrick Doran.
Bonnor had already ridden two winners at the meeting and was aiming for three when the accident occurred.
Medical help was summoned to the accident scene and Dr Cane rode 45 miles to assist, however to no avail.
Bonnor had passed away shortly after the fall.
Over the decades, stories and anecdotes have emerged from race meetings at Moree, Mallawa and Talmoi – now fully branded as bush racing’s Golden Triangle – that are worthy of chronicling.
Racing journalist Bill Poulos, instrumental in the reinvention of picnic racing on the Golden Triangle in the modern era, has compiled a timeline of interesting historical events, facts and anecdotes that make up the north-west picnic circuit – tagged “the heart of bush racing in the heart of the country”.
“It’s a work in progress – around 11,000 words at present and growing – and I welcome any information that can be used to ‘fill in the gaps’,” Poulos said.
Thanks to invaluable resources such as the National Library website Trove, old race-books and club journals, and many of the area’s older racing folk who can still “remember when”, the timeline has grown considerably.
“Who knows, maybe one day the concept could be published as a book,” Poulos said.
Former picnic jockey Bruce Hunt, now 89, still recalls with absolute clarity his riding days in the 1940s and 1950s.
Now retired in Moree, Hunt rode 365 winners at picnic meetings across NSW, including Boolooroo Cups at Moree on his own horse Krui (1954) and Rob Gill’s Wathagar in 1955.
He also won Mallawa Bracelets on Plymouth Belle (1949) and Terror Boy (1953).
“Terror Boy was by far the best horse I ever rode,” Hunt said.
“I remember riding at all the picnic meetings, including Croppa Creek before the track was closed down when the property it was on changed hands.
“There were a lot of good riders around in those days. Blokes like Bobby Mackay, Charlie Carrigan and Rob Gill . . . they could all ride,” he said.
Mackay partnered tough old gelding Mulgate, arguably the best picnicker to ever race on the Golden Triangle.
From 1958, Mulgate, owned by sisters Geraldene and Anne Moore, won four Boolooroo Cups at Moree and four Mallawa Cups.
Mackay, who rode 960 winners on the picnic circuit before retiring in the 1970s, says Mulgate was a good weight carrier.
“Mulgate was a good horse, and won a fair few races – and won them easily with big weights,” Mackay said.
“He was always up there and close to the speed.
“He was never far away and was a reasonably big horse – a good, solid horse with a real good turn of foot.”
Other great picnickers like Thalaba, Rich Lord, Luluai, Blue Blood, Campanella Tale, Clarebong, Lanthe, Orontes Pride and, in more recent years, Sahara Bounty, War on Everything, Garland Prince, Port and Brandy, Tapakeg and Mountain Brew, figure strongly in Golden Triangle history.
Doping allegations in the late 1930s and an accidental ring-in in 2007 – averted before the field jumped away – are just some of the colourful stories to emerge from a picnic racing carnival that has stood the test of time.
“It is an incredibly amazing era of bush racing in the Moree district with many interesting anecdotes,” Poulos said.
“And some pretty interesting moments have occurred in the modern era as well.
“In 2009, trainer Stuart Phegan won the Talmoi Bracelet with a big, grey horse called Spectacular Lyen.
“Three years later Stuart returned to Talmoi as a jockey and had three rides at the meeting – I doubt you’d see that very often at a racetrack in Australia,” Poulos said.
The timeline, which is being regularly updated as more information comes to hand, can be found at www.deluxecafemoree.com.au.
“It’s a pretty long haul but written in a format that enables the reader to slip seamlessly from one year to the next, or to just simply ‘pick a year’,” Poulos said.
Any readers who can add information to the Golden Triangle timeline can contact Poulos by e-mailing bill@deluxecafemoree.com.au.
The 2016 Golden Triangle continues at Mallawa next Saturday (June 11) with the third and final leg at Garah’s Talmoi racecourse on Saturday, June 25.
Nominations for Mallawa close at 11am this Monday (June 6).