Racing Rewind - Victoria

17/11/2020

GALLOPS: We are back from a freshen up at Racing Rewind.

Here's a racebook from the Stawell Cup in country Victoria, run on Easter Tuesday in 1973.

Now run on the Sunday of the long weekend, back then the Stawell Cup was the last leg of a big racing weekend in the region, with the famous Stawell Gift athletics carnival drawing sports fans to the district, and plenty of punters and bookies to boot.

27/10/2020

26/10/2020

TROTTING: This Monday for so many years was Kilmore Cup day, thousands flocking trackside for one of the great days of country racing.

Here is the 1980 edition, with a surprise result.

Replay of the top country harness race - watch for a typically enormous run from the WA legend Pure Steel.

25/10/2020

GALLOPS: A few of the stars of the turf as captured in colour by Racetrack magazine during 1975

22/10/2020

GALLOPS: The brilliant, but tragic Dulcify. 1979 Cox Plate champion.

Here is the original live TV broadcast of the 1979 race.

https://youtu.be/Xzt7jKPsBq8

21/10/2020

GALLOPS: All the immediate drama of one of the all-time turf classics, the 1992 WS Cox Plate, which drew a field for the ages.

What a great era it was for Australian racing.

This is the original race telecast from Channel 9 Melbourne.

20/10/2020

GALLOPS: Scary to realise it is two decades since we saw the immortal Sunline destroy her opposition in the 2000 WS Cox Plate.

18/10/2020

TROTTING: In what was a great era for the trots, Victorian pacer Macaree was one of the crowd favourites of the 1960s.

Macaree won many races in Melbourne and throughout Victoria, and also won interstate.

Trained by John Collins, "Macca" was tiny but was full of courage.

Here are some classic race photos of the little champ in action.

15/10/2020

GALLOPS: How Melbourne's Sporting Globe captured the 1979 Caulfield Cup, with the edition rushed out for punters just hours after the running of the big race.

14/10/2020

GALLOPS: The 1981 Caulfield Cup...relive the excitement ahead of this year's edition.

Bill Collins calls home another classic photo finish.

10/10/2020

TROTTING: The Victoria Cup headlines harness racing action tonight...surely that's a good enough reason to relive the immortal Popular Alm and his win in the great race in 1983, when it was known as the Winfield Cup 🚬

07/10/2020

Caulfield Guineas this Saturday and we recall one of the all-time great upsets of the turf when Abaridy won the 1986 edition at odds of 250/1.

The underrated galloper was trained at Mornington by Steven Watkins and ridden by Gary Doughty.

Gary picked up the mount after Abaridy's previous rider Steven Burridge opted for four rides at the provincial meet at Werribee on the same day.

Footage courtesy of Paul Lang on YouTube from the original HSV7 telecast.

25/09/2020

For your Friday some pages from the September 1971 edition of the extremely popular Racetrack magazine

17/09/2020

Harness racing at Trundle, in country New South Wales, another race track now consigned to history.

This footage shows two races from a meeting in mid 1991, and displays a good old fashioned country trots meeting of the era with a big crowd, cars on the outside fence, and no holds barred racing on the small circuit.

Trundle wound up as a race venue in the mid 1990s, however the contribution of that town's trots club and the local community to the sport has been recognised in recent years with an annual "Trundle tribute night" staged by the Parkes Harness Racing Club.

11/09/2020

Melbourne Herald-Sun formguide for the first of two big days of racing at Caulfield in March 1994.

The Sunday fixture featured the Blue Diamond Stakes.

29/08/2020

Farewell Subby 😢 💔

29/08/2020

Reminisce from the halcyon days of racing 🤗

26/08/2020

Introducing the Man of Straw...a real life story from 1988 of Melbourne punter Harry Efstratiadis, and his battles with the booze and finding a winner.

Featuring visits to Flemington races, Sandown Park dogs and Yarra Glen trots.

Written and directed by Alkinios Tsilimidios and a fascinating insight into a past era.

22/08/2020

TROTTING: Rare early footage of the champion pacer Gammalite, winning the Tatlow Stakes two-year-old at Moonee Valley in Melbourne in May 1979

15/08/2020

GALLOPS: What A Nuisance collects the first $1 million Foster's Melbourne Cup in November 1985.

Co-owner Lloyd Williams accepts the Cup trophy from HRH Prince Charles, while a packed house watches the races under overcast skies.

What A Nuisance was trained by John Meagher and ridden by veteran hoop Pat Hyland.

12/08/2020

GREYHOUNDS: The "Nationals" look a bit different this year, however tonight Australia's best greyhounds do battle around the country in the various state editions of the National Sprint and Distance Championships.

Here we journey back to 1979 for the NSC Final held at Cannington in Western Australia...in those days the race was known as the Champion of Champions.

11/08/2020

TROTTING: The old fashioned excitement of the night trots at Newcastle Showgrounds in New South Wales.

From 1987, before the move to the modern International Paceway. Race caller is John Gilmour.

10/08/2020

GALLOPS: The crowd spills on to the track as runners battle out a race finish at the annual Great Western races in Victoria on Australia Day, 1975.

01/08/2020

GALLOPS: Lovely shot from Robert White's great 1985 book Courses for Horses, showing Melbourne's Sandown course, and a big raceday crowd.

23/07/2020

GREYHOUNDS: Living in the 70s!

The full card of greyhound racing action from Sandown Park, Melbourne, on August 2nd 1979.

21/07/2020

Vale Rob Gaylard - the popular Victorian media personality passed away suddenly today.

Although an accomplished MC, journalist, host and reporter who worked for GTV9 among numerous media and sporting gigs, many will best remember Rob for hosting Channel 31's innovative racing coverage in Victoria during the 1990s.

Here he is from one such Moonee Valley trots meeting, covering a spectacular incident involving Gavin Lang.

17/07/2020

GALLOPS: Sad news today with the passing of one of the turf greats of the 1990's, Chief De Beers.

http://www.livinglegends.org.au/chief-de-beers-passes-away-peacefully-at-living-legends/

Picture: Noel Pascoe

16/07/2020

GALLOPS: Tasmanian jockey Kyle Maskiell reflects on a scary ride that had a pleasing outcome. Launceston races, October 2015.

08/07/2020

GALLOPS: TV profile of top jumps rider Jamie Evans

06/07/2020

A different kind of racing...the Statewide Cup foot race from 1982 at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.

No doubt run during the main break at the VFA footy. Race caller is John "JR" Russell.

03/07/2020

GALLOPS: The 1975 W.S. Cox Plate, run in atrocious weather conditions at Moonee Valley.

The meeting was later cancelled after the co feature Moonee Valley Cup.

Check the comments section for a report on the race result 🙂

27/06/2020

GALLOPS: Australian Women's Weekly article profiling trailblazing Tasmanian jockey Bev Buckingham. August 25th, 1982.

26/06/2020

TROTTING: Champion pacer Westburn Grant passed away yesterday at age 34.

An iconic horse in a great era of racing, Westburn Grant won over $2 million in stakes, courtesy of two Miracle Mile wins, and a host of other feature races including the 1992 InterDominion Pacing Championship Grand Final at Moonee Valley.

He achieved a career best mile rate of 1:55.6 in an era when only the very best consistently broke 2:00.

An out and out champion for the Frost family.

https://youtu.be/C3ngKfEjlqc

25/06/2020

GALLOPS: From April 25th 1981, the William Newton Steeplechase, a race run for many years at the traditional Flemington ANZAC Day races.

24/06/2020

A few bits and pieces relating to the TAB from Victoria and New South Wales

18/06/2020

TROTTING: The 1992 Miracle Mile from Sydney's Harold Park Paceway.

As broadcast live on the ABC.

17/06/2020

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Sorting through the next lot of classics for Racing Rewind. Stay tuned! 📺