The V.R.C. and other Racing Clubs.
Racing, always a peculiarly popular sport the world over, but more
particularly so in Australia, was fairly on its legs in the new country
by the time that Stud Books and Turf Registers had been established. A
little snowball had been formed, and from this time onwards it continued
to accumulate in bulk, until to-day, the quantity of racing, in
proportion to the population, is simply extraordinary, and the snowball
has grown to be an avalanche.
Between 1850 and 1864 the destinies of the Victorian Turf were guided by
two sporting bodies, the Victoria Jockey Club and the Victoria Turf
Club. Both associations held their races over Flemington, and although
each was managed by a high-class Committee and Stewards, they were ever
at war one with the other, so, naturally, the house divided against
itself came to the usual termination, and neither of them could stand.
In 1864 it was found that neither the Victoria Jockey Club nor the
Victoria Turf Club were sound financially, and that racing was not
progressing under their management as it ought to have been doing. A
meeting of those interested was therefore held, and this conference
resulted in the formation of the Victoria Racing Club, which newly risen
body declared itself willing to take on the liabilities of the others,
provided that they, in their turn, were willing to dissolve. This was
agreed to, and the V.R.C. has, from that moment, governed all Victorian
racing, and ruled it extremely well. Mr. Henry Creswick was its first
chairman. Immediately after its inauguration a Secretary was appointed
at a salary of One hundred and fifty pounds per annum, and Mr. R. C.
Bagot was chosen to fill the position. The Club has been miraculously
lucky, in that, from 1864 until this year of grace, 1921, there has only
once been a change of hand at the wheel. Mr. Bagot worked strenuously,
enthusiastically, and with knowledge, until his death in 1881, when Mr.
Byron Moore succeeded him, and he is still working with all the old fire
which distinguished his efforts of forty years ago. The fact that he
applied for the position at all seems to have been one of those freaks
of fortune, or dispensations of Providence, which sometimes work out for
the greatest good. Mr. Byron Moore was not a racing man. He knew little
about the sport, and cared less. But he had known Mr. Bagot, and was
well aware of his aspirations in connection with the Club. When Mr.
Bagot died, his widow urged upon Mr. Moore the advisability of his
applying for the position, and, more to please her than for any other
reason, he hastily wrote an application, briefly submitting his name as
a candidate, but sending no credentials, and giving the matter no
further thought. Indeed, the circumstance had passed from his mind
until, meeting the Ranger of the Course, the well-known and faithful
Jonathan, in the street one day, that official stopped him and
immediately gave him the information—“Well, they’ve guv it ye.” “Guv
what?” “The Secretaryship.” And Mr. Byron Moore has been installed there
ever since. Here, there, and everywhere, never absent from his post,
always courteous, bland, obliging, yet inflexibly business-like and
punctilious, he has been, and is “the most precise of business men.” And
so the Victorian Racing Club has had, probably, the unique advantage of
having been managed by only a couple of Secretaries during nearly sixty
years.
So soon as Mr. Bagot undertook the management of its affairs, so soon as
the two contending bodies agreed to cease operations, so soon, too, did
the affairs of the Victorian Turf enter into a period of wonderful
prosperity and vigorous growth. Indeed, with the exception of short
intervals, now and again, during which the whole prosperity of the
country, or of the world, has been depressed, the story of the Turf, not
only of Victoria, but of Australia, has been one of continuous growth
and advance, and that upon the most solid lines.
The Melbourne Cup itself, one of the most famous races contested in the
world to-day, is a barometer of the financial welfare and general
prosperity of the community at large.
It was a very small affair for the first few years after it had been
launched upon the sea of time. The race was run under the auspices of
the Victoria Turf Club, the Derby and Oaks under the aegis of the
Victoria Jockey Club.
The stake for the great Cup was of the value of two hundred pounds, and
it was won, for the first couple of years after its inception, in 1861,
by Mr. E. De Mestre’s Archer. This was a fine horse by William Tell
(imported), a bay son of Touchstone from Miss Bowe, by Catton from
Tranby’s dam, by Orville. There seems to be some doubt about Archer’s
dam, but Mr. Wanklyn states that she descended through Bonnie Lass (by
Bachelor (imp.)), to Cutty Sark, whilst the first and second volumes of
the Stud Book give his dam as Maid of the Oaks, by Vagabond from Mr.
Charles Smith’s mare by Zohrab. In 1869 the stake was increased to £300.
In 1876 the value had mounted to £500, a sum which had already been far
surpassed by the Tasmanians as a prize for their championship at
Launceston. This was already worth one thousand. The thousand limit in
the Cup was reached in ’83 for the first time, Martini Henry being the
winner for the Hon. Mr. James White. After this prize-money ascended in
leaps. In ’86 there was £2,000 of added money; it jumped to £2,500 in
the following year; £3,000 in ’88; £5,000 in ’89; and £10,000 in 1890.
It was the summit, the “suprema dies,” the grand climax of all things.
This year compressed all the bests on record imaginable into its
calendar.
There was a record sum of money added to the race, a record field
(thirty-nine starters), a record weight was carried by the winner (ten
stone five), and the time for the race (3 minutes 28¼ seconds) was
another best ever seen up to that time. That has since, however, been
far surpassed, Artilleryman, in 1919, having smashed up a great
collection of good horses in most decisive fashion by very many lengths
in 3.24½. And the winner of 1890 was undoubtedly a record horse—the
brave, consistent, staying, immortal Carbine.
In the three following Cups, Malvolio, Glenloth and Tarcoola each swept
in ten thousand sovereigns for their owners, but in Auraria’s year, and
when Gaulus, Newhaven and The Grafter won, racing affairs had met with
“an air pocket,” and had consequently suffered a heavy “bump.” The added
money fell to three thousand pounds. The depression, however, during the
seasons following the collapse of the land boom, did not last long, and
ere the war drums boomed across a horrified world in 1914, the prize had
once more risen to upwards of seven thousand pounds. Even whilst the
struggle for life and death was progressing, the V.R.C. and the A.J.C.
both strove nobly to maintain racing on the highest possible plane in
every way, and the value of the great Cup never fell much short of five
thousand pounds. And this, too, in face of the fact that the Committee
of the V.R.C. presented to the numerous Patriotic War Funds the
magnificent sum of over one hundred and two thousand pounds.
Since the early days of the V.R.C. other clubs have arisen in great
numbers. For many years, all through the country districts, no township
was too small to hold a race meeting. Even country public houses far
outback could manage to give away sums of money, and gather a crowd of
people for the benefit of boniface under the pretence of a day’s horse
racing. But now, under the wise hands of the ruling body, “sport” of
that nature is severely restricted, and the formation of District
Associations, working under the V.R.C. is doing immense good in
improving the whole thing, and in seeing to it that racing is carried on
in the cleanest and fairest manner possible. There are many excellent
up-country gatherings throughout the State. Warrnambool, with its annual
Steeplechase, is splendid. Wangaratta and Benalla, where they have raced
since before the flood, both provide capital sport. Ballarat, once
second only in importance to metropolitan headquarters, is perhaps not
the force that it used to be in the old days when mining was
flourishing, and was one of the most prosperous industries in the
country. But it is once more on the up-grade, and is well managed.
Bendigo has always maintained a high standard. Camperdown is good, as is
Colac, while Geelong, after suffering a partial eclipse, is also again
climbing the ladder. And in the metropolitan area there are several
clubs that have done, and are doing, a great deal for the sport. The
Victorian Amateur Turf Club is in the foremost rank, and is only second
to the V.R.C. in influence and importance. The Caulfield Cup has been in
existence since 1879, when two hundred sovereigns was the amount of its
prize-money. In 1920 this was represented by £6,500, and a gold cup
valued at £100.
The V.A.T.C. was originally formed in 1876 by a number of enthusiastic
riders and owners, whose opportunities for amateur jockeyship were too
restricted for their vaulting ambitions. The promoters were the Messrs.
Hector, Norman and Arthur Wilson, J. O. Inglis, Herbert and Robert
Power, and others, and so well have their affairs prospered on that
beautiful course at Caulfield that the original object of the Club has
been entirely lost sight of long ago. It is a splendid institution.
Then there is the seaside racecourse at Williamstown, which has had a
long and creditable history. The course is a fine one, and is being
improved yearly and the annual Cup is now worth between two and three
thousand pounds. Moonee Valley is possibly the most popular of all the
suburban turf resorts. Its affairs are splendidly administered by Mr. A.
V. Hiskins and an influential Committee. It is so close to the General
Post Office that anyone now finds it an easy journey to the entrance
gates. The course is a good one, well kept, and the prizes are liberal
throughout the year. The Committee is entirely up to date, and this
Club, like the V.A.T.C. and Williamstown, are not only steadily
increasing their prize-monies, but each and all of them gave with ready
and overflowing hands to the patriotic funds. There are other and
numerous—too numerous—courses within reach of the metropolis. Epsom,
situated close to Mordialloc, is also a club, and its affairs are ably
controlled, but Mentone, Aspendale and Sandown Park are of the nature of
proprietary concerns whose surplus funds revert to the pockets of the
promoters, and no doubt pay ample dividends. But with these, so far as
the actual history and welfare of the Racehorse in Australia is
concerned, we have nothing to do.