Occasional race meetings at Thomastown to the north of Melbourne were noted along with others at Preston, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe in the late 1850’s, the first at Thomastown itself noted in 1858. (Both Mill Park and Lower Plenty had annual races as early as the late 1840s)
In January, 1889, a long letter to the weekly Sportsman from Jeremiah Seery announced the formation of the Belmont Racing Club at Thomastown with a large number of members enrolled from the neighbouring districts of Epping, Woodstock and Preston.
The course was said to be a quarter-mile from Peter McCoy’s Belmont Hotel and as an adjunct, Seery suggested that the railway line being constructed was a short distance from the course and hopefully would be operating by the first meeting scheduled for 18 March (the section from Reservoir to Whittlesea did not in fact operate until 23 December).
Later reports place the course as “…about 10 miles from Melbourne. The Exhibition Buildings are plainly visible and the celebrated Preston Heights Estate is close by”.
Despite Seery’s enthusiasm, this was pretty much the last heard of the Belmont club, with the Thomastown Racing Club assuming its role. The Australasian later described the course as “one of the finest out of Melbourne”, but the venture ran into trouble when the Victoria Racing Club concerns over private race tracks saw it introduce a regulation that no meeting offering less than £400 could be run “under V.R.C. rules” within 10 miles from Melbourne.
There was considerable debate over whether was within the 10 mile limit, but before the Belmont Racing Club had its first meeting, the V.R.C. to make doubly certain, extended the range to 20 miles. (Railways timetables suggested Thomastown station was 12-and-a-half miles from Melbourne, but the line at the time ran via a somewhat indirect route via North Fitzroy, Carlton, Royal Park and North Melbourne to Spencer Street).
The 1888 meeting received a big boost when the Preston Heights Estate Company donated 25 guineas towards prizemoney, the Collingwood Mercury (which acted as the northern suburbs local newspaper at the time) suggesting “There is no earthly reason why the races at Thomastown should not ere long become as popular as those held at Caulfield and elsewhere round Melbourne.”
The main section of the hotel, then owned and operated by Peter McCoy was destroyed by fire in August, 1890, reports suggesting it was “a very old two story iron building with wooden cladding” and a rather more substantial brick structure was erected in its stead.
From 1961, it was known as the Thomastown Hotel and was at 99 High Street – the premises were demolished in the early 1990s as part of the northern section of the Metropolitan Ring Road project – directories today place the location which is just over 14 kilometres or 9.1 miles from the GPO.
The course (which also boasted an athletics track) hosted annual meetings – usually on Boxing Day or St. Patrick’s Day, but for a modest country meeting, the Thomastown races managed to attract more than its share of unwanted attention from other sources.
In 1896, the “Thomastown Race Club”announced plans to also host an annual Queen’s Birthday meeting, scheduled for 25 May, but had to postpone for a week because of the weather. As well as the problems with the V.R.C., the meeting appears to have been abandoned after this a Mr. Webster, the proprietor of the Ascot racecourse which was one of several privately owned tracks and then running two meetings per week, issued a threat to bar any horse running at Thomastown from his venue.
Peter McCoy issued a statement saying he regretted the cancellation and that “he would not have minded opposition in the true sense of the word“.
The course (and undoubtedly the hotel) both before and after the abandonment appears to have been a favourite gathering place for both the Oaklands Hunt Club and the local Findon Hunt Club; the latter was based at Mill Park, but several reports in the 1890s and early 1900’s have hunt club members entraining their mounts to gather near Thomastown Station.
McCoy served the Epping Shire for some 35 years as a councillor and later as President – a grand dinner to celebrate his retirement in 1902 noted that he had managed to remain a bachelor ….
Below : Belmont Hotel : (left) later destroyed by fire, August, 1890 and (right) circa 1890s after reconstruction
This piece provides a fascinating insight into Thomastown’s rich racing history, filled with ambition, setbacks, and community spirit. It’s a captivating narrative of the highs and lows of establishing a local racing scene, with colorful characters like Jeremiah Seery and Peter McCoy adding depth to the story.