Wallace, one of the Australia’s greatest thoroughbred sires of the first twenty years of the twentieth century commenced his stud career at Bundoora Park in 1896. By the champion Australian racehorse and sire Carbine from Melodious (by the imported Goldsborough), Wallace was a good but not exceptional two-year old, being placed in several leading juvenile […]
Tag: Racing
Darebin : 1881 Victoria Derby winner
“Darebin, the winner of the blue ribbon of the Victorian turf, of whom our artist has drawn a very correct likeness, is a brown colt, of great substance, but slightly deficient in quality, by the imported horse Peer, from the New Zealand mare Lurline, who was one of the best and gamest horses that ever […]
Racecourses of the north – Fitzroy
This entry may seem a little outsie the scope of WikiNorthia, but the so-called “Fitzroy” course was actually in well and truly in Northcote. In 1891, Messrs Byrne and Callahan, two private investors, purchased 30 acres of land on the west side of St. Georges Road in Northcote (between today’s Gadd Street and Wootton Avenue) […]
Racecourses of the north – Croxton Park
Most readers will be familiar with the popular Croxton Park Hotel in High Street and what is now regarded as Northcote, but most will not be aware of the rich sporting traditions of the hotel and its grounds. Like others in Melbourne – Epsom, Ascot and Sandown – it was another track that took its […]
Racecourses of the north – Heidelberg
The exact location of the Heidelberg course – or courses – is generally accredited to be at the Heidelberg Cricket Ground and one report from 1880 has jockeys weighing-in in the cricket pavilion, but whether this represents today’s layout of Warringal Park is uncertain. . Today’s cricket ground is to the north of the Warringal […]
Racecourses of the north : Eltham
The site for a village at Eltham was first gazetted by the Colonial Secretary’s Office in Sydney on 9 January, 1851. The first race meeting noted came on 24 December, 1855 – like most of the early meetings, prizemoney was determined on the sweepstake basis with the entry fees providing part of the prize and […]
Racecourses of the north – Thomastown
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 […]
Racecourses of the north : Ivanhoe
The Ivanhoe Racecourse is noted from the late 1850’s, one report suggesting the course was on the Heidelberg-road, then a rough affair built by convicts, Heidelberg itself along with Brighton one of the first settlements established outside of the early Melbourne settlement. Most of the early references to the “Ivanhoe racecourse” actually refer to hunt […]
Racing and Breeding in the City of Whittlesea
Racing The first race meeting in the City of Whittlesea appears to have been ‘The Plenty Races’, which took place on 26 December 1845 on ‘Mr Payne’s Station’, somewhere near the Bridge Inn at Mernda. The next recorded races were the ‘River Plenty Races’ on 26 December 1848 at ‘Mill Park, near the Plough Inn, […]
REDLEAP Champion Jumps Horse
In Commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of the Redleap’s death, a famous jumps horse that trained in Mill Park, the City of Whittlesea will be exhibiting a small display of his remains from Museum Victoria’s collection at the Council Offices in late 2011. This will be an opportunity for the community to learn about the […]