They're Racing!
Towong Turf Club: a small club with a remarkable history
The Towong Turf Club is a testament to this rather grand statement. The Melbourne Cup was instituted in 1861, and only ten years later they were racing at Towong, and the club was officially formed.
"Australians love racing. General public interest in racing is far greater in Australia than anywhere else in the world."
Jim Hayes, THE BEST AUSTRALIAN RACING STORIES
Races had actually been held even before that, on "Findlay's Flats" an area now on Towong Hill Station and still referred to by the Mitchell family as "the racecourse". Later, races would start on a stretch of the Murray Valley Highway on either side of Towong finishing at the prominent "Mag's Tree" in the school yard, where local schoolboys would sit to eat their lunch. The following description from local historian John Whitehead throws more light on these early races.
In 2021 the Towong Turf Club celebrated 150 years of racing at Towong. With the help of a generous grant from Towong Shire, local history enthusiasts created commemorative panels which chart the development of the Towong Turf Club, focusing on three areas:
The Club | Winners - The Horses | Movers & Shakers - The People who made the Club
The panels are on permanent display at the racecourse and have already attracted wide public interest. They offer colourful highlights from the Turf Club's remarkable story, with facts, figures, a comprehensive historical timeline, evocative photographs from both a different ere and more recent times, and an overarching sense of the importance of this iconic club to the community. But they are, naturally, limited in scope and there are so many more stories to tell. Some of these stories are now available here and we encourage you to read them.
The Club
Tom Mitchell recalled the significance of racing in the Upper Murray when he wrote:
‘Local race day for the Towong Cup was always a tremendous event, in fact it was the event of the year, and its importance dwarfed even such days as New Year and Christmas.’
The Towong Turf Club has a rich record of fine horses, local winners and Melbourne and Sydney Cup winners, and its history is peopled with many colourful, determined and resourceful characters. Thus, 150 years after the races were first held, race goers still come from far and wide to attend the Towong Cup at the ‘Flemington of the Bush’.
Through its history, the Towong Turf Club has survived challenges to its continued operation, but there have been only a few years when the Cup meeting has not been held: 1939, when bushfires razed much of the district, and the WW2 years. Then last year (2020) Mother Nature dumped 80 mm of rain on the course two days before the scheduled Cup meeting and the track was deemed unsafe for racing. A huge crowd still attended the “Phantom” meeting. Old timers recall that during the Depression years a meeting attracted only eight runners but still the Club fought on.
In 2020 the New Year arrived with deadly bushfires which caused wide spread devastation. The historic grandstand, which had undergone costly restoration in 2014-15, was itself under threat. Now this iconic, heritage listed building is symbolic of the determination of successive hard working committees to preserve their race club.
In 1971 the Towong Turf Club celebrated 100 years of racing with a Centenary Gold Cup, a crowd of 3000 people (including many dignitaries from Melbourne) near capacity fields and an “Aftermath” Ball. This year, the sesquicentenary is celebrated under COVID conditions, but with no less enthusiasm.
The Towong Turf Club commemorates its 150 year history on display boards outside the dining room under the grandstand, and plans to develop a website and a richly illustrated book to tell the stories. We invite you to enhance your racing experience at Towong by viewing the display and soaking up the atmosphere.
Movers & Shakers - The People who made the Club
From the early days the Upper Murray was renowned for good horses and the names of many champions of the track have survived down the years.
There were horses bred in this district which went on to star in Sydney and Melbourne, horses with fabulous names like Trafalgar and Patrobas, horses like Glen Loth, dubbed “the milkman’s horse”, horses named for properties, such as the Whiteheads’ Wabba and Warbrook, horses named for people, such as dual Towong Cup winner Kunof, horses whose names had biblical connections, like Dyed Garments and the mighty Moab, horses with extraordinary names like the Jarvises’ Towong Cup winner Grimhuntamug……
To Tom Mitchell, in his book “ Corryong and the Man from Snowy River District ”: the horses were real, they were history, they were the yardstick of human lives in and about the Upper Murray district and elsewhere too.”
To an enthusiastic correspondent writing in the Corowa Free Press in 1930, the Upper Murray was “ typical horse country, every station owns a sire with the result that there is more enthusiasm among the spectators than the writer has ever witnessed on a country racecourse.”
In more recent times the progeny of two local, brilliant sires, Comet and French Kingdom, dominated races at Towong and all around the district, with many going on to star on metropolitan tracks. Names like Cobbermine and French Poet still resonate with many local racing enthusiasts.
You can read more stories about these fabulous winners and their connections below.
Frank Bullock
TJ Waters
Charlie Wheeler
Winners - The Horses
From the early days the Upper Murray was renowned for good horses and the names of many champions of the track have survived down the years.
There were horses bred in this district which went on to star in Sydney and Melbourne, horses with fabulous names like Trafalgar and Patrobas, horses like Glen Loth, dubbed “the milkman’s horse”, horses named for properties, such as the Whiteheads’ Wabba and Warbrook, horses named for people, such as dual Towong Cup winner Kunof, horses whose names had biblical connections, like Dyed Garments and the mighty Moab, horses with extraordinary names like the Jarvises’ Towong Cup winner Grimhuntamug……
To Tom Mitchell, in his book “ Corryong and the Man from Snowy River District ”: the horses were real, they were history, they were the yardstick of human lives in and about the Upper Murray district and elsewhere too.”
To an enthusiastic correspondent writing in the Corowa Free Press in 1930, the Upper Murray was “ typical horse country, every station owns a sire with the result that there is more enthusiasm among the spectators than the writer has ever witnessed on a country racecourse.”
In more recent times the progeny of two local, brilliant sires, Comet and French Kingdom, dominated races at Towong and all around the district, with many going on to star on metropolitan tracks. Names like Cobbermine and French Poet still resonate with many local racing enthusiasts.
You can read more stories about these fabulous winners and their connections below.
Moab
Timor Light
Kunof
Trafalgar
Glenloth
Patrobas