Multi-tasking in the middle

This Sunday is Kilmore Cup Day, a fact that will transport punters of a certain age back a decade or four.

There was a time, you see, when the bigger cup in Kilmore — an hour or so north of Melbourne — was the harness version.

I’m talking about the days when Vin Knight was dominating the driving ranks. The Kilmore (harness) Cups of 1981 and 1982, when Knight and Popular Alm combined for victory, were big deals indeed, featuring prominently on the TV news and in the daily papers.

The harness world would relish such exposure these days. To be fair, so would the thoroughbred world outside a few weeks in the spring and autumn.

While harness racing is no longer on my radar, I’ll be reminded of those glory days this Sunday, watching the gallopers tackle 1600 metres on the turf track. On its inside we’ll get a glimpse of the circuit where household names like Paleface Adios (1973), Pure Steel (1976) and Koala King (1979) confirmed their greatness.

Kilmore is one of six tracks in Victoria that still has a harness circuit inside the grass track. Cranbourne, Gunbower, Horsham, Swan Hill and Yarra Valley are the others.

Elsewhere around the land, Cowra appears to be the only racetrack in New South Wales that has a harness track in the middle. Menangle, the home of modern harness racing in NSW, has a tenuous link to gallops racing as it was a pony track early last century.

Brisbane’s harness home, Albion Park, was on the inside of a sand thoroughbred track until 1981. The great Mick Dittman was among those to ride a winner on the last day of racing there.

In Tassie they are keener on sharing, with both Launceston and Hobart squeezing a harness track into the middle of their grass tracks. Over on King Island, if they can rustle up enough numbers, they just run the harness races on the turf. (It’s quite a spectacular sight if you’re lucky enough to get over and have a look.)

In Western Australia, Narrogin hosts both codes.

Having established all that, I thought I’d check the nation for racetracks whose centres are used for purposes not related to racing.

I didn’t find many, and you have to wonder whether that will still be the case a generation from now, with land in Australia’s main centres so scarce and valuable. Eagle Farm’s recent refurbishment, for example, has seen the stables move into the middle of the famous track.

In Melbourne, the Melbourne Racing Club and Moonee Valley Racing Club are aiming for redevelopments which will make use of the middles of Caulfield and The Valley.

The MRC wants to put some sporting fields into the guts to appease local residents who oppose more apartments going up in the area. At The Valley, they’re looking to put stalls into the middle so they can cash in on housing behind the existing grandstands.

In my quest to discover what’s in the middle of Australia’s racetracks, I had two options — watch replays of races from every venue in the land or ring someone who’s been to a lot of them.

In Victoria, that’s racecaller Adam Olszanki. He has been to all the state’s existing tracks bar Nhill, Gunbower and the picnic venues in the state’s far east at Swifts Creek and Hinnomunjie. Naturally, being a broadcaster, he has a great memory.

When I put the question to him, Adam quickly reeled off the trots venues, adding that Kyneton has a training-only trots track.

He went on: “At Traralgon and Bairnsdale you can see the relics of the old harness tracks. And there are five tracks that are also golf courses — Alexandra, Buchan, Drouin, Wycheproof and Yea.”

Off to the Footy

Golf isn’t the only sport you can bump into in the centre of a Victorian racetrack, as Adam explained.

“Moe has a couple of footy grounds. Stony Creek is home to the footy and netball club. They also have a few cows agisting in the middle of the track. Wodonga has some junior footy grounds in the centre. They play cricket at Hanging Rock and Merton.”

In New South Wales, the Balranald Kangaroos Football and Netball Club play within the confines of the racetrack.

Further north, Wauchope must be a tricky place to call the 1800-metre races, where they do a lap of the course. Pretty much at the turn out the straight is a grandstand for the Wauchope Blues rugby league team, whose pitch sits snugly in the centre of the track.

It’s quite the place to be in Wauchope, as the greyhound track takes up the space near the home turn, while a cricket ground slots in between the two.

Moree (NSW) and Rockhampton (Qld) also house greyhound tracks, while Olzsanki tells me Benalla has a coursing (dogs) track.

Rodeo days

Olszanski reports that Traralgon has room for the occasional rodeo in the middle of its course. I doubt it’s as big a deal as when Casino, in northern NSW, hosts its show and rodeo on Everest/Caulfield Cup Day.

Its rings, stands and stabling areas take up most of the inside of the Casino circuit. Pictures from the night suggests it attracts more people to the course than your run-of-the-mill raceday.

At The Drive-in

Going back a few decades, Adam recalled days when the dramatic arts had a home on the turf.

“When I started calling some 20 years ago, I clearly remember my first day at Kerang,” he said.

“They used to have a drive-in cinema in the middle of the track and the big, white screen used to block my vision of the back straight for a few strides.

“These days the centre doubles as the local showgrounds.”

Not surprisingly, other venues serve dual purposes for their local communities.

“Mildura host field days in the middle of their track while Balnarring host the monthly Emu Plains Market (next on December 16). Also, places like Towong and Warracknabeal have crops growing in the middle or close by.”

Obscured view

Sadly, drive-in screens may be heading the same way as the on-course bookmaker. They certainly can’t be found on a racetrack anymore, but that doesn’t mean our intrepid caller’s view is any clearer at some venues.

“Then you have the tracks that have marquees in the middle for their big meetings. In town you have Flemington and The Valley, but I’ve had to adapt to tents and things at Manangatang, Avoca and Dunkeld,” Olszanski confided.

In Queensland, the Ipswich Cup meeting is so big that they don’t allow under-18s in. And they sell enough tickets that the infield becomes a tent city.

The BOM

By now, Adam was relishing his task, perhaps saving his best for last.

“If you ever wanted to know what the weather is at Geelong or Mortlake, the information the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) extracts is from weather stations in the middle of those two racetracks,” he said. “They’re quite tall towers, but thankfully they’re narrow so they don’t block your vision.

And it turns out that those two aren’t the only tracks in Australia contributing to our weather reports.

Courtesy of the BOM, I can report that Bunbury (WA), Strathalbyn (SA), Canterbury (NSW), Cairns and Mackay (Qld) also have weather stations in the middle. Braidwood (NSW) has one on site, but it isn’t in the infield.

The bomb shelter

Finally, Moruya racecourse on the south coast of New South Wales has a bomb shelter in the middle of its track.

During World War Two the track served as an airfield for the Royal Australian Air Force, with three runways and four bunkers. The bunker in the middle of the track is still there. It was used for communications as well as protection in the case of an attack from enemy aircraft.

The bunker is occasionally opened to visitors.

So how close did Moruya come to seeing action during the war? The answer is … “very”.

In the early hours of August 3, 1942, some 25km offshore, the fishing trawler Dureenbee was puttering away in search of its daily catch when the silence was broken by a shot of light overhead.

The instigator was a Japanese submarine. Looking to keep their eye in, the submariners launched a further strike that stopped the boat dead in its tracks. The sub then spent the next 45 minutes or so circling the boat, unleashing gunfire at regular intervals and killing three of the crew. The remaining seven escaped with cuts and bruises.

The sub eventually called it a day and headed towards the Solomon Islands, where it found itself on the wrong end of an attack by the Americans.

Dureenbee, with its depleted and injured crew, eventually ran aground at Bateman’s Bay. The boat couldn’t be saved but the survivors lived to tell the tale.

Chukkas and chuckers

There was a time not so long ago when Warwick Farm was on the Saturday roster for Sydney metropolitan meetings. Its big day was in early March, when it hosted the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes. Tie The Knot won four of them (1999-2002), all at Warwick Farm.

The great Super Impose won a couple (1991-92) but surely the most memorable was in 1997, when Shane Dye took Octagonal from last to first with 800m to go. Once he hit the front, he didn’t stack them up again, he kept running and proved too slick for the 9/10 ($1.90) favourite Juggler.

The centre of Warwick Farm for all of those wins was in immaculate condition, and for good reason.

It had a second role as the home of polo in New South Wales. Leviathan punter Kerry Packer would have a bet one day, then jump on a pony the next. Warwick Farm hosted polo test matches until 2001.

In Adelaide, the dearly departed Victoria Park used to have a couple of cricket grounds in the middle. Given that the track was on public land, in summer, the cricket would be played even on race days. Many a time the horses would be making their way down the back straight while the cricketers looked on.

Also in South Australia, Oakbank’s Easter carnival used to attract crowds as big as 70,000. Many would set up camping sites in the middle of the track, while their kids were kept entertained on ferris wheels and other carnival rides.

Sadly, Oakbank has lost its lustre, with the move to scrap jumps racing failing to arrest the slide.

The infield has remained open to the public for the past two (jumps-free) carnivals, but the many vacant patches of grass suggest those festive days have been consigned to history.