IT’S fast approaching one of our favourite race days – the running of the Ipswich Cup and Eye Liner – so we decided to revive some memories of days gone by – stories that a few might wish we hadn’t.
But here goes and LGHR can assure you that what we have written below is FACT not FICTION or certainly not Fake News – a term our old sparring partner Ben Currie once used about what we wrote.
CUP DAY CROWDS
BELIEVE it or not in the modern era Ipswich Cup Day has attracted better crowds than even the biggest carnival attractions – like our most important race, the Stradbroke at Eagle Farm or the much-hyped Magic Millions on the Gold Coast.
Back in the days when every man and his dog in the Ipswich region would turn out for the Cup, the club’s biggest meeting of the year would attract more than 20,000 racegoers.
LGHR was there to witness this and was one of the many racing scribes instructed by the Turf Editor (who doubled as the spin doctor for the then Queensland Turf Club) that we were not allowed to mention that Ipswich had a bigger crowd than Eagle Farm because it would be embarrassing for the major club.
Yep, forget about the facts, what he preferred us to write was that this was not a carnival day to be attended by the faint-hearted with the second to none chance that you might be assaulted or felled by a stray boomerang getting to your car on the way home.
HOW ABOUT A PETER CAMERON MEMORIAL?
TWO things are a given about the late, great racing scribe Peter Cameron – one his dislike for Manuel – the then Turf Editor – and the other his love for Ipswich Cup Day.
‘Paceway’, as LGHR labelled him after those nights he dreaded covering the ‘red hots’ at Albion Park, hailed from Bundamba and did his best to make Cup Day a memorable occasion for his colleagues.
There was the annual ‘seafood smorgasboard’ brought to the Media Room at the back of the Grandstand mid-afternoon. No expense was sparred by the committee under special directions from ‘Paceway’.
Then there was the year that he organised a Media Tent at the back of the grandstand with free food and grog before and during the races for his mates covering the big meeting.
A highlight was Rod Gallegos, a loveable rogue who liked the odd ale or two, getting into a confrontation with a cheeky little boy who kept poking his head into the tent. ‘Piss off,’ Rodney ordered. Back came the kid with an ice-cream, snuck up on Rod and shoved it up the backside of his suit before speeding off.
An endorsement from LGHR is probably the last thing hard working ITC CEO, Nathan Exelby, needs. But during his days as a racing scribe and subsequently Turf Editor of The Courier-Mail he and Peter Cameron were close colleagues and great mates.
‘Paceway’s’ love and dedication for the Ipswich Turf Club and especially Cup day deserve a race run in his honour. Chairman Wayne Patch was a good mate as well. Come on guys. Do the right thing and honour the memory of a good man who did plenty for you and your club.
RECOGNITION FOR POPULAR FORMER JOCKEY GARRY LEGG
DESERVED recognition for former star apprentice jockey Garry Legg, one of many Ipswich Cup winning jockeys being honoured by the Club on Saturday.
Big Ben Dorries reports in the daily fish and chips wrapper that ‘it was 50 years ago that Legg settled some unfinished business by scoring the 1976 Ipswich Cup.
‘Five decades on, Legg, who became a racing writer for The Courier-Mail and also a jockey manager, will return to the scene of a triumph that he still remembers like it was yesterday.
Legg won the 1976 Ipswich Cup on Timides for the great Geoff Murphy who famously trained Gurner’s Lane to win 1982 Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double.
Caulfield Cup-winning jockey Michael Kerr, who won the 1986 Ipswich Cup on Hot On Aces, will also be there as will Gary Doughty who won on Fine Spy for Lawrie Mayfield-Smith in 1996.
Legg, 68, is now the workplace health and safety officer for the Queensland branch of the Australian Jockeys’ Association and it will be a wonderful step down memory lane on Saturday.’
Dorries quoted ITC CEO Nathan Exelby as saying:
“Garry Legg went on to become a much-loved racing writer for The Courier Mail and he’s now an important part of the Queensland Jockeys’ Association.
“I was lucky enough to work with him for a number of years and I’m thrilled to recognise this milestone for him on Saturday.”
WHAT Exelby forgot to mention was that this ‘much loved racing writer’ was dumped by The Sunday Mail because he dared to criticise Eagle Farm when it was racing like a ‘goat track’. No surprises for guessing who was responsible for the removal of a great jockey who had made the transition to an extremely successful journalist (racing writer).
‘FEATHERS’ WOULD STILL HAVE NIGHTMARES OVER THOSE IPSWICH VISITS
LEADING race-caller David Fowler must still shudder when he remembers his visits to Ipswich in the early days before he gained the recognition he now has.
Fowler did his ‘apprenticeship in racing’ with the late Garth Stubbersfield and used to ‘hitch’ a ride to the Bundamba track with the high profile ‘clocker’ who was his mentor for so many years.
Back then the ITC had a mischievous CEO called Mike McLachlan who would sit old Garth down at the committee bar after the last race at the midweeks and provide him with endless beers and whisky chasers.
That was fine for Garth but David had to endure the drive back to Brisbane from Ipswich where Garth would guide his car, which resembled an old Model T, by following the dotted lines. Unfortunately these ran out through hilly country on the then somewhat treacherous road and there were many close calls with rocky cliffs as ‘Feathers’ – who preferred not to drive – did his best to slam the brakes on from the passenger side.
Eventually David made an excuse and asked LGHR for a ‘lift’ back to Brisbane. That was the forerunner to him attending the ‘red hots’ for the first time at our suggestion. But that’s a story for another day.
All that aside Garth was an old-fashioned clocker and turf scribe who you couldn’t help but like. I first met him when he came to Townsville for the Cup meeting when I was working as Sports Editor for the Bulletin. That was also how I first met Peter Cameron.
LGHR will never forget the night when I took a worse for wear Paceway to the Cup Calcutta at the Townsville Yacht Squadron. He fell through the rotting wooden floor but hauled his leg out before hitting the waters of Ross Creek below.
The night ended with me driving (I should not have been), Peter in the passenger seat and a prominent TTC committeeman lying down in the back. Struggling to wake this wonderful man when we reached his home, Paceway simply hauled him out of the car and threw him into a rose bush in his front yard. The committeeman arrived on Cup Day with patches on his face that resembled a Norman Gunston look-alike.
THE SURPRISE DISCOVERY ON CUP NIGHT
SPEAKING of Racing Editors of the past and stories they wouldn’t want told about Ipswich Cup Day, here’s one that happened during the LGHR era.
Back then we had a ‘big’ team of writers and results people who attended major meetings and the Editor in question insisted that the newspaper involved took two company cars to Ipswich – one for those workers who had finished and wanted to return home after the last – the other for the couple who stayed on to cover Stewards’ Inquiries which many times went on into the night.
The Racing Editor on this occasion – a bit of a ladies man who shall remain nameless – told the majority of his staff to have a drink and head home after a good day’s work and that he and a female results ‘assistant’ would do the hard yards long after the last.
It appears – as some suspected – there was a method in his madness. Track staff checking on vehicles parked on course well into the night discovered he and the young lady enjoying some horizontal therapy in the back of the station wagon which he insisted on using while the rest cramped into a company car not much bigger than a mini minor for the trip home.
Like one popular turf scribe whose wife caught him in a compromising situation in a broadcast box at the trots, this Editor hit an iceberg or two as well. A few weeks after Ipswich Cup day he and the young lady in question were enjoying a Bullets NBL game at Boondall when low and behold seated behind him was his wife’s sister. Ouch!
NOEL PASCOE – ONE OF THE BEST RACING PHOTOGRAPHERS
* THE photograph accompanying this story was taken by one of the great newspaper photographers NOEL PASCOE, who we understand was still working at the track until a few years ago. The last we heard Noel wasn’t in the best of health. Perhaps his good mate, Mark ‘Obe’ Oberhardt might like to send us an update on how the ‘big fellow’ is going.
