The 184-year-old story of racing and training on Western Australia’s oldest horse exercise beach
HISTORY FORGED
184 YEARS EACH day, local riders make their way to a special strip of beach in WA to work out their horses. Swimming, rolling in sand, bolting between groynes as morning rises over the shifting dunes. The first horse race was held here in 1833 - just four years after the Swan River Colony was founded by Captain James Stirling, who also held a horse race on Garden Island where he was camped for a few months before moving to the mainland in late 1829.
Since that historic race, the beach has produced State and national cup and prize winners, with top riders enlisted in racing circuits in Australia and overseas, including riding for maharajas in India. During world wars, mounted members of the Australia’s defence forces also worked here, the 10th Lighthorse Memorial Group a regular visitor to the historic beach skirting Cockburn Sound.
The State heritage-listed beach is still used by horseback families in WA; trainers, riders and members of the racing community having lobbied for decades to erect a plaque to honour generations of families who have used the popular area.
Horse racing and stables have always been an important part of the history of Cockburn and Fremantle. Though racing began in Perth five years after the first horse race, the South Fremantle area remained a major training venue for more than 100 years.
On October 2, 2016, their efforts paid off with the public unveiling of a permanent plaque at CY O’Connor Reserve by Amalfi Publishing and the City of Cockburn. One of the key aims is to make local history accessible to as many people as possible through education, stories and images.
‘HORSEBACK BEACH 1833-2017’ celebrates 184 years of continued beach use by trainers and riders in Western Australia. Produced by Amalfi Publishing with the support of the City of Cockburn, this commemorative booklet acknowledges the support of the Samson and Thompson families, Randwick Stables, City of Belmont, Murdoch University, SCOOP Property, Merenda Group, Fremantle RSL and Kelmscott-Pinjarra 10th Lighthorse Memorial Group. A special thanks to all the volunteers who devoted their time towards making local history - both this year at the October 1 Family Fun Day at CY O’Connor Reserve and in 2016 when Amalfi Publishing and Cockburn unveiled a permanent plaque (forged above) on October 2. Both dates mark the anniversary of the first horse race in WA in 1833 on what is CY O’Connor Beach - now part of the State heritagelisted horse exercise beach between the old South Fremantle power station and South Beach in Fremantle.
A1 Plaques WA’s design depicting six horses racing on the beach was mounted on a 600kg plinth built by Kewdale contractor Icon-Septech. Local tradie Dino Concalves laid the foundation slab.
Up to 400 horses at a time have been stabled near the beach, many travelling by train or sea to race at meetings in the North West or interstate.
CY O’Connor Beach is named after WA’s famous pipeline pioneer and Freo port engineer who shot himself in 1902. A bronze statue of CY riding his horse into the water near where he died sits a few metres off the beach. CY is looking back at the port city.
Today, this rich heritage can be heard nearly each day as horses pound the wet sand at dawn, riders chasing the same course on the same beach used continually for the past 184 years.
Accessing the coast via bridle paths in South Fremantle and Hamilton Hill, horses can be seen and heard nearly every day at dawn, the horse plaque acknowledging the continued use of the beach since the State’s inaugural race of six imported Timor ponies.
Carmelo Amalfi
The plaque recognises all aspects of the horse racing and training industry, from blacksmiths to saddle and wagon makers to stockfeed and straw suppliers such as Nibali’s on Hamilton Road (formerly Greenslades, originally built in 1926). Money donated at the 2016 plaque unveiling was presented to the National Jockey’s Trust, which provides support for jockeys and their families following a serious injury, illness and death. Amalfi Publishing organised both events on behalf of South Fremantle stables owner Terry Patterson who lobbied for years to erect a permanent marker at ‘Horseback Beach’.
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BOND’S BEACH INN
MAYOR’S WELCOME
THE first pub on the Cockburn coast opened a year after the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829, not far from the site of the first horse race in 1833.
THE unveiling of the commemorative plaque at CY O’Connor Reserve on October 2, 2016 brought together members of the horse racing fraternity and the wider community to share in an historic event. Many members of the community were completely unaware of the intrepid pioneers who had gathered on the beach way back in 1833 to stage the first horse race in Western Australia.
The liquor licence was issued on July 28, 1830, to Henry Rice Bond, a former ‘bobby’ in the world’s first police force in London. Granted two weeks after the courts released Bond from Thomas Peel’s resettlement scheme, the British innkeeper was cleared to operate a “licensed victualling house”.
Beach. The inn and small dwellings he built appear on a surveyor’s map drawn in 1830. In 1833, in the year the first horse race was held north of Peel’s Woodman Point settlement, Henry took Peel to court to recover 100 pounds for wages and work involving building coffins on Garden Island. Henry complained at having spent seven weeks on the island where he was “obliged to make coffins on a Sunday”. He was awarded four weeks pay - 18 pounds, three shillings. It is unclear whether Bond’s business boomed during the State’s inaugural horse race.
(Lionel Samson who arrived in WA in 1829 received the State's first liquor licence in 1835, which remains current today). A victualler was a person licensed to sell liquor to people eating at the premises, which Bond built on the coast near the James, a 195-ton American-built vessel wrecked in May 1830, just 50m from the shore near present-day CY O’Connor Beach.
In 1863, the Perth Gazette reported Henry’s passing as, “the death of an old inhabitant of the Colony”. The nearby Davilak (1903) and Coogee (1898) hotels have been restored in recent times but Bond’s watering hole disappeared in sand dune country soon after his death 153 years ago.
A 1947 image of the colonial innkeeper can be viewed at Battye, in the State Library WA, the white-bearded figure holding his granddaughter Christina. Christina married Charles Henry Miner who was a soldier in the 63rd infantry regiment at the Eureka Stockade in 1854. In 1830, Henry and Georgianna Bond (nee Brookes) arrived as passengers on Thomas Peel’s failed settlement scheme at Woodman Point where their youngest son Henry died before the ‘Clarence’ site was abandoned by the following year.
October 1, 2017 sees the community coming together to again share in the amazing history associated with the horse racing industry that prevails to this day. Adding significance to the use of the beach is the 10th Light Horse Brigade which forever more added their presence and the ensuing folklore that indelibly stamped their feats as horsemen and that of their horses into the ANZAC tradition. The recorded stories and the photographs of mounted troops training on the beach prior to heading off to war continue to inform and engage people of all ages. Nowadays, visitors to CY O’Connor Beach need to be there early (between 4am to 8am) to capture a glimpse of trainers, strappers, jockeys and their horses galloping along the clear white sands or steadily walking them in the water before bursting back onto the beach for a quick roll in the sand and then being led away to walk to their stables or to their floats. A short drive to nearby stables sees them enjoying a feed of oats and a drink of water. Historic stables in Hamilton Hill, South Fremantle, Jandakot and other nearby locations have ensured a continuation of the connectivity of the horse racing industry with the local community. Open Days at Randwick Stables in Hamilton Hill have seen many of
Descriptions of Clarence include references to a bush “pub” built by Henry, who called the watering hole James Wreck Inn or Bond’s Inn because it was next to the James site now buried in the seabed just off CY O’Connor
FAMILY CUP LEGEND CY O’Connor Beach holds a special place in Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett’s family history. The heritage-listed beach is not only the site of the State’s first horse race, it also occupies the same coastline on which his great-grandfather Henry Hawkins won a silver cup at the Railway Employee Amalgamated Picnic in 1901. Logan still has that cup, which he proudly displays at special occasions. Athletic Henry won the silver prize during three days of sport and recreation attended by thousands of people from the metropolitan area and country towns. Logan says the cup was made on the lathes at the Midland workshops. For the year of Federation, the National Mutual Life Association having donated the silver cup which Henry won. Henry was a rail worker at Midland who retired in the early 1950s. One of his sons was the famous boxer Joe Hawkins.
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Mr Howlett says competitors’ scores were added up after three days of competition and whoever got the highest score won the railway cup.
racing identities share their wealth of knowledge with thousands of people who attend. One could say they are reliving the dream of yesteryear. In some cases, the answer is yes; as photographs, newspaper cuttings, saddles and other gear are displayed for all to see. It is easy to see how the hearts and minds of all attending are captivated by an industry that has been a part of the Australian landscape since colonial days. The fact that Randwick Stables and those in Forrest Road and nearby South Fremantle (that also includes a bridle path) are located just a short horse ride from CY O’Connor Beach adds a certain romance to the commemoration of such an historic horse race. As you turn each page of this book the stories that unfold will pay tribute to the owners, trainers, jockeys and other associated with the industry. In most cases they will be stories from those identities but also capturing comments from some other prominent identities in the community. I know you will enjoy this publication, a fitting tribute to the horse racing industry, its identities, and the ANZAC traditions that emerged from what is known today as CY O’Connor Beach – an innocuous area of white sand bordered by the sea and the sand dunes that take in a majestic view over all that the location offers.
COCKELL’S LEGACY
DALY HERITAGE
WHEN the first car and horse collided near Daly Street in South Fremantle, it was J.D. Cockell the police first approached because Jack’s horses ran wild in the area in the 1920s.
HORSEBACK memories run deep at the end of Daly Street where Terry Patterson runs the only working stables in South Fremantle. Bought in the late 1960s by his late parents Len and Annie, the well-used site has produced Perth, Kalgoorlie and Caulfield Cup winners. And generations of horse lovers.
“A copper pulled up at his house and said, ‘one of your horses has been killed in a car crash,” his son Jack, 88, recalls. “As they drove up to the horse, he told the copper, ‘keep going, it’s not mine’. Later that night I asked him whether it was our horse Jimmy. ‘Too right it was’, dad said. ‘Son, never admit to owning a dead horse, they’re too much trouble’.” Based at his 120-acre Mundijong stables, Jack spends much of his time on the open road, following in the footsteps of the ‘father of WA country racing’. Jack says he wouldn’t give up for quids the damper and stews of roo meat and vegetables he has enjoyed for decades travelling between race meetings in WA. His youngest daughter Michelle, 30, who never met her famous grandfather, prefers to drive him around, the mother of six-year-old Jack taking on the hard-yakka stables life her father and grandfather persevered with. Jack says his father regularly took him to the beach to train horses, “Us kids would hold the horses and dad paid a shilling to have them swim behind a boat, which took exactly two minutes. Dad could also swim them, two at a time”. He says J.D. owned 100 acres where Hilton Park is now, but it was too far from the beach so he moved to South Fremantle, first at Chester Street then neighbouring Daly Street where his stables operated until the 1970s. Jack says his father, “helped everybody, it didn’t matter who you were”. He also was a top horseman who, like him, could not read or write, “yet he was very successful, at one stage owning 1500 acres of land in the Mundijong district”. “He was a funny dad, but he was good.”
Terry’s home is a museum filled with artefacts, old photographs and memories of a time when horses played a big role in daily life.
there - represents the end of a 30-year battle by Terry who promised his parents to keep fighting to protect the rich cultural and heritage values of the area.
His Daly Street property, built out of sand dune country where horses have trained since the early 1800s, straddles the municipal lines between Fremantle and Cockburn. The bridle path linking riders to the heritage-listed South Beach exercise area follows the boundary of Terry’s stables.
These values extend to the Anzac tradition. When HMAS Sydney sank off WA in 1941, the then owner of Terry’s stables - Irene Courtis - sold the property to the Collinsons after her 21-year-old son and only child Roy perished in the sinking. Her Victorian-born husband William was a Gallipoli veteran and top horseman who moved to WA in 1912 and died in 1933.
At the other end of Daly Street, across Duoro Road, the ‘father of WA country racing’ Jack David Cockell lived at his stables until his death in 1929. He let his horses run free including on the former tip site next to Terry’s stables (Hollis Park, which Terry wants renamed ‘Cockell’s Paddock’ as part of a pending State heritage listing linked to the existing heritage-listed exercise beach). Cockell’s son Jack, who still trains horses, says it would be a great honour to have Hollis Park renamed after his dad, who was one of the best horsemen in the State, J.D. Cockell held legendary parties in which Shetland ponies danced on their hind legs and locals played two-up at his stables and nearby Davilak Hotel. Fremantle trainer Ned Bowder, who worked under Cockell from 1934 on, described his former boss as a gentleman who took in the homeless and lived off the land when he travelled to race meetings around WA: “Cockell bought mostly ol’ broken down horses, blistered ‘em, turned ‘em out, got ‘em goin’ and nearly every one won.” Cockell’s stables closed in the 1970s. Having climbed on a halfbrumby, half-donkey at the age of nine, and survived, Terry says the stables produced Perth Cup winners and Railway Stakes winners, one of which, the mighty bay stallion Aptofine, was led down Thomas Street in 1952 as residents cheered from their homes. Former stables owner Jack Collinson trained Yabaroo to win the 1955 Perth Cup. Its rider Harry McCloud had ridden 1942 Melbourne Cup winner Colonus. The first of the stables’ Railway Stakes winners, Gold Patois, won in 1948, ridden by the late Jack Ingram. Terry says before towed floats, horses were walked or ridden to the beach. He recalls swimming horses with his father as they kept an eye on sharks dining on offal waste from Robb Jetty abattoir. The family fought for years to keep the Daly Street stables open, Terry’s grandfather having fought in the 10th Lighthorseman in World War One. The unveiling of the plaque at CY O’Connor Beach on October 2, 2016 - 183 years after the first race was held –5–
According to Bowder, who was 14 in 1934, the year after William Courtis’ death, Cockell herded horses to the paddock after race meetings where they, “ran free for a day or two before being called back to the stables”. Irene sold the stables to Collison before the end of the war. In 1960, ‘Collinson’s Stables’ were sold to Terry’s father Len, a navy merchantman who was a crew member on Aquitania which rescued German survivors from HSK Kormoran after its battle with HMAS Sydney on November 19, 1941. Len died of asbestos cancer in 2000, a pair of stirrups hanging from his bedhead, and his wife, who served in the Australian airforce, died in 1997. Terry has been holding on to the reins ever since. .
William Worrell looks over Tarpia, with owner Les Keamy
INDIGENOUS RIDERS
MEMORIAL TENTH
ABORIGINAL jockey William Worrell’s name is written in the sand at CY O’Connor Beach. During the late 1800s, the little-known bushman rode horses between South Beach and Woodman Point, the top jockey from the Yued community north of Perth having won the Fremantle Cup in 1896.
THE Kelmscott-Pinjarra 10th Lighthouse Memorial Group was formed in 2002 when it was officially registered with the Australian Light Horse Association.
Worrell’s favourite horse had been 1896 Perth Cup winner Mural, son of the mighty NZ-bred thoroughbred and 1890 Melbourne Cup winner Carbine, nicknamed Old Jack.
Tragically, the mother of a young son was involved in a bad fall during a race in Queensland in 1998. She died two days later of severe head injuries.
He also worked for a wealthy family from Dandaragan, driving cattle from Dandaragan to the coast. Worrell raced until the 1920s, dying in 1931 aged in his 70s.
Wickham-born Rosalyn Bynder is the first female jockey in WA, the daughter of late Ascot racing identity Rod Bynder, who died of a heart attack while riding a horse at Ascot in 2008.
His great-great-grandson Brendan Moore says hundreds of jockeys and trainers used the exercise beach. On October 2, 2016, Brendan performed the welcome to country at the official unveiling of a horse plaque at CY O’Connor Reserve.
Australian greats include Merv Maynard, Norm Rose, Frank Reys, Richard Lawrence ‘Darby’ McCarthy and Leigh-Anne Goodwin, Australia’s first female Aboriginal jockey.
He says his family always talked about the master horseman (William) winning the Fremantle Cup: “Thanks to Cockburn Council and Carmelo Amalfi and Terry Patterson for honouring this history, and the fact it still continues today and I hope it continues.”
The image above is of William Worrell looking over Tarpia, with owner Les Keamy.
Horses and riders are trained in much the same way as in WW1. Horses are classed as ‘re-mounts’ and given mounted drill training. Traditionally, the troop conducts ceremonial and memorial services, with training progressing to courses in skill at arms, mounted drill, re-enactment and mounted games. Presently, the Group has 25 members, all of whom are registered, paying volunteers. All funds raised go towards running expenses, registrations and insurance. The name ‘Kelmscott-Pinjarra’ was chosen because the first mounted units in WA to be officially formed was the Pinjarra Mounted Volunteers in October 1862. Kelmscott was added after orders were given to raise the Western Australian Mounted Infantry in June 1900. Kelmscott also was one of the suburbs where the light horse trained during WW1 and WW2. Members of the regiment distinguished themselves at Quinn’s Post, Pope’s Hill and the The Nek on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915, with 111 members of the Regiment decorated during their service in the Middle East.
Indigenous greats include Frank Reys, Darby McCarthy, Merv Maynard, Norm Rose and Richard Lawrence ‘Darby’ McCarthy, some hiding their identities to ‘get a start’ in the sport of kings. Women were not allowed to race until 1978. The first star of the track was Leigh-Anne Goodwin, Australia’s first female Aboriginal jockey to ride a winner at a metropolitan track.
The memorial troop attends Anzac and Remembrance Day services, its engagements including events at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre, Subiaco Oval, Ascot Race Course, Kings Park, primary and secondary schools, nursing homes and agricultural shows.
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Secretary Catherine Forbes says the troop aims to preserve the history and traditions of the Australian light horse and it’s predecessors, taking its displays and exhibitions to, “show the history of the regiment and the close affinity of man and horse when they come together in times of extreme adversity”. With the assistance of grants from the Department of Veteran Affairs and Lotterywest, the troop preserves uniforms, weapons, photographs and equipment used by the light horse, any of its artefacts used to support the existing Light Horse Museum at Pinjarra RSL. Ms Forbes says many of its members have discovered ancestors with close ties to the light horse. The troop trains every second and fourth Sunday of the month. Details at www.lighthorse.org.au/resources/re-enactmentunits/kelmscott-pinjarra-memorial-troop.
OFFSHORE RACING
FIRST JOCKEYS
HORSE racing has been a major part of Australian life since the first horses arrived in Botany Bay in 1788. In Western Australia, the first ‘official’ horse race was held in 1833, just four years after a friendly race was held on Garden Island by the State’s first Governor James Stirling.
ON October 1, 1912, the Goomalling-Dowerin Mail reported the death of 99-year-old Joseph Lockyer, “a gentleman who was believed to have been the oldest living resident of the State”.
The offshore meet was held at Stirling’s temporary lodgings at ‘Sulphur Town’ in July 1829 when Captain Mark Currie, Fremantle’s first harbour master, won on a “poney” owned by Stirling.
where they erected a brick house in Crawley.
“My Marco rode the Governor’s pony against Lieutenant Preston’s and won the match out and out; first winner in the Colony!” Currie’s wife and artist Jane Eliza declared.
The first baby in WA was born on the island and the first death was reported after HMS Success crewman William Parson died clearing trees on the island.
By 1833, when the first official horse race was run on the coast near Fremantle, the Curries had left the Swan River Colony. A few people remained on Garden Island.
Married in January, the couple left England to join Captain James Stirling’s Swan River Colony. Arriving in the Parmelia on June 2, 1829, they spent the first few months camped on Garden Island before transferring the seat of government to the mainland.
A well-known horse owner, his descendants say Joseph was one of the jockeys riding in the first six-horse race in Western Australia in 1833. Unfortunately, they do not know who Joseph rode for nor which horse he rode in the historic beach run.
farm and inn at Freshwater Bay (now Peppermint Grove) to accommodate people travelling between Fremantle and Perth. Joseph Lockyer was born at Paulton, in Somerset (England), in 1813 and was within seven months of his 100th birthday when he passed away. He reportedly arrived in 1830 on one of Thomas Peel’s resettlement ships, Hooghly, and lived in Fremantle before he moved to South Australia.
Archival records include the names of all the horse owners and horses (except a black mare owned by Lionel Samson). But only two of the riders’ names are known for sure Lockyer and Master Butler, who rode Tinker in the first horse race.
Lockyer returned to WA and in the 1840s went to farm in Northam where he bought land next to Northam cemetery. In 1858 he married Miss Lydia Simmonds and raised three sons and two daughters. He also left behind 17 grandchildren.
Butler appears on a list of ship passengers arriving in WA; John Martin Butler, who married into the Clune family, is listed as having been born in Ireland in 1814. He arrived in WA in 1830 and died in New Norcia in 1895. He would have been 19 years old if he rode Tinker on October 2, 1833.
Her diary entry for July 8 paints a meek picture of island life at ‘Sulphur Town’ (named after Stirling’s ship): “Dined at the Governor’s. Slept under His Majesty’s canvas, within our own walls”.
The Mail describes Joseph as an, “enthusiastic supporter of the turf, and in the opening stages of the Western Australian colony, owned and trained a large number of horses”.
In 1834, if the same Butler, the Irishman became the first European explorer to visit the Alkimos area north of Perth where he led a small group to search for lost cattle and and passed through the area east of Lake Joondalup. Several places are named after him, including Butler’s Swamp (now Lake Claremont where Butler settled down), the suburb of Butler and John Butler Primary College. He also built a
The Curries moved to Matilda Bay in June 1830 to take up a 12,200-acre grant (now part of the University of WA)
The accomplished horseman, “rode at the first race meeting held in WA, the meeting taking place at Hamilton Hill at the back of Woodman’s Point, Fremantle”. Lockyer continued racing until nearly sixty years old.
“whether with the intention of jockeying or from accident we will not pretend to determine, cleverly sidled his antagonist off the course”
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HORSE TO WATER
WESTERN Australia has some of the best beaches in the world. That’s why so many horse trainers prefer the salt and sand to tone and treat their prized animals. Murdoch University Animal Hospital’s Registered Specialist in Equine Surgery Rachael Smith says beaches often are used for the recreation, rehabilitation and training of horses from all disciplines, pleasure, sport and racing.
“This is an excellent supplement for horses that are prone to injury, or are rehabilitating from joint or tendon injuries,” she says. “Additionally, the benefits of hydrotherapy for recovering from a strenuous training session, reducing swelling in limbs, and physiotherapy for joint motion following surgery (arthroscopy, wound repair) are well documented.
“The beach offers owners and trainers an alternative environment to complement their horses race or competition preparation,” she says.
“Chronic or poorly healing wounds also benefit from water wading to reduce swelling by the external pressure from the water and improved blood supply while exercising, as well as the therapeutic effects of salt water for cleaning open wounds.”
“The benefits are multiple and are gained through exercising horses on the firm packed sand, water wading at chest height or swimming the horses in deeper water. Due to hard or uneven track surfaces, poor conformation, or training practices, horses commonly encounter foot soreness or joint pain from impact trauma, particularly during the drier months.
Beach work also includes psychological benefits which allow horses to escape familiar circular exercise tracks which have a tendency to make horses ‘stale’ or ‘nappy’.
“Working horses on the sand provides a firm even surface with some ‘give’ on landing, thereby reducing impact trauma without undue strain on tendons and soft tissues which can occur in deeper soft sand.”
Dr Smith adds the transport of horses to the beach allows owners and trainers to socialise and exercise with others among the local equine community to provide, “a sense of pride, belonging and ownership of such a facility”.
Dr Smith says exercising in water promotes strengthening and conditioning of horse muscle. Whether this is water wading or swimming, cardiovascular fitness is improved without the physiologic impact loads that occur when training on land.
Staff at Murdoch’s Animal Hospital exhibited at CY O’Connor Reserve as part of the 2016 official plaque unveiling at CY O’Connor Beach. Its full-size horse model proved a big hit among children (not to mention the real horses) who were shown how to dress wounds and apply bandages. – 10 –
RACE DAY - OCTOBER 2, 1833
‘the race course has long been fixed upon as an appropriate site; it is about a mile and a half from Fremantle, on a slightly undulating plain skirting the sea, the adjoining hills affording a full view of the course; booths which were erected on the brow of the hill, with their variegated flags, the ginger-bread nut-stall, and the lame fiddler, contributed much to the animation of the scene. The groups of fashionably dressed ladies' and gentlemen promenading to and fro, the tilted carts, the busy din of preparation, the cry of clear the course - and at length the ponies being placed side by side at the starting post, the jockies all appropriately dressed, presented no contemptible display’ - Perth Gazette, October 1833
THIS is the colourful beach scene described by the Perth Gazette on October 5, 1833 - three days after the race on what is now CY O’Connor Beach in Cockburn. According to the report, Captain D. Taylor, of the schooner Helen, imported six Timor ponies for the race organised on “The Downs” near present-day South Fremantle. The 1833 meet was organised by Charles Smith (agriculturist) and John Weaville (merchant), the six riders racing twice “round a half-mile course … for the institution of an amusement calculated to excite a considerable emulation amongst the breeders and importers of horses”.
bolted at starting. Dandy came in without any competition. The third heat was again well contested between Tinker and Dandy; the latter however won.” In the second race there were only two starters; Mr George Leake’s Jack and Samson’s nameless black mare. Jack won in one heat twice round. The third race included three starters; Captain Erskine’s Perouse, Mr Stephen George Henty’s Jack and Mr Scott’s Grey. The latter beat Jack after a good race, Perouse “bolted off the course and presumably made for home”.
Easy to manage, the ponies stood 11 hands high and had a thick neck and wide chest with a short compact back. The first race took place at 2.30pm and was for a subscription purse of five sovereigns. The starters were Captain McDermott’s Dandy, Captain Taylor’s Doctor and Teazer, Mr Leeder’s Bob, Mr Solomon’s Tinker, Mr Dowing’s Jacko Mackako and Samson’s strangely-named More in Sorrow Than Anger. McDermott won the best of three heats - Dandy WA’s first winning race horse.
The fourth and last race, with a subscription of three pounds, “was for ponies, and the stake was three sovereigns. Five ponies were entered, “but most of them preferring the branch roads soon after starting, the run was more amusing than edifying”.
(Sadly, Dandy’s owner went down with his ship Cumberland in a storm near Safety Bay on August 28, 1834). The first heat was contested between Dandy and Tinker. Within a few yards of the winning post, Tinker’s rider, Master Butler, “whether with the intention of jockeying or from accident, we will not pretend to determine, cleverly sidled his antagonist off the course”. In the second heat: “Dandy’s rider retaliated and Tinker
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importers of horses. It may be expected from the general interest which was evinced in the sports on Wednesday, that before long some steps will be taken to form periodical meetings. The spot selected for the race course has long been fixed upon as an appropriate site; it is about a mile and a half from Fremantle”.
courses in the colony, and which by a little lopping of the trees that at present obstruct the view, the racing events would be seen from start to finish”. In 1894, the Fremantle Jockey Club took over what was by then a half-wild track at Woodman Point. However, it never took off even though it was granted a 99-year lease in 1899. The area was hard to access and the government would not extend the railway line far enough south.
The correspondent also notes: “Some evil genius seems invariably to watch over these meetings. The arrangements for the amusement of all parties would not be complete without a row, consequently a row we had”.
“By 1901, the club had stopped operating at Woodman Point, and in 1904 the disused track was taken over for the explosives magazine and the Jockey Club began meeting at Bicton instead,” according to www.azelialeymuseum. com.au/history-of-woodman-point-racecourse.
Having attracted considerable interest from horse owners and trainers, the first horse race was followed by a second meet on April 14, 1834, the length of the course increased to six furlongs, about 1200m. There were only 162 horses in the colony and population of 2013 in 1834.
The entertainment for the day included, “Climbing a greased pole for a hat, wheeling a barrow blindfolded to a given mark, and a running match between Mr. J. Morrell, jun. and Mr. Davey, which took place previously to the horses and ponies arriving on the course”.
It would be 17 years before another race was held on the beach. In 1885, The Turf reports that it was, “very gratifying to find that our Fremantle friends have been able to issue a somewhat attractive programme of events to be contested on their racecourse at Woodman’s Point”.
The Perth Gazette commented: “As the origin of racing in this Colony will probably be interesting to future chronologists, we feel it our duty to record, that the sporting world are indebted to Capt. Taylor of the Helen … for the institution of an amusement calculated to excite a considerable emulation amongst the breeders and
In 1888, Woodman Point hosted a race attended by 200 people who gathered at, “one of the prettiest situated
Racing on the now State heritage-listed horse exercise beach was not a regular event at The Downs after 1833. But as a training ground, it was and remains unequalled in WA.
Continued on pages 22 and 23.
Adding: “Nothing could have passed off more pleasantly than last year’s races on the same course, which with the expenditure of a little money could be made one of the best grounds for racing purposes in the Colony.”
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small dinghy. “It’s good for horses with bad legs, the beach is good for a workout.” Nancy’s father worked as a warder at Freo Gaol and bought a house and five stables in Francesco Street where she lived until she married trainer Doug Watson. “Doug died 35 years ago. I didn’t bother anyone, I stuck with the horses after he went,” the self-described footy fanatic says. “When I go they’ll knock this down and build a couple of houses on it. “Today, the younger ones want fast motorcars, not horses.”
AUSTRALIA’S oldest jockey. A master farrier whose shoes fit like a glove. A pony thief, country riding legend and the 89-year-old horse whisperer who still weeds her own stables. This commemorative publication honours the extraordinary lives of WA riding and racing families. Farrier Dudley ‘Boof’ Anderson, 85, was 14 when he bought his first horse for four quid. He walked it all the way from stables near what is now the Southlands shopping centre to White Gum Valley. “That’s me walking, leading the horse all the way home,” he emphasises in case you missed it. Having fitted thousands of shoes to horses in Australia and overseas, the master shoer says, “On some mornings, on the east breeze, I can hear horses working down here … I think, ‘shit that one doesn’t sound right’.” Born in Armadale where his father worked in the railways, Boof was five when he moved to White Gum Valley. Farriers Lane was named after the number of blacksmith shops in White Gum Valley, including his dad’s. At school, he also rubbed shoulders with other truant riders such as Georgie Dillon and Jack Cockell (father of country racing), “he’d been out in the bush chasing brumbies.” At age 20, he delivered milk to 360 customers on his round that included families on the Cappuccino Strip. Now living on nearly 11 acres in Jandakot, Boof can still picture Fremantle shark fisherman Ted ‘Sharky’ Nelson’s little dinghy which trainers hired to swim horses for a shilling.
Still watching the weekend races together, Florence and Jimmy Banks talk fondly of their life together in the horse game. On the wall, above framed memories of their family and friends, hang two prized photographs of 1950 Perth Cup winner Beau Vasse and 1931 Melbourne Cup winner White Noise, Florence pointing out her uncle Neville Percival beat Phar Lap on White Noise.
Nearby, Davy’s very fit cousin Danny ‘Dashing’ Miller still rides at the age of 70. Australia’s oldest registered jockey says beach riding has played an important role in his career. The benefits of swimming and beach work apply to both horse and rider, he says at his Oakford property where he keeps a few horses. Dashing Dan rode his first win on Sparkling Gem at Ascot in 1962, aged 15.
Florence, 71, was born in Subiaco. Jim, 73, got on his first horse when he was 14, the horse lovers having bought Randwick stables (the State’s oldest operating stables) with winnings from their famous 1950 win. They owned the Randwick stables off Hamilton Road for 49 years, the 1950 West report noting Jimmy’s preference for beach work. “We used to take horses to the beach, to ol’ Robb Jetty,” Florence says. She repeats a common theme in water training - sharks, which often followed riders and mounts swimming near the old abattoir.
Success on the track runs in his famous family; cousin Johnny Miller (widely known as J.J.) winning the Melbourne Cup on Galilee in 1966 and brothers Michael and Stephen each winning a Perth Cup while members of the Neesham and Regan families excelled in football, water polo and swimming. “Sports is a great reason for communities to come together,” he says.
“There’d be a shark trailing in the water behind him (Jim),” who actually stood in front of the horse with his feet balanced on its shoulders. Jim says South Beach had a shark proof swimming area with a net that, “ran from alongside the jetty and enclosed a large area that was well lit at night. I learned to swim by dog paddling around it”. There was a railway station transporting families to the beach, and horses, which were loaded and taken to both metropolitan and country racecourses.
He recalls towering sand dunes south of South Beach groyne, at the top of which were tethered horses while riders worked the beach below. “You’d get anything up to 15 to 20 cars with jockeys coming to work horses there.” One of those jockeys included Billy Dillon, “an Einstein on a horse”. Boof also knows how to produce winners, having spotted famous Village Kid during a holiday in NZ in 1984. Based at trainer Bill Horn’s Mandogalup stables, the champion pacer was the fastest horse in Australia in 1986, 1988 and 1989.
Trainer Nancy Watson, 89, had just got off her knees weeding the horse box at her stables in East Fremantle when she decided to take a break and share her beach training memories. “I used the beach every day,” she says, having also treated horses in the water from the back of a – 14 –
At Davy Miller’s place in Oakford, it’s still fast horses. These days, the 75-year-old trainer says the only thing missing is a beach close enough to walk to. “I often go to the powerhouse. The best beach was that area south of South Beach. There were stables all through there.” Davy’s father owned stables on Lefroy Road. He says he was riding on the beach when he was six years old, “you started work when you were old enough to walk”. He says the first horse he stole was a “tiny pony” off Jack Cockell, who owned stables on Daly Street.
Champion jockey J.J. Miller, 83, agreed: “The South Beach area was a major part of life in WA. At one stage, there were more horses trained there than at Ascot. In the mid-1940s, during and after the war, it was one of the most prominent training areas in WA. And not only thoroughbreds, trotters also.” J.J. was born in Fremantle in 1933 and as a young jockey trying to lose weight placed wet hessian bags in his father’s bakery oven in Palmyra to create a homemade sauna. In 1965, a year after moving to Adelaide to ride for the late Bart Cummings and Colin Hayes, J.J. rode second in a Melbourne Cup photo finish. The next year, he won the Melbourne Cup on Cummings-trained Galilee. J.J. says he was 13 years old when he first rode on the beach, “it was very competitive, even on the beach”.
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HORSES TIED TO SAMSON LEGACY
STOCKFED FOR A CENTURY On Rockingham Road opposite Davilak Oval, a family business - Nibali Stockfeed - embraces a 90-year-old heritage built on rock, straw and a missing clock. Built in 1926, the historic building at 77 Rockingham Road was one of the first stockfeed suppliers south of the river. Owned and operated by John Greenslade, the business became the local stop for anyone who needed food for pets which included horses, sheep and pigs. Nibble Stockfeed’s Joel says it supplies most of the stables in the Fremantle and Cockburn areas - continuing a 100-year-old tradition as the longest running retailer of stockfeed since 1926. The limestone rock used to build Greenslade’s was blasted from the hill on the corner block property. “The person responsible for the blasting was ‘Andy’ a local character renowned for his drinking habits,” according to Cockburn historical records. Greenslade became a well known personality who contributed to many community organisations. He helped in the foundation of Fremantle Hospital, serving on the hospital board and the Jandakot and Fremantle Roads boards. The nuclear medicine wing of the hospital is named in his honour.
HORSES played a key role in the early development of Western Australia. One of the colonial beneficiaries of the horse-powered economy was Swan River settler Lionel Samson. Today, his descendants still operate the oldest family-run business in Australia - Lionel Samson & Son in Cliff Street, Fremantle. In August 1829, London stock broker Lionel and his younger brother William arrived in Fremantle on Calista, the second ship to the WA colony. Within a year, L&W Samson was set up as a liquor and general merchandise business, which remains in the family. Postmaster-general and government auctioneer from 1830 to 1832, Lionel received the State’s first liquor licence in 1835, which remains current.
The Cliff Street building is an architectural treasure, and includes remnants of the original stables that housed horses after 1898 before motor engines took over. The cellar, with beams which still show signs of an 1895 fire, lead to the theatrette where a black and white family portrait hangs on the wall of a former chimney, the ovalframed image is regarded as possibly the, “oldest known Fremantle photograph”, circa 1857. The seats came from His Majesty’s Theatre in 1979.
In 1833, one of Samson’s horses, More in Sorrow than Anger, took part in the first horse race at ‘The Downs’, south of Fremantle.
Upstairs, some of WA’s precious artefacts - handwritten company log books, postcards, workers’ gifts and a bottle of Irish brandy - are locked in glass cabinets which fill the room overlooking Cliff Street.
Today, family members are represented through three holding companies. Lionel’s grandson Frederick was mayor from 1951 to 1972, his influence crucial in salvaging and restoring the Old Lunatic Asylum as the Fremantle Museum.
Custodians of the Samson family museum - Jacqueline Wisdom, Lis Marris and Jill Anderson - muse over a famous incident in which Lionel finds himself riding to Perth via a track cleared through Preston Point. Lionel was thrown from his horse after it collided with a tree stump, history having recorded that, “Lionel must have complained loudly to authorities because within a week tenders were called for a more direct route between Perth and Fremantle”. Lionel died on March 15, 1878.
In England, Lionel’s father Michael Samson was, “a member of one of the old established and wealthy families of English Jewry”. In Fremantle, the Samson family produced three mayors and has a suburb and a number of streets in Perth and the Pilbara (Point Samson) named after it. – 18 –
The walls of his store are constructed from limestone and plaster. The gabled roof is corrugated iron, supported by wooden posts. At the apex of the gable a clock was inserted. There is a brick extension to the rear of the popular shop. John Greenslade originally came from Somerset in England. He migrated to Australia in 1913 and his first job was as a driver for Bolton's Produce Store. He finished building Greenslades a year after Hamilton Hill received electricity for street lights in 1925. Domestic power arrived in 1926.
SHIPPING BOSS TALKS RACING RETIRED plasterer Sam Thompson, 90, bought his first car in 1957 when he took a double at the Doncaster and Sydney Cup races. His one pound paid out 450 pounds, a small fortune for the then 30-year-old punter. Having served in New Guinea and a member of the occupation forces in Japan until 1948, Sam says he climbed on to his first horse in 1931, aged four. “My grandfather used to have a horse called Myrtle. It galloped 20m down Swanbourne Street, then threw me off.”
“As an added twist to our Fremantle heritage, my mother is Fay Sloan (her mother was a Pollard). The Pollard family were also passengers aboard the Rockingham so it effectively took the families four generations to get together and have the Thompson clan.”
Sam says in 1941 he paid one pound for his first horse, Silvertail, which did not win him any races but did earn him 10 pounds when he sold it to a new owner who went on to win two races with it. “I used to ride it around on the streets of Fremantle. I put my sister on it one time, she gave it a whack and ended up going from Wray Avenue to South Beach as I chased them on my bike.”
Speaking at his office at shipping company Seacorp on Phillimore Street, Fremantle, Craig remembers his father taking punts on Saturday, “you knew when he had a good day or a bad day”.
“They used to run horses over the dunes and a guy with a trumpet kept an eye out for sharks.” One of five children and father of four
boys, Craig started work as an office clerk in the Seacorp building in February 1976.
Sam says his father and grandfather trained their horses at South Beach and the dune area formerly known as Cockell’s Paddock (now Hollis Park).
“I decided to buy this place 15 years ago when the business expanded. The company now operates in five continents and last year moved 565 million tonnes of cargo.”
“My eight-year-old cousin used to take me to South Beach to watch the horses training,” he recalls in the lead up to the 183rd anniversary of the first horse race in WA in 1833.
Craig says he has always had an interest in horses, “I recall as a young kid standing at the front of the TAB in Hami Hill, we’d cut lawns and pick up drink bottles to secure a $5 bunker to bet with”.
“They used to run horses over the dunes and a guy with a trumpet kept an eye out for sharks. They also used to bring cattle from Wyndham and swim them ashore. Some of the animals came in with no limbs.” His family came to WA in 1829. The Eacotts, on his father’s side, arrived on the Rockingham, one of three ships Thomas Peel used to transport passengers to the new colony in 1829 and 1830.
Pornichet to an amazing win in the 2015 group one, $655,500 Doomben Cup (2000m) in Brisbane. Craig’s other successes include Luke’s Luck, King Saul, Hallowell Belle, Temporise, Longma and Lunar Eclipse. Craig says he had the early favourite in the 2014 Melbourne Cup, The Offer, but it was scratched a few days prior to race day. “It had won the Sydney Cup by three and a half lengths going away so it was a big disappointment. Last year, it ran a credible sixth in the Cup on a dry track. He says the worst thing that could happen to a person, “happened to me - my best horse was my very first horse. I had a share in a Waterhouse-trained horse called Theseo, which won five group ones and $3.2 million. I thought, ‘this is an easy gig’. That was six to seven years ago”. In that time, Craig has travelled regularly to eastern States races in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Strangely, he never saw one of his horses win when he was at the track. “I have decided to reduce my exposure to the breeding side of the business,” he says.
Having grown up in Hilton, Craig now owns a thoroughbred stud in Denmark where up to 50 horses are stabled.
“It takes too long. It’s a merry-go-round you can’t get off as you have a two year old, a foal at foot and one in the oven and you don’t know whether the mare is any good.
He bought 80ha Mount Hallowell Stud in 2005 when it was still a vineyard, with Gai Waterhouse having played an important role, guiding the former French entire
“For me, it started off as a passion that became a serious business, I want to take it back to that passion. I would rather go and look at the best horses at the sales ring than having to love all these ‘children’. “It is a very tough game and certainly not for faint hearted.” Not tough enough though for Japan, where he is dipping his toe in the water with the leading lady of racing Gai Waterhouse. Japan has the best thoroughbred blood in the world. “Gai has put together a syndicate which bought four weanlings and I am the leading owner and managing partner. We will try them over there first then bring the good ones, hopefully, to Australia to race here in my silks which are gold with a purple star and cap.” Craig says he is a great supporter of regional racing: “It is important in the country, it brings the community together.”
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A HORSE HISTORY (1829-2017) AFTER founding the Swan River Colony, WA Governor James Stirling returned from England with a number of top thoroughbreds and a race was held in October 1836 at Guildford, with ploughing matches alternated with horse races, “promoted to encourage the raising of thoroughbreds”. This was three years after the first horse race in WA was held at CY O’Connor Beach (Stirling was in London). Over the next few decades, horse racing boomed, with meetings held periodically in Perth and York (from 1844), and, “now and then a gathering on the Fremantle course”.
close to racecourses, with horses trained regularly (and still are) at recreation grounds and in suburban backyards and streets. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, trotting (pacing) became a popular sport. In 1910, the WA Trotting Association formed.
In 1848, the first race meeting was held at the site of the future Ascot Race Course. From the late 1850s, meetings took place at Bunbury and Busselton.
Horse racing continued to grow during the gold boom, rising to its zenith in the pre-World War One period. After the war, unregistered courses continued to operate at Coogee, Bicton, Kensington, Jandakot, Rockingham and Woodman’s Point.
In the early to mid-1860s, meetings were held at Geraldton, Irwin and Newcastle (Toodyay). In WA’s North-West, racing started at Roebourne in the late 1860s. The Western Australian Turf Club, the controlling body that oversees racing, was formed in 1852.
In the early 1900s, the beach south of the existing South Beach groyne continued to be used for exercising and training horses. Pipeline pioneer Charles Yelverton O’Connor, whose hunter Moonlight won the Fremantle Hunt Club Cup in September 1901, killed himself after riding into the water in 1902. From 1907, through World War One and into the 1920s and 1930s, there was a gradual increase in the number of registered trainers in the Fremantle and Cockburn area.
According to the State heritage listing for the South Beach horse exercise area, for most of the period from 1850 to 1890, Fremantle played a lesser role in horse racing than Perth. Stables, however, remained a part of urban life for decades, with horses stabled in residential areas for recreational and commercial use. Stables often were built
During the war, the 10th Light Horse used the beach for exercising and preparing horses for war. In 1919, the Perth Cup was declared a dead heat between Ernest Lee Steere’s horse, the legendary Eurythmic, and Fremantle merchant Samuel Bateman’s Rivose, trained by well known trainer James Jeffery who trained horses in Fremantle for more than 30 years, winning the Queen’s Cup on Sir Coral in Adelaide in 1951. His brother, John Jeffery, trained Lilypond to win the Perth Cup in 1923. Both trainers used the historic beach. So too did the Marks family. Erected in the 1920s for Frederick Charles John ‘Jack’ Marks, Randwick in Hamilton Hill remains the State’s oldest operating stables. The heritage listed site has played an integral role in the development of South Fremantle and Hamilton Hill. Jack
and Amy Marks went to live in Kalgoorlie in 1917, Jack joining his three brothers who were involved in horse racing on the Eastern Goldfields. Jack and Amy moved to South Fremantle with their three children, bringing their timber house with them. Like his brothers, Jack worked in South Fremantle as a horse trainer. He died in 1926, the property transferred to his wife Amy and then to his brother Sol. The property was registered the following year as Randwick Stables and sold to John Egan of West Perth on April 15, 1930. The Collett family occupied the property until 1939. In 1950-1951, Mrs Florence Mary Banks is recorded as the owner of Randwick Stables. Her husband Jimmy Banks trained Beau Vasse at the stables before winning the 1950 Perth Cup, their winnings used to buy Randwick. In 1999, the site was sold to Main Roads WA.
lung for 28 days, Prime Minister John Curtin (another Freo boy) sat by the bed of the national hero. Well-known jockeys who worked horses at the beach included Fremantle jockey Billy Dillon (1906-1955), ranked as “one of the world’s best” jockeys who rode for Indian maharajahs”, Roy and Neville Percival, Eric Cameron, Tony Outram, Stan Lee, Jack Edwards, Merv Posner, Bernie Duggan, Ernie Hodgson, M. Lea and Arthur Wagner, Johnny Wilson, Jack Ingram, Angus Armanasco, Arthur Cooper and Graham Webster. Melbourne Cup winner Damien Oliver’s grandfather Gerry was apprenticed to the late Tom Lippiat, who in the 1920s and 1930s housed and raced gallopers, trotters and workhorses in stables on Onslow and Chudleigh streets. WA governor and war hero Sir Hughie Edwards also enjoyed helping prepare mounts for race days.
In 1927, South Fremantle blacksmith Albert Mollett formed part of the escort for the visit by the Duke and Duchess of York. After the parade in Perth, the royals thanked the escort with, “drinks in the stables”. His father and grandfather respected farriers, Alby recalled on Sunday mornings in summer, “boys came from everywhere to lead the horses stabled nearby, down Duoro Road for a swim in the ocean”. Alby lived in Walker Street for 55 years, having shod 27 Perth Cup winners, 32 Railway Stakes victors, 25 WA Derby winners and the first Australasian Derby winner. He served in the 2nd AIF Regiment and in Darwin during the 1942 bombings. Later in life, he lectured at the Murdoch University school of veterinary studies.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Fremantle Council leased land in the area to the south of Daly, Thomas, Hulbert, Walker and Hickory streets near the landfill site to a number of horse trainers including Arthur Bowden, Jack Collinson and the Cridlands. W.F. ‘Pop’ Johnson, too, trained horses here for more than 55 years.
In the 1930s, former pearl diver James David Cockell, “one of the State’s best horsemen” and “the father of WA country racing”, trained race horses in stables he built in Daly Street, South Fremantle, which accommodated around 30 to 40 horses at their peak. In 1930, photographs show a portion of the yard Cockell built at the former South Fremantle tip site, which local trainers want renamed “Cockell’s Paddock” (now Hollis Park). Many famous individuals and racing families in WA trained horses on the State heritage-listed South Beach Horse Exercise Area. They include the Foleys, Tembys and Millers, Jimmy Banks, Jimmy Zinnecker, Billy Curtis, Ted Temby, Bob Carmody, Scotty McNeil, J.J. O’Hara, Tommy Sheehy and Clarrie Rule. Other turf racing trainers whose careers included periods of work at South Fremantle include Wally Mitchell, Jack Kirkpatrick and Tommy Unkovich, who rode the 1954 WA Derby winner Asterios. When Tommy was hurt in a five-horse fall in Melbourne and lay unconscious with a fractured skull and punctured
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A HORSE HISTORY (1829-2017) cont’d
SHOE IN
HORSE TRIVIA
Well-known trainer Jack Collinson trained many winners at his stables in Daly Street, including Gold Patois (Railway Stakes 1948), Aptofine (Railway Stakes 1952) and Yabaroo (Perth Cup 1955). Yabaroo was ridden by Harry McCloud, who rode 1942 Melbourne Cup winner Colonus.
HORSESHOES have been used for thousands of years. Riders, farmers and cavalrymen used shoes to counter wear and tear and disorders associated with the hoof. A horse can grow a complete new foot in one year? Like humans, their feet need to be trimmed and their shoes reset regularly because their feet keep growing.
• Even though people think a horse is fast it can only reach just over half the speed of nature’s quickest four legged animal – the cheetah – which gets up to a top speed of 115 kph.
Wearing shoes provides protection, traction, gait improvement and soundness in a horse’s step. Each horse is different and will need different shoes.
• The “Tim Tam” biscuit brand was named after the 1946 Kentucky Derby winner of the same name.
Jack’s ‘first’ apprentice jockey Tommy Little recalls the South Beach exercise area crowded with horses, trotters and gallopers. The 84-year-old horseman says, “you could swim them, walk them and work them in the sandhills”. Trainers including Collinson used the edges of the old rubbish tip site, others building stables nearby to take advantage of the open sand area leading to the beach. In the post-World War Two period, a number of successful horses were stabled at Randwick Stables in Hamilton Hill and trained at South Beach under Banks, including Beau Vasse, winner of the 1950 Perth Cup; Tinder Parney, which started as favourite for the Perth Cup in 1960; and WA Derby winner Gojon in 1963. By the early 1950s, the Western Australian Turf Club listed 31 registered horse trainers near the exercise beach. At the height of the Fremantle racehorse training industry, there were around 400 racehorses stabled in the FremantleCockburn area. In 1952, celebrations of the Club’s centenary included photographs of, “Scenes on the beach at Fremantle, where many horses are trained”, which show horses and riders making their way through the sand hills to the beach area. In the 1950s and 1960s, residential development increased in South Fremantle and Hamilton Hill. The introduction of by-laws to regulate the proximity of stables to a minimum of 50ft from dwellings, “began to force the racing industry out of the area”. Among stables that continued to operate were Collinson’s in Daly Street, which produced England’s Dust, which he owned in partnership with George Atkinson, who scooped the WA Derby (1958) and Perth Cup (1961). In the 1970s, the so-called ‘50 foot’ by-law was rigorously enforced and the number of horses using the beach area declined. In February 1989, a feature article in the West Australian drew attention to the beach’s “long and colourful history as the birthplace of WA horse racing”. Only 14 racing stables operated at the time, the number of horses having fallen to about 50. In the lead-up to the Australian bicentennial year, Daly Street stables owner Terry Patterson proposed a reenactment of the first horse race, but was unsuccessful in his application for funding assistance. In 1991, he helped organise a re-enactment race attended by thousands of people.
In 2007, local trainers and horse owners including Terry and Randwick’s Alison Bolas succeeded in having the South Beach Horse Exercise and Bridle Trails listed permanently on the State heritage register. Today, trainers and riders continue to chase the surf on WA’s historic horse beach.
There are two types of shoe - open-heeled and rounded over the front of the hoof but does not close in the back and a bar shoe that wraps around the entire hoof. The most commonly used material for shoes is steel and aluminium. Aluminum is lighter and can help the horse move with a freer, more flowing gait. There are two ways to shoe a horse. A hot shoe is when the farrier heats the shoe in a cast iron stove and moulds the shoe on to the foot and a cold shoeing is when the farrier applies the shoe without heating it first. Shoes can be applied with nails or glue. Nailing shoes does not hurt them.
• Approximately 60% of all racehorses born never get to start in a race.
• Horses have over 200 joints in their body. Horses can sleep both lying down and standing up. • Horses have the biggest eyes of any land mammal. Because horse’s eyes are on the side of the head, they can see nearly 360 degrees. It can see different things in each eye. Horses also have 16 muscles in each ear, allowing them to rotate their ears 180 degrees. • Horses have better memories than elephants. • If at first you don’t succeed try another 33 times at least before you give up. Reckless, the horse that captured the hearts of a nation through Phar Lap’s strapper Tommy Woodcock training him, took 34 starts to win a race. In 1977, Reckless won the Sydney Cup, Brisbane Cup and Adelaide Cup before running second in Gold and Black’s Melbourne Cup. • Horses in the wild eat for 16 hours a day on average. A horse’s stomach is designed to eat foliage consisting of grass and tree leaves. • Horses were last used in battle in 1943 by the Russian Cossacks who attacked and beat a German tank division which was snowbound when the Germans invaded Russia. • Alfalfa is thought to be the first cultivated food fed to horses, probably by the Parthians around 100BC. The first grain to be domesticated, and probably the first to be given to horses, was barley. • At John F. Kennedy's funeral - November 25th, 1963 - the riderless horse was named Black Jack. The boots reversed in the stirrups indicated a fallen leader who would ride no more, a tradition tracing back to the ancient Mongols.