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Buchan and Gelantipy Racing Club

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Great strike at Canni

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The Canni Creek Picnic Races took centre stage last weekend with a large crowd on course for 136th running of the historic Buchan Cup.
Buchan and Gelantipy Racing Club secretary, Ian Dunkley, was delighted with the event, with the second highest crowd in attendance ever recorded.
“It was an excellent day, everything ran like clock-work, making it possibly our best ever day,” Dunkley said.
“The crowd was second best highest ever, only topped by the return to racing after bushfires.”
The cup was taken out  by Mornington galloper, Laststrikeyourout, delighting owner/trainer Nicole Dickson and leading picnic jockey Shaun Cooper, who rode a treble on the card.
Cooper stalked the leaders, including favourite and second placegetter, Golwen, one of three runners in the race for last year’s winning trainer Troy Kilgower.
Cooma galloper, Gwennybegg, battled on strongly but both placegetters were no match for Dickson’s five-year-old mare who raced away late to win by three lengths.
Dickson was delighted to win her sixth picnic race with her improving mare.
“It was a great day, my first time at the Buchan races, they put on an outstanding day, she’s been unlucky a few times lately,” Dickson said.
It will likely not be the last time Dickson is seen in the High Country this year with the Hinnomunje Cup (Omeo, March 11) and Tambo Valley Cup (Swifts Creek, April 9) possible targets now Last-strikeyourout has shown her liking for racing at altitude.
“Omeo and Swifts Creek are quite possible, we had such a great trip and she handled so well,” Dickson said.
It was a great day for Bairnsdale trained gallopers, with three successful on the day.
Black Banjo saluted for Kasey Wilson, while Bon Torr Mer was an impressive winner for David Ferguson. Both were ridden by the Mornington-based Cooper. His treble saw him awarded the John Woodgate Memorial leading jockey award.
The most popular win was Mulua Man for Bairnsdale trainer Jackson Pallot and jockey Tyson Barton.
Kilgower took out the Gary Mitton Memorial trainer’s award, which was sponsored by top Warrnambool trainer Lindsay Smith, a good friend of Mitton’s.
Dunkley was appreciative and supportive of the work done by several local organisations.
“The Buchan Football Netball Club did a great job with the bar, as did the kindergarten and school with the barbecue, while the Rotary Club ran a great silent auction,” he said.
Fashions on the Field were popular with Leigh Mitchell taking out lady of the day, while tiny tot went to Melbourne’s Jonte Gregory.
The sprints and lolly drops were again popular with the large crowd. The open sprint went to young Matt Hamilton who was too fast for a large field that contained former AFL player, Jack Leslie. Marlo’s Leah McMahon proved too slick in the junior sprint.

Article Source: Bairnsdale Advertiser

 
Hope rises out of the ashes in East Gippsland

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Picture: Diane Keily

A month after the fires that torched East Gippsland, two stories of hope come from one devastated district. One is about a little boy lost and found. The other about Victoria’s most distant racecourse being saved by a family who also saved their racehorse.

Banjo Paterson would have loved it.

The boy was lost in blackened bush about 30km across country from the racetrack at Canni Creek. The Queen has Royal Ascot. The Buchan and Gelantipy Race Club has Canni Creek. It’s as Australian as kangaroos hopping up the straight, which happens enough that stewards sometimes have to shoo them off before a race. Flemington it ain’t.

The permanent population of Canni Creek is nine, mostly Sandys, who have been around those parts a long time. When the New Year fires hit, two Sandys and an in-law rushed to save the racetrack.

As Peter Sandy tackled the fire with son Michael and an in-law, Mitchell Hynes, his wife Robyn had to look after their galloper Firefree — “Jeffrey” to his mates.

Firefree is the family’s horse of a lifetime. If all their farm had burned, not just the fences, the gritty hurdler would have been their only chance of getting back on their feet. They hope he can give Gippsland something to cheer about this season.

From the first time Peter Sandy “popped him over a few logs” while educating him five years ago, Jeffrey loved jumping. Now he has run in 58 races, winning six, placing 15 times and bringing in $280,000. He ran second in the Grand National Hurdle last season and fourth in the marathon Jericho Cup at Warrnambool.

He’s stepping up to steeplechases this year and stands to be an even bigger local hero in the hills where he was bred. If he wins the National or the Grand Annual, the TAB will have to send up an armoured car of cash to cover the bets. And the Sandys will be able to build new fences.

How Robyn Sandy sheltered Firefree at the Buchan footy ground is already part of local folklore. Especially the bit about her taking off her summer dress and wetting it to keep him cool when ammunition started exploding in a burning house nearby.

Meanwhile, her “boys” were rescuing the racecourse. The fire destroyed the judge’s box and most of the “rail” but they saved the jockeys’ room, horse stalls and bar.

The winning post was scorched but still standing, an image that has caught on as a symbol of the resilience of fire-ravaged districts. Thanks to a generous donor, a plaque with a picture of Firefree and Robyn Sandy, fully dressed, will soon be fixed to the post.

To everyone’s relief, racing authorities have pulled the right rein, letting the locals patch up the track to run their own race meeting. Donations have flooded in: one from a group of city women racehorse owners; an even bigger one from Terry Henderson, a high-end syndicator who values grassroots racing.

There were rumblings about moving the February 15 meeting to one of the big towns closer to Melbourne but “picnics” don’t work like that. Take them to town and it kills the magic. The once-a-year races pull family and friends from all over Australia — but only if they are held at “home”.

Buchan “picnics”, like the annual races at Swifts Creek and Hinnomunjie, now outdraw professional meetings at bigger centres. East Gippslanders have clung to their picnic races since the days when every tiny district had its own racecourse.

That explains why Canni Creek was the first racetrack this reporter ever stepped on to. Not many years later, I rode in a race there. I was 14, the horse only slightly younger. He was a retired city galloper, Shah Beau, pulled from the paddock for a few weeks to make a cameo appearance.

Shah Beau was trained by the king of the Gippsland picnic circuit, Alec Manning, who had borrowed him to make up the numbers. Alec won the race, and maybe two or three others that day. Alec was fitter than most horses and all amateur jockeys because he shore sheep five days a week and rode his gallopers “work” every morning.

All I had to do was not fall off — or get in Alec’s way. We ran third. There were four runners.

Someday, a filmmaker will study the box office success of Phar Lap, The Man from Snowy River and Ride Like A Girl and dream up a tear-jerking, nailbiting, adrenaline-charged, horse opera set in the high country. They could do worse than hang a plot around the true story of one of Alec Manning’s many picnic cup wins …

It’s Newmarket Handicap day, March 11, 1972. Roy Higgins rides five winners at Flemington, where A.C. Manning the shearer, picnic jockey and trainer, saddles his horse Shadowood and legs up one of the great jumps jockeys, Tom McGinley, for the hurdle.

Shadowood runs fourth, a good result for a bush horse trained along country roads and cow paddocks. Alec hands “Old Shadder” to a friend and rushes to Essendon Airport, where bush pilot Ben Buckley is waiting.

They fly across the ranges past Omeo, to land in the middle of the Hinnomunjie racecourse between races. The crowd cheers and waves beers.

Alec scrambles from the plane and runs to the ramshackle jockeys’ room. He puts on his “colours”, mounts his great picnic horse, High Gate, and wins the Omeo High Plains Cup. Rachel Griffiths couldn’t make it up.

That’s the thing about bush races and bushfires: they can bring out the best in people. Which brings us to the little boy lost.

Last Sunday, Jean Patrick Eveleigh went missing at Waterholes, a dot on the map in rough country between Buchan and Bairnsdale. His parents’ property had been burnt out and the four-year-old and his dad were camping in a caravan. Jean slipped away while his father was outside trying for phone reception.

That night, soldiers billeted at East Sale RAAF base were briefed. At dawn, they took off in helicopters but turned around because there was nowhere to land.

They commandeered vehicles and hit the road. By this time, the boy had been missing almost 20 hours and would be dehydrated and hungry, at best. The troops were briefed for a worst-case scenario.

The codeword if the boy was found alive was “Lighthorse”. If dead, “Charcoal”.

The Diggers fanned out in the bush, calling for the boy. They scrambled up and down hills for hours, dodging snakes and wombat burrows, knowing time was against them.

Then a yell went up midafternoon. Two searchers had found Jean, filthy, frightened and thirsty but alive after 26 hours.

“Light horse! Light horse! Light horse!” the soldiers yelled into their radios. In a split-second, the worst Australia Day of their lives turned into the best.

It is alleged that strong men shed a tear. It is also alleged they laughed later when they found they had got Jean’s name wrong and had spent all day calling out “Dean”.

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Article Source: Herald Sun

 
Buchan Hopes To Stage Cup Day

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Country Racing Victoria officials will on Tuesday inspect the fire-affected Buchan and Gelantipy Racing Club to assess the viability of its cup meeting next month.

The Canni Creek circuit has hosted picnic races for 133 years, but extensive fire damage has put the February 15 Buchan Cup in jeopardy.

The winning post, caller’s tower, running rail and parts of the track surface have been scorched.

But club secretary Ian Dunkley hopes to go ahead with the meeting.

“The community want to race there because they’re all devastated and look at it as a situation where they can all get together and chat over things,” Dunkley said.

“It’d mean a lot (to be able to race). If we can possibly do it, we’d like to have the races there.

“It’s a scene out of a black and white movie; it’s all black and white.”

A giant eucalyptus tree outside the mounting yard split and fell.

The biggest branch landed in “winning stall No. 1 and didn’t touch the sides”.

The club’s 2006 meeting was transferred to Bairnsdale because of bushfire threat and smoke.

Proceeds from Buchan’s annual picnic race meeting help fund the local nursing centre, primary school, church, cemetery and Avenue Of Honour.

“Anything we get, we distribute back to the local community,” Dunkley said.

Racing Victoria cancelled Monday’s Werribee meeting because of the persistent smoke haze. Trials at Pakenham and Tatura went ahead as scheduled.

RV said it would decide on Tuesday morning whether Caulfield’s twilight meeting could proceed. Race one is scheduled for 3.40pm.

Article by Gilbert Gardiner
Article from Herald Sun

 
All-Star Mile more than a race for Jungle Edge and bushfire-affected East Gippsland and NSW regions

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Jungle Edge is the salt of the earth horse for salt of the earth people in need.

In March, with luck and conditions to suit, trainer Mick Bell and managing owner Ian Dunkley want to fly the flag for scorched East Gippsland and southern NSW communities in the $5 million All-Star Mile.

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Lakes Entrance resident Dunkley, who serves as the secretary for fire-damaged Buchan & Gelantipy Racing Club, nominated the mudlark after Racing Victoria pledged $1 for every All-Star Mile vote would be donated to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Racing Victoria received about 140,000 eligible votes last year towards the inaugural All-Star Mile selection, including 63,982 votes for the top-10 runners.

All-Star Mile voting opens on Thursday and ends on February 16.

“Even if we got 4000 votes (and not get a run in the race) that’s $4000 for the fire appeal,” Dunkley said.

“If we do get a run, even if he finishes last ($50,000 prize) I’m happy to give a percentage of the stake money to the Buchan race club.”

The Sapphire Coast-foaled sprinter Jungle Edge has started 73 times for 16 wins, 22 placings and $1.4 million in prize money.

All wins for the nine-year-old gelding, with a regal pedigree, including three at Group 3 level, have come on soft or heavy tracks.

“When I nominated him on January 9 we got the rain at Buchan and Canni Creek on the 11th, it was a bit of an omen,” Dunkley said.

“If it gets a run, potentially it can rain on March 14 in the All-Star Mile.”

Getting votes shouldn’t be a problem either for the Bell-trained frontrunner Jungle Edge, having raced on 24 separate city and country tracks in Victoria, NSW and Queensland across six seasons.

“He ticks the popularity box and he’s the people’s horse a bit,” Bell said.

“He’s the local (East Gippsland and Sapphire Coast) champ, he gets a lot of Lakes Entrance support, all in that fire area he’s got a huge following.

“We feel like he’s the horse to represent the area.”

Jungle Edge not only put Bell back on the training map, their association helped the Devon Meadows horseman through incredibly hard times.

Bell won the 2017 Star Kingdom Stakes at Rosehill — his first Group 3 — with Jungle Edge six weeks after losing his wife Bev to breast cancer.

“This horse is the horse of dreams,” Bell, who added a small pink lady to the cap worn by Jungle Edge’s jockeys as a standing tribute to Bev, said.

“When things are crook he seems to help out.”

Jungle Edge went too hard in front and finished fifth in a blanket go for third at his only attempt over 1600m in the 2017 Sale Cup.

“It (1600m) is right at the end of his distance but on the right (rain-affected) track I reckon he could give it a shake,” Bell said.

“It’s never been too hard to extend him out to 1400m once he’s had a few runs under his belt and if the conditions are right he doesn’t stop.

“I wish it was the All-Star 1400m.”

Jungle Edge has been kept in work and ticking over towards a possible first-up assignment in the Group 2 Rubiton Stakes at Caulfield on February 8.

Article by Gilbert Gardiner
Article from Herald Sun

 
Buchan relies on Cup recovery

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When the first pictures of the fire-ravaged racetrack of Buchan came to light on Racing.com this week, one thing seemed certain. With a burned winning post, running rail and razed track, surely next month’s historic Buchan Cup will not be staged.

But after spending a few moments talking to the likes of Buchan and Gelantipy Race Club president Peter Sandy, nothing, short of another devastating fire front, will halt the horse race that was first run in the late 1800s.

"It’s the Buchan and Gelantipy Race Club," Sandy said defiantly. "It’s been going for 135 years so you sort of owe it to those old-timers to keep it going.

"Come rain, hail or shine, we’ll try and have it.
"The track is well burned and that’s the most concern. If we don’t get rain it will just be bare dirt come race day. Infrastructure with manpower can be replaced and fixed.

"It’s still five weeks away and people are still all shell-shocked at the moment.

"So, hopefully things have settled down by then and they can have a day out and got to the races and forget about burned paddocks and buggered fences and livestock for a while and give them an outlet."

WATCH: Vision of Buchan racecourse on January 8

 

Sandy was not so confident the club could fulfill its mid-February Cup date just a week earlier when the fire swept through the Buchan area.

"We had the north wind, which was holding it up but it just swung around towards the racecourse and then the south wind got hold of it and then it just went whoosh towards the racecourse and I was quite surprised to see buildings there in the morning, I can tell you that," Sandy said.

"I just thought there would be nothing left of the racecourse and there’s also the golf course building up there as well.

"That country there hasn’t been burned since I don’t know when – not in my memory certainly anyway, It was just fuel loads three-foot high and it just absolutely exploded and how there’s anything left there I don’t know.

"I’ve read about the 1939 fires and that was comparable to that and hopefully this won’t happen again for that long."

Sandy said that at certain stages when battling the fire, he felt he would lose the fight.

"It all took place on Monday afternoon and Monday night and at one stage it looked like we going to lose everything but as luck had it, the wind gods blew in the right direction," he said.

"We lost a lot of things but saved a lot of things, thank god.

"I always had that in my mind to stay and defend. We’ve got animals and horses and livestock. It’s a family home. You just can’t up and leave. If you lost it all, life wouldn’t probably be worth living anyway.

"We could see it coming. We had plenty of warning. It started at about three o’clock in the afternoon I suppose and just built up and built up and then by 5.30 or six o’clock, it was just a raging inferno.

"We had a (firefighting) crew here and I thought ’oh beauty, we’ve got a bit of help’ but they said ‘no, this is too dangerous. We’ve got to leave and we advise you to do the same’ and I said ‘well, I just can’t go’ so I stayed and everyone left and I just braced for what was coming.

"At the start, it’s absolutely terrifying but as it all starts to unfold, you start seeing what you have got to do and it all seems to happen in slow motion.

"Everything blew up and things go through your mind and I thought ‘gee, we are going to lose every bloody thing here'.

"I don’t get very emotional but when I got into town and saw everyone was still there and I knew our houses were still here and that. To see them all still standing there and everyone still alive, it was just overwhelming I broke down and cried for a while.

"It was just very emotional and I’m just glad it’s all over."

Article by Kate Watts & Andrew Eddy
Article from racing.com

 
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