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Written for the Club’s 60th
Anniversary Race Meeting – 2007
In 1945 as
the war came to an end and local identities Tom Hansberry and
Gerry Schluter were racing horses at Wayville with success and
others raced their horses at the local Shows. The KHRC was
formed by the following local identities:
T Hansberry, L Burton, J Higgins,
J Brewster, D Davoren, F Donovan, B Modystach, R Hansberry, G
Schluter,
M Shakeshaft, A Shannon & E Hambour. The Club was registered
with the South Australian Trotting League with Mr Tom Hansberry
being elected as delegate.
Mr Eli
Hambour (who celebrated is 101tst birthday in January
2007) recalls they faced a massive task to prepare an area of
Dutton Park
(a section of the 50 acres bequeathed to the Kapunda Community
by the late Sir Sydney Kidman for recreational use).
It was native scrub with a creek running through it
adjacent to
Hancock Road
.. The group filled in the creek, prepared a
track, built horse stalls, erected an elaborate wood panel
running rail and other necessary facilities. Eli with many
talents was an experienced “powder monkey” and he undertook the
job of blowing out the tree butts; he also was experienced as a
carpenter and supervised the erection of buildings including the
Totalizator building. Money was borrowed to grade and prepare
the track for racing in 1947.
All was in
readiness in 18 months for the Club’s opening meeting on 11th
March 1947. It was a day meeting, 105 horses raced, the majority
arriving and departing on the horse train, some from interstate,
the city and sidings in between. Eight races
were run with the total stakes of 385 pounds. It was a great
success and fitting result for the foresight and hard work of
the group of enthusiasts of 1945.
Just some short observations
from the first race book –
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Rail
Transport Arrangements – Train leaves Adelaide for Kapunda 9.05am (horses
must be loaded by 8.45am
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The return
journey - Train left at 5.10pm (horses to be loaded by 4.50pm)
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There were
24 registered bookmakers for the meeting
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The phone
number for the Club was Kapunda 16
The first race on the course
was won by Prefix, owned by Mrs ED Bush, trained by Mr JC Edwards and driven by
Mr W Shin. The race was over 11 furlongs run in a time of 3: 12 1/3 a mile rate
of 2:10 4/5. Fields were from 20 to the smallest on the day of 11 runners.
Other known winners were Radiant Wilbur owned and trained by
Committeeman Gerry Schluter and Molly Axworthy won the last race owned/trained
and driven by the President Mr Tom Hansberry. Tom
had a driving double as he drove Radiant Wilbur earlier in the day.
Stake money started at 35 pounds to 100 pounds plus a 15 guinea (15
pound 15 shillings) trophy for the main race, the Kapunda Stakes. The winner
received 83 pounds plus a trophy for this race.
Three Meetings were held in
1947, 3 in 1948, then increased to the hey days of the 50’s to the 90’s when 22
or more meetings were conducted each year, with stakes of up to $20,000 and
crowds of 3,000 people attending. The Club originally raced on Tuesday
afternoons, with the installation of lights in the mid 50’s it changed to night
racing on Tuesday nights. The lights and
the inside running rail were removed approx 5 years ago as part of the
restructure of Harness Racing in SA.
The decline in Harness Racing
and the sale of the TAB has seen a drastic change in the number of country
meetings and most of these being NON-Tab meetings as is the case for this
Kapunda Club.
The present Committee is
committed to putting Kapunda Harness Racing back up in the forefront in South
Australia, and hopes to hold more meetings per season than the present two.
Mr Eli Hambour will be honoured
by having the Kapunda Pacing Cup named in his honour, to be known as the Eli
Hambour 60th Anniversary Kapunda Pacing Cup.
Eli was secretary for 30 years but continued on the Committee totalling
50 years of service to the Club.
The Club has had a stable
Committee with only 7 presidents and 5 Secretaries in its life time.
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