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Brief History of Kapunda Harness Racing Club Inc.
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,
Mr Eli Hambour (who celebrated is 101tst birthday in January 2007) recalls
they faced a massive task to prepare an area of Dutton Park
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 –
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. Past officials of the Club:- Presidents
Life Members
Mr
Tom Hansberry
Mr
Eli Hambour
Mr M Higgins
Mr
Merv King Mr
Merv King
Mr G Schluter
Mr
Marcus Hearl Mr
Bill Adams
Mr R Hansberry
Mr
Bill Adams Mr
Marcus Hearl
Mr W Mosey
Mr
Stephen Norman Mr
Norton Schluter
Mr R Higgins
Mr
Robert Harrison
Mrs
Joan Adams Mr A Lee
Mr
Marcus Hearl
Ms
Bev Welke
Mrs M Lee
Mr Wayne Standish (Current)
Ms Jenny Welke
Mr S Norman
Secretaries
Mr
Eli Hambour
Mr
Bill Adams (2)
Mr
Merv Rodda
Ms
Caron Hipwell (Harrison)
Mr
Rod Whenan (current) © Copyright 2009 You are here: > Home > About us |