The birthplace of two Melbourne Cup winners will next month provide an appropriate setting for Sydney to re-connect with its colonial days of horse racing.
As Fernhill Estate, an expansive acreage on Sydney’s western fringes hosted a NSW leg of the 2013 Melbourne Cup trophy tour on Wednesday, it was announced there were even bolder racing plans for the historic property.
A 2400m racetrack on Fernhill has been restored since new owners Simon and Brenda Tripp moved in last year.
The renovation has been so successful, Fernhill, under the auspices of the Hawkesbury Race Club, will stage a picnic race meeting on November 9.
NSW racing minister George Souris made the announcement with an air of proclamation and formality befitting the occasion.
“I am really pleased to be here today to present Fernhill Estate with a licence to conduct picnic race meetings at the historic property subject to the approval of the Heritage Council and, of course, the Penrith City Council,” he told a breakfast audience.
“I do feel a bit colonial in granting a licence because it is an ancient and bureaucratic thing to do.”
Fernhill was part of an 1810 land grant – the first in the Mulgoa Valley – made to the Cox family by NSW governor Lachlan Macquarie.
The sandstone mansion was built for Edward Cox whose father helped construct the first road over the Blue Mountains.
It was through the Cox family’s thoroughbred interests that early Melbourne Cup winners Grand Flaneur and Chester were bred on the property.
Fittingly, the 1996 Melbourne Cup winner Saintly was the star attraction at Fernhill on Wednesday, the 21-year-old making the trip from nearby Princes Farm, the thoroughbred nursery of his famous trainer Bart Cummings.
His presence allowed former Victorian chief steward Des Gleeson, now a Melbourne Cup ambassador, to take a trip down memory lane.
“When Saintly won the Melbourne Cup it was my first as chairman of stewards,” he said.
Thoroughbreds of Saintly’s calibre won’t be running at Fernhill next month but the fact organisers can stage a race meeting at all will be a significant achievement.
“Initially it looked like being a two-year project to get up and going,” Mrs Tripp told AAP.
“But once we showed our credentials, that we were able to organise an event and invest in renovating the track and come up with the prize money, we were able to get a lot of support.”
“It’s something new for racing and something interesting for western Sydney.”
