There have been some famous names in Australian racing linked to Fernhill Estate but the horses involved in its latest passage of thoroughbred history aren’t the next in line.
But that’s not to say the connections of the 36 horses racing for overall prize money of $87,000 in six races weren’t grateful for the opportunity as genuine picnic-style racing made a return to Sydney’s western outskirts on Saturday.
Picnic racing is never about the best racehorses and jockeys or facilities for that matter. And sometimes things happen at the picnics that would otherwise cause a furore at a professional meeting.
Imagine if half the field started from the wrong barriers at Flemington or Randwick on Saturday.
It happened at Fernhill with two runners in the four-horse field for the J K Williams Open Handicap, but discretion won out in the stewards’ room.
“Acting under AR 128 (2) … stewards were satisfied that no runner was materially prejudiced,” chairman of stewards Marc Van Gestel noted in his race report.
Mother Nature did her bit to enhance the county atmosphere Fernhill promoters were trying to generate.
For the rank-and-file punters who couldn’t afford a place in one of the home-straight marquees, shade was a scarce commodity as temperatures climbed into the 30s.
A southerly breeze brought some mid-afternoon relief until it morphed into a westerly, creating a dusty environment that probably made Forbes trainer Bill Hayes feel right at home with his horse Dominico.
Hayes’ five-hour trip from the western districts paid off when Dominico, a horse who was given his chance in Sydney with leading trainers Gerald Ryan and Joe Pride, backed up after racing at the Orange picnics on Melbourne Cup day to win his first race at his 24th attempt.
Dominico was an outsider so it was a good result for well-known country bookmaker Ken Orbell who has seen a lot of picnic racing in more than 30 years fielding at meetings across the state.
He suggested the Fernhill organisers “would be better for the run” but with the $25,000 Cup being won by a $15 chance, Bush Brandy, the Dubbo bookie would seem to be an odds-on chance to return next year.
Fernhill was an important part of the NSW racing landscape in its heyday and early Melbourne Cup winners Chester and Grand Flaneur once grazed on the property.
In more recent times, the property tycoon Warren Anderson built a 2400-metre track for the private training of a string of racehorses during the 1980s.
But as Anderson met with financial trouble, the Fernhill track fell into a state of disrepair until new owners Simon and Brenda Tripp took over the estate, which also boasts a six-bedroom sandstone mansion, last year.
The Tripps aren’t devoted racing people but they are into events and they want Fernhill picnics to become a permanent fixture on the NSW spring racing calendar.
“The organisers hope to make it an annual event,” Hawkesbury Race Club’s Brian Fletcher, who ran the meeting, said.
