LEFT: Racing on the old Shepparton track. (Photo: Greyhound Clubs Victoria)

JUST on 12 months ago I wrote about a very old racebook which had come to be in my possession.

            It was from a Saturday daytime meeting at Newcastle in New South Wales on October 19, 1946. I thought it made for quite absorbing reading, given how racing was so much different all those years ago.

            While out in my ‘man’s shed’ dodging snakes, rats and various vermin recently, I found a racebook from a race meeting even further back than 1946. It was Shepparton on Saturday night June 8, 1940. It was race meeting number 173 so that would suggest that the track opened in the late 1930s. Wasn’t there a world war happening at the time? Oh well, the greyhound show obviously had to go on!!

            The kennels closed at 8pm with the first race at 8.30 and the last of eight at 10.30. Trainers were advised to bring their car inside the grounds where attendants were on duty throughout the racing. I can only assume that it may not have been safe to park outside the grounds.

            The racebook does not show the location of the trainers. I guess it’s possible that some who lived in Shepparton and didn’t own a car may have walked their greyhounds to the track.

            Race one was over 300 yards on a straight track. Races two to five were handicaps over 500 yards on the circle track. Races six and seven were 300 yards on the straight, then the meeting finished with a Hurdle Handicap over 500 yards on the circle. So there was plenty of variety. The tracks were situated at the Shepparton Showgrounds in High Street.

            In the handicap flat races the starts given were between one and five yards. In the hurdle handicap one runner received a whopping 23 yards start over most of the field. I don’t know if that dog won because the book I have does not contain any results.

            First prizemoney for each of the eight races was 2 pounds 10 shillings which equates to about five dollars. Second received one pound and third collected ten shillings. Entry fee to start was five shillings and 6 pence which I think might be about 60 cents. So in effect the races were like a sweepstake with the participants funding the prizemoney.

            It’s probably reasonable to assume that there was no photo finish. After all, thoroughbred racing didn’t have such a luxury until 1948. A clause in the racebook suggests there was no photo finish. The clause reads: Any person or persons making loud comment on the judges’ decision or creating a disturbance will be liable to immediate expulsion from the ground.

            Racing rugs were: 1 – red, 2 – blue, 3 – white, 4 – check, 5 – yellow, 6 – brown, 7 – black, 8 – pink.

            Here’s another condition of racing: “Should the weight of any greyhound vary more than 2.5 lbs from that recorded at its previous start on this track the stewards may order its withdrawal and may fine the owner up to a maximum of five pounds.” From that wording, if a greyhound’s weight was up or down of 2.5 lbs at another track at its previous start, that wouldn’t matter. 2.5 lbs is just over one kilogram so not a lot has changed with regards to weight variation from then to now.

            There were bookmakers fielding but the racebook does not mention how many. You would assume there would have been plenty of them. Whether there was a racecaller is not mentioned. Ian Samblebe called at Shepparton in the 1970s but wasn’t born in 1940! Racing ceased at the Shepparton Showgrounds in 2004 and the club moved to its current location at Kialla on the outskirts of the town.

            Shepparton – an important part of the greyhound racing landscape for a very long time.