Caption: Trainer Mick Patterson with He Knows Uno, who scored a memorable win in the Stayers Cup during the 2012 Grafton Carnival. Club boss John Corrigan says he’s never heard louder cheering at Grafton after the chaser’s performance that year. (Photo: Gary Nichols)
By David Brasch
SINCE 1979, club skipper John Corrigan has been on hand to watch the camaraderie that goes on daily during the Grafton July carnival.
“When guys like Dennis Barnes, Jimmy Turner, Johnny Buttsworth and their mates come in and start telling fibs to each other, and enjoy the moment so much, so very, very much … well that’s what the Grafton carnival is all about
“And, it always has been.
“Oh, and by the way, we also put on a pretty extensive couple of weeks of races for them all to enjoy and try to win as well.”
July in Grafton, dogs and horses, is something else and its popularity is back despite the hiccup that was Covid for a couple of years.
“So many use Grafton as their annual holiday,” said Corrigan. “They bring their family and their dogs.
“To show you how well it is patronised again, by early June we had only two of the 42 caravan spots left.
“By early June, Jimmy Turner had already arrived from Geelong, Dennis Barnes was only going to stay for a day but has been here ever since, so has John Buttsworth from Bathurst, and Johnny has been coming for 40 years.
“You see what I mean.
“Cynthia Suttle, Neil Staines, Brad Woods just a few of the regulars will all be here.”
Grafton 2023 will centre around the Village Green Sprinters Cup (450m), Clarence Valley Sheds Maiden (450m) and the Westlawn Stayers Cup (660m).
Heats of the Sprinters Cup will be run July 5, the Maiden on July 2 and all finals will be on July 12. The Stayers Cup again is a Best 8.
The Maiden carries a winner’s prize of $20,000, the Sprinters Cup $15,000 and the Stayers Cup $12,000.
“Ladbrokes have come to the party and allowed us to lift the prizemoney for these three carnival highlights,” said Corrigan.
He added said trial numbers in the weeks leading up to the carnival had been phenomenal.
“There are also a lot of young dogs about and this is very good for the future,” he said.
Corrigan says his lasting memory from the decades of July Carnivals he had attended is the victory by He Knows Uno in the Stayers Cup for the ever-popular Mick Patterson.
“I’ve never heard a cheer louder,” said Corrigan.
But he also has a story to tell about Patterson.
“We would trial after the last race on Saturdays and I was driving the lure this afternoon,” he said.
“Mick Patterson was there with his very first dog, for its very first trial.
“Mick yelled out to me if I could come and help him box it.
“A few years later here he is coming back with the Stayers Cup winner, in track record time, to a thunderous reception.
“But, that is everything the Grafton July Carnival is all about.”
