Memories and Openings

By Harley Walden

The Memories Remain

When the newly formed committee of the Scone Race Club met in December 1944, it was with the intention of building a leisure outlet to be known as White Park Racetrack, little did they realise that their plans would rise above all expectations.

When the final curtain fell on the track that weekend in October 1994 what was achieved some 40 years before, would be remembered.

For those who had attended some of the many meetings throughout the years, memories rekindled, memories of some of the great horses, jockeys and characters who have felt the joy of winning, the accolades of the crowds or just swapping yarns under the trees or around the bar.

This is what the course was meant to be and this is how it has been portrayed down through the years, a meeting place were mate meets mate and the friendly atmosphere the old track seemed to generate, put everyone on an equal footing.

Progress is a great thing and we must move with it, but for a few hours that weekend the present was forgotten and the past remembered.

Triumph for bush beauty

To the dulcet tones of Tina Turner with her rendition of “Simply the Best” ringing across the amphitheatre the new racecourse at Satur was officially opened by NSW Governor Rear-Admiral Peter Sinclair.

“This splendid new racecourse will enhance Scone’s reputation for all-round excellence in the horse breeding and racing industries,” he said.

Racing endures all change.

Whatever is done to it cannot alter the contest – humans and horses combining to best the rest.

When this happens amid great natural beauty and good natured crowds no other human creative pastime can equal it.

Honorary positions are sought after and fought over.

That’s always been true of race clubs.

A multi-million-dollar industry administered by amateurs may well be an anomaly, with dwindling political support, but Scone would not have happened otherwise.

They were blessed for the opening stanza with a glorious day that followed 30mm of rain had settled the dust.

The building, although not every-body’s ‘cup-of-tea’, handled its once-in-a-lifetime crowd of 8,500 effortlessly as people moved through the from parade ring to bookie ring to viewing area with ease.

Related Stories:

• White Park Spiritual Home of Racing – Pt 1
• A New Racecourse is Born – Pt 2