50-year journey sees fun and friendship

Respected country Victorian swab steward Ken Salmon struggles to explain a 50-year fascination with harness racing, but he gives every appearance of enjoying it more and more each year.

Salmon was recently recognized with an award for over 25 years of volunteering at Stawell harness racing club, including on the club committee, but his passion also extends to ownership and breeding.

As well, he is the engineer of numerous partnerships in which he’s brought on board many new participants to enjoy the sport he loves.

“I honestly can’t say what drew me to harness racing in one sense because I can’t really think of any connection, I had to it and we didn’t have any family involvement,” Salmon said.

“But I do know that when I lived at Alphington (in Melbourne’s east) back when the trots were at the Showgrounds, I was a student and I’d quite often on a Saturday night get the train out – it was the era of Gordon Rothacker and the Gath family and the like.”

Now retired, the former teacher said he and his wife Cheryl moved their family to Stawell in the 1970s, and he began involvement at the Stawell club on and off.  After it established a Tabaret facility in the 1990s his “long service” began.

“(The late) Kaye Matthews took over running the club and she was a really good operator and a very strong woman – she asked me to join the committee and I was happy to do that.  From there it was a range of different jobs, always volunteering,” Salmon said.

“A former student of mine, Paul Brumby, was involved in harness racing back then and asked if I was interested in taking a share in a pacer called Concentric (Inner Circle). It was bred by Bill Homburg and trained by Peter Manning.  He went on to win 18 races.

“That was my first interest in ownership then with another teacher from school we decided to buy a mare called Madeline Neptune (Holly Sands). The first horse we bred from her was Federal Cabinet (14 wins) by Inner Circle – we thought at the time we were quite clever in the naming.  And from then on, I was hooked.”

Salmon said he had stepped aside from committee responsibilities when the club had moved to a Board of Management structure recently.

“It’s a step the club needed to take because things have progressed and grown so much.  It’s gone from being a club to quite a large business.  We run the gaming side, a restaurant and there is also the racing side.  There are also some developments and plans happening that could be really exciting for the club’s future, so the new structure is definitely the right way to go,” he said.

“We’re very fortunate that there are no egos, no arguments, we’ve all just got along well, and we’ve been fortunate to be well-managed along the way.  The club is now in the process of appointing a manager to the gaming and restaurant and we have a very efficient racing manager in Mark Percival.

“I worked alongside another committee member Geoff Sanderson, who is a great guy in just getting things done.  The constitution is now in place, and it was quite a long period of transition, but that work is all now done. Geoff is still on the board, which is great, and I have stepped back.  I’m now a club swab steward and I very much enjoy the association it gives me with racing people.”

Salmon said he had formed numerous partnerships through the years to allow more people to be involved in ownership at some level and they had been fortunate to have bred and raced some capable horses.

“One of the better ones I have been involved with was Donttellmehetrots (Safely Kept), who has been my only Group One winner.  When he was getting broken in at Benstud I asked how he was going, and they told me he couldn’t pace a step – but he trots beautifully!  I didn’t want a trotter, so that’s how he got his name.  He had the makings of being very good, but died when he was spelling, we think from a snake bite.

“Potentially one we have this season might be the best, I hope. Surfingmakescents (Vincent) won a two-year-old then ran second to an Emma Stewart horse in the APG heats at Maryborugh, but she pulled up a little bit sore. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of that, and she can go on.

“Probably the one that has given me the most pleasure though would be The Good Guy (Armbro Operative) (20 wins) who won some country cups with a group of owners from all across the State who just were in it for the fun and had plenty of that.”

Salmon said all of the horses bred from his mares were under ownership partnerships from the time the mare is in foal.

“So, you share the journey as a group all the way through. It’s a great experience. I just enjoy that whole involvement with the industry – the breeding side, the waiting and anticipation of how they’ll go and probably most of all, the friendships,’ he said.

“With all due respect you don’t make too much money out of the sport, but you can get some great friends and some of the very first people I bred horses with are still with me today.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink