Every picture tells a story

Much-travelled harness racing photographer Claire Weston holds the philosophy that every raceday photograph is special – it’s just that some are more special than others.

But there’s not much doubt that a one-off framed photograph presented to Victoria’s world champion reinswoman Kerryn Manning recently is probably a cut above the rest.

A commemorative photograph presented to Manning by the Stawell Harness Racing Club marked Manning’s 4000th winning drive at the club’s previous meeting…with the design containing the names of all of the horses Manning has driven to victory in her career.

Claire completed the design – around 10 hours of painstaking work.

“Kerryn ordered an A2 (60 x 40 cm) photo on the day she got the win, and it was great to be there for that moment – straight away I could envisage how a commemorative photograph could look,” Claire said.

“When the club said they wanted to make a presentation to her, we got our heads together and Kerryn didn’t know anything about it,” she said.

Manning was already the most “winningest” horsewoman in history when she produced a perfect steer on Glenavril King, a horse she also trains, at Stawell on January 31- almost 30 years after her first successful drive behind Gorgeous Gambit, a horse prepared by her father Peter.

The commemorative photograph of Kerryn Manning’s 4000^th victory (Claire Weston Photo)

“The HRV media team got all of the names of the horses together for us, and because some were multiple winners of course, we ended up with 1255 names,” Claire said.

“What I had in my head didn’t quite come out the way I planned, so I went back to the drawing board a couple of times. I was pretty happy with the way it came out in the end, but I was still nervous when they made the presentation,” she said.

“Kerryn loved it, though, the color and the picture and the photo of her with the champagne bottle, so that was a relief!”

Claire considers herself lucky to have found her career “happy place” – and in any one week that place might be Kilmore, Bendigo, Mount Gambier, Boort, Geelong, Terang, the Yarra Valley or any of more than a dozen race tracks.

Claire, her brother Ian, her son Chris and a couple of freelancers take race photographs for 16 harness racing clubs across Victoria and in South Australia, as well as several Victorian greyhound racing clubs.

“I sort of fell into the raceday photography really. I was a judge for about seven years, so I got to know (north east Victorian race photographer) Geoff Durn pretty well. He had to take some time off at one stage and asked me if I could fill in, and it’s really just gone from there,” she said.

“Gradually as other photographers retired, we’ve just picked up new clubs, so it can get pretty busy. The day I was at Stawell, Ian went to Geelong that night and then we had another freelancer working at the greyhounds.”

Claire Weston

While Claire’s had a few ‘careers’ along the way, including working at supermarkets and in an animal shelter, horses have always been her first love since having ponies and working as a stable hand while she was still at school.

“This is definitely the most rewarding. You might think the interest might not be there like it was in the old days, but every race photo is special for the people involved. People still love to have a framed photo of a first win, or a big win or a special win,” she said.

“Strangely enough, the COVID-19 regional racing was pretty good. There were certainly more of what you would call ‘battlers’ winning races and they’re generally great about buying a photo for the wall.

“Some days you might have a good day, say on a country cup day, other days you walk out empty-handed. But there are always people around for a chat, the races are a great place to work and there’s always something happening to photograph.”

Terry Gange

NewsAlert PR Mildura