Shepparton shines at awards night

In the wake of the most successful charity initiative seen in harness racing, the Shepparton Club’s Pacing for Pink Mothers’ Day event has been recognized by the Victorian industry.

The club received the Event of the Year Award at the Trots Clubs Victoria annual awards night held at Echuca on Saturday night, and the honors list also recognized the individual commitment of the club’s long-serving Events Manager Colleen Boyington with the club employee of the year trophy.

Shepparton Club Manager Ian McDonald said the Event of the Year and Club Employee of the Year recognition were a boost after an incredibly challenging two years during COVID-19.

“Colleen’s been with us for 20 years and does a superb job at organising our events including being one of the prime movers, under the guidance of Marg Watson, to coordinate Pacing for Pink,” McDonald said.

“It’s grown to be a massive event now after it was transferred to Shepparton last year because it had grown so enormously from its infancy at Cobram 10 years ago,” he said.

The May Pacing for Pink campaign, which this year became a national initiative for the first time, raised $66,000 for the McGrath Foundation’s breast care nurses in 2021, and in 2022 cracked the $100,000.

“Colleen is an incredible organiser, she goes way beyond the call of duty, and nothing is ever too much trouble…but it was during COVID-19 when she really came to the fore,” McDonald said.

“As we were working our way through about how to keep racing during the pandemic, Colleen had the capacity to absorb what was going on from all sorts of perspectives, from a club, participant and process point of view,” he said.

“When things shut down Shepparton hosted the regional race meetings here, and Colleen decided the best way to manage it safely was to set up a marquee at the front gate and do the check-ins from there. So, anyone with symptoms, and potentially COVID-19, would be turned away before getting on-site.

“It worked well and became the industry standard as clubs began reopening again, but it was all Colleen’s doing.”

Colleen is one of the few women to have been honored with the Frank Ryan Memorial Award for Club Employee of the Year, following on from Charlton dynamo Andrea O’Gorman in 2019.

Colleen, who is married to trainer-driver Stephen Boyington, is from a harness racing family – her father Kevin Muir was one of the original groundsmen at the Shepparton Club from the 1960s, staying in the role until the 1980s, and her mother Kath Muir is also a life member of the club.

The awards, which have traditionally been announced on Gordon Rothacker Medal Night, were held for the first time as a separate event, as part of the Trots Clubs Victoria annual seminar at the Rich River Golf Club at Echuca-Moama.

Award recipients were:

Best presented track and venue: Charlton Harness Racing Club

Best traditional media and social media: Kilmore Racing Club

Best innovation: Cranbourne HRC for its “Cranbourne Club 21”

Country club event of the year: Shepparton “Pacing for Pink”

Country cup of the year: Charlton Harness Racing Club

Country club of the year: Cranbourne Harness Racing Club

Frank Ryan Memorial Club employee of the year: Colleen Boyington (Shepparton HRC)

TCV volunteer service award: Richard “Dick” Pywell (Swan Hill HRC)

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink