Wyndham to celebrate its Centennial

The Wyndham Harness Racing Club will be celebrating its centennial this Saturday (Mar 18) at the Young Quinn Raceway.

The club is steeped in history with many of its races standing the test of time and still being run today.

The Club was granted a certificate of registration in 1923 by the New Zealand Trotting Association and had its first meeting of the members on 25th May 1923 when Joseph Hunter presided over an attendance of twenty five.

Two non-totalisator meetings were held in 1923 and 1924 and the first totalisator meeting was run on March 18th, 1925. Eight hundred pounds was put up for stakes and the tote handled nine thousand one hundred and twenty six pounds. 

At that meeting J.G Cruickshank’s First Glance won the Wyndham Cup raced over two miles while J.F. Hamilton’s Azaleas won the sprint race. 

In 1939 it was decided to re-establish the Wyndham Juvenile Stakes for three year olds. The race became popular with breeders with a remarkable 150 entries received for the 1950 edition. 

Once the all weather track was opened in 1977 organised workouts were held on the course and the first meeting on the new track (Young Quinn Raceway) was held on Saturday 26th November 1977. The first winner was Fallimento (Honest Master) trained by local trainer Ronnie Johnstone. Other winners included Kay Tina (trained by Ray Todd), Mary Isabel (Henry Skinner), Gold Range (Gary McEwan), Watbro (Alex Milne), Idaten (Lionel Sinnamon), Johnny Foyle (Lex Thomas), Robstar (Henry Skinner), Trevira (Ron Hamilton) and Profiteer (Andrew Sellers). On-course betting was $113,436 and off-course the tote handled $146,976. 

One of the longest standing races for the Wyndham club is the Hunter Handicap. The Hunter family were one of those responsible for founding the Club, and have won the race four times. Hamish leads the way with Blueberry Hill (1982), Cornell (1991) and Devil May Care (2013). Greg Hunter has won the race with Cool Scooter (2018).

Hamish has also won the Wyndham Cup twice with Devil May Care (2016) and Franco Ledger (2014). Franco Ledger still holds the race record for the two mile feature of 3-57.0.

Another long established race is the Kindergarten Stakes which has been run at Wyndham since 1961. The first winner was Lordship.

Two local horsemen have outstanding records in the two year old feature. Bud Baynes trained Girl Friend (1971), Young Quinn (1972), Lord Manhattan (1982) and Tricky Batchelor (1992) to win the Kindergarten while Alex Milne trained Parlez Vous (1974), Arden Bay (1976) and Matai Dreamer (1978). 

Matai Dreamer’s win was regarded as one of the best in the sixty year history of the race.

He lost 150 metres at the start before getting within range of the leading division at the 1000 metre mark but he was still 80 metres from the leader. He maintained his tremendous run from the back and got to grips with the leaders at the 600. The crowd were brought to their feet when he mastered Kintyre with 100 metres to run and he went on to win by three quarters of a length. He paced his last mile in 2-04 and the last 800 metres in 59.2. The win was rated by many horsemen at the time as one of the best juvenile efforts they had witnessed.

In recent times the All Stars Stable have dominated the Kindergarten, having won eight of the last nine.

The great Cardigan Bay had his first start at Wyndham in November 1959 finishing fourth and both he and Young Quinn won races at the course.

Congratulations to the Wyndham Club for their marvellous innings and we trust their celebrations on Saturday will be befitting of their great efforts over 100 years.

by Bruce Stewart for Harnesslink