Season 1986/87 Bendigo Harness Racing Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Black Badge attached to length of Black CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo Harness Racing Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1986-1987 / Ends 31st July 1987 / 54.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1986/87

Season 1983/84 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Blue Badge attached to length of Blue CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1983-84 / Ends 31st July 1984 / 45.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1983/84

Season 1982/83 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Yellow Badge attached to length of Yellow CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1982-83 / Ends 31st July 1983 / 142.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1982/83

Season 1981/82 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnambelled Green Badge attached to length of Yellow CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not transferable / Season 1981-82 / Ends 31st July 1982 / 48 / Taiwan.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1981/82

Season 1981/82 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Green Badge attached to length of Green CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1981-82 / Ends 31st July 1982 / 50 / Taiwan.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1981/82

Season 1980/81 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Blue Badge attached to length of Blue CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1980-81 / Ends 31st July 1981 / 030 / AJ Parkes.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1980/81

Season 1979/80 Bendigo District Trotting Club Membership BadgeEnamelled Red Badge attached to length of Red CordFront: Imprint of horse, sulky, driver / Bendigo District Trotting Club. Back: Not Transferable / Season 1979-80 / Ends 31st July 1980 / 013 / AJ Parkes.bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, harness racing, trotting, badge, membership, 1979/80

Richmond TrottingLarge rectangular sepia harness racing photo finish mounted on cream-coloured paper. Written in black ink on the frame: Richmond 11/3/1929 / Derby 1000 Pounds Race / Trotting Divison / won by "Fair Admiral" / Owner Trainer & Driver C Robinson [sic] (name should be C. Robertson) Printed in the bottom right corner: A.Copley / 434a Flinders Street/Near Williams St,/Melbourne.richmond, trotting, victoria derby, fair admiral, harness racing, derby, sulky, charlie robertson jnr, c robertson jnr, c robertson, charlie robertson

Captain Rufus won the Bendigo Pacing Cup on the 23 January 1998, followed by Skipper Trust and Low Bronze. Captain Rufus owned by A Gannell, H Manolitis, KR Hyslop & GJ Carey, was trained and driven by Ted Demmler. Captain Rufus raced from 1996 (3yo) through to 2001 (8yo). Career: 17 wins 13 seconds 18 thirds 85 starts.Two colour photographs, one small one large in a brown, black, gold frame. At the top: Bendigo Harness Racing 23-1-98/ The Sulky Shop Bendigo Pacing Cup At the bottom: Left corner: Distance 2385 metres/ Mile rate 2.00.1 / Greg Matthews Photos - Stawell Centre: Captain Rufus (Sokys Atom - Hurricane Mark) / Skipper Trust 2nd / Low Bronze 3rd Right corner: Owned by- A Gannell, H Manolitis, KR Hyslop & GJ Carey/ Trained and driven by Ted Demmlerbendigo harness racing club, horses, race, winner, bendigo trotting club, pacing cup, driver, trainer, owner, 1998, captain rufus, ted demmler, a gannell, h manolitis, kr hyslop, gj carey, skipper trust, low bronze, te demmler, t demmler

Black and white photograph of a very crowded cable tram set inbound in Bridge Road, c1925, lettered M&MTB" with the destination of Spencer St with many men crowding onto the tram. Alongside the tram is the front of a motor vehicle. Cable tram 81? In the background is a number of shops - L. Johnson Saddler, S. Christie and J Hogan (?) Trotting Sulky Manufacturers and A. Vickery & Son Manufacturing Engineers, Photo from the Collection of the Department of Infrastructure now with the Public Records Office - image number H212. Note: this photo is now out of copyright and was not an original VR photograph, but one copied from another source and collected as their Heritage series. Note from Rod Atkins 29/7/2019: The tram is full because the crowd as discharged from the racecourse so most likely taken on a Saturday. A few of buildings are still there today on the north side. Date 1920’s 2nd copy from Keith Kings added 6/8/2020 - see images i2 and i3.Has Department of Infrastructure copy right stamp on rear and number "H 212" in ink on rear and "1-10"trams, tramways, bridge rd, spencer st, cable trams, tram 81

George Smith came to Wodonga c.1885 and carried on a business as a blacksmith and wheelwright in Hume Street. He subsequently erected the very substantial Federal Coach Factory in High Street. In 1901 the Coach Factory was sold to Mr C. E. Jones, but within three or four years George Smith again found himself in the establishment he had built. In 1907/8 Marcus Buntz partnered by a G. F. Simpson took possession of the Federal Coach Factory. In 1912 Buntz bought out the interest of Simpson and engaged a first-class wheelwright to do the woodwork. In 1912 a buggy could be had from £40 and a sulky £18. The business over many years developed from a shoeing forge and wheelwright business to a more modern day garage, keeping abreast with mechanisation. Marcus Buntz was joined in the business by his three sons, George, an A grade mechanic, Edward an auto-electrician and Henry, a blacksmith’s striker. The sons eventually took over the garage and handled both coach building and general service work. The firm also maintained the Wodonga Water Pump for many years, ensuring the town’s water supply. In 1948 the old established motor garage was purchased by Mr Jack Mylon. In July 1960 the building became Wodonga Market, housing a butcher, snack bar, milk bar, fruit and veg, Bill Dunstan’s Boat Centre and an Auction Mart. These images have local significance as they document a long-standing business in central Wodonga.2 black and white photos depicting Buntz Federal Coach Factory at different stages during its period of operation,Photo 1: Above building: FEDERAL COACH FACTORY/ M.H. BUNTZ/ GEORGE SMITH/ COACH BUILDER & BLACKSMITH On side of coach: DRAPERY/ FANCY GOODS Photo 2: BUNTZ BROS" MOTOR GARAGE / ATLANTIC MOTOR OIL On the window: BUNTZ'S COACH FACTORY/ Rubber Tyres Fitted Below image on mounting: BUNTZ BROS. MOTOR GARAGE L to R. Pop Buntz, George Buntz, Les Easto, D. Zeinert, H. Buntz, Ted Buntz. Doug Zeinert buntz federal coaches, wodonga businesses, wodonga pioneers

Alice Laidlaw Victorian Harness Racing Hall of Fame 2019 Alice McCulloch was born in 1894 at Deniliquin, NSW, and grew up on a huge 56,000 acre property at Navarre, “North Woodlands”, where she learnt to ride at a young age. She soon learnt to jump and would jump the farm fences and only went through gates if she was shifting stock. In 1915 Alice travelled to Egypt as a Red Cross volunteer to nurse soldiers injured in the Gallipoli campaign. The young Alice met and married Adam Alexander (Sandy) Laidlaw of Hamilton and lived at “The Hill: in Ararat. Their son Colin, a successful Ararat trainer /driver, was born on 31st March 1923. One of Australia’s most respected and accomplished female riders, Alice excelled at educating, training, riding, driving, hunting and jumping. Alice rode in the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Tasmania Royal Shows as well as almost every country show in between. She would win the Champion Hack with a horse and then turn around and win the High Jump with the very same horse. Her horse Look Out held the Australian record for a high jump of 7 ft 10 ¼ in at Tenterfield, NSW. She also rode in England. Alice also trained and rode/drove trotters, ridden or in a sulky. She competed and won against the men. In 1929 she won several races with Bazil Bells at country tracks, but authorities refused to grant women licences to drive at the metropolitan track at Richmond so she had to engage men drivers. She won rces against the men at Stawell and Ballarat tracks. Among harness horses that she owned, trained and rode or drove were Mountain Derby, Dane Grey, Wonga Grattan, Plain Grattan, Miss Keewong, and Wong Derby the dam of the Ararat and Mildura Cup winner and later sire, Efficiency. She also trained gallopers, and rode them in races against the men, with a lot of success. Her father owned the 1917 Caulfield Cup winner Lieutenant Bill. Alice Laidlaw died of a heart attack in Ararat in 1947 several weeks after an accident with one of her horses at the Korumburra Show. Her 54 horses were then sold. After she died, the Alice Laidlaw Memorial Trophy for lady riders over 18 at the Royal Melbourne Show was commenced in her honour. This continues.Black and yellow vertical stripes, red sleeves

Jack Hargreaves drove Adaptor to win the 1969 Bendigo Cup. Jack Hargreaves, who died on December 6 at the Bendigo Hospital aged 77, trained and drove countless winners during a 34-year harness racing career in which he became one of the true icons of the sport. Born John Henry Hargreaves in Wedderburn on December 3, 1926, harness racing was always in his blood. His father, Hughie, was a successful driver and trainer who raced horses all over Victoria. Jack drove his first winner at the age of 16 at Woodend. He lived on the family farm at Kuracca, near Wedderburn, until the age of 22, when he then married Elvie Stephenson from Fentons Creek. He and Elvie went on to have four children - Helen (now 53), Judi (51), Roslyn (49) and John (45). They are grandparents of 15 and great-grandparents of two. After spending two years at Tallarook where he worked on a sheep property, Jack and Elvie then moved to Korong Vale, where Jack set up his own training stable. He kept about 20 horses at a time at his Korong Vale stable, training and racing all of them for 26 years at his property. His greatest moment was the 1969 Miracle Mile, when he drove Adaptor to victory. Adaptor would later be sold to America for the then highest figure paid for an export horse - about $250,000. He also notched up many wins in country pacing cups, including Bendigo, Geelong, Maryborough, Kilmore and St Arnaud. During his career, Jack built a reputation of being a fine judge of pace and he consistently brought out the best in some difficult horses. His natural ability led to him being crowned Bendigo's leading driver for the season on two occasions. But an accident at Mildura on November 26, 1976 - just days before his 50th birthday - led to his driving career being cut short prematurely. Jack sustained head injuries after he was trampled by another horse after being tipped out of his sulky while driving Go Ned. He was regaining his senses and sitting up in the middle of the track when the horse went straight over him. The hoof of the horse came down between his left ear and skullcap, shattering that part of his skull. In the weeks following the accident, Jack underwent lengthy operations in Melbourne, to firstly clear splinters of bone from his brain. He then had a piece of bone removed from one of his ribs to cover a hole in his skull. He was left with injuries that were described as being similar to those of a person who had suffered a stroke. Months of physiotherapy and speech therapy followed in Melbourne and later Bendigo, before he was finally allowed to go hone in August, 1977 - almost one year after the accident. After losing part of his speech in the accident, Jack learned to communicate using his hands. "It became second-nature to us that we could read his hand signals and most of the people in the harness racing world could, too," Jack's daughter, Judi Bond, said."He learned his own way to communicate with people."While Jack was no longer able to continue his passion of driving competitively, he would still take the reins at the training track when given a chance to by his fellow drivers.He also continued to breed horses. "He was a skilled horseman, a good farrier and horses were the love of his life," Judi said. Two years after the accident, Jack and Elvie built a house in Wedderburn, directly above the trotting track. "That was so in the early days after his accident he could still see what was going on at the track," Judi said. "Everyday, he would watch the trainers . . . he'd watch what they were up to on the track."Jack was able to sit in his loungeroom and look out through large glass doors with a "grandstand" view of Leg 5 races, trials and training at the trotting track. Jack's love of harness racing filtered through to his children, with both Judi and John having careers as drivers. Judi drove for 10 years, finishing in 1978, but she continues to breed horses. Judi won the first women's race where bets were allowed to be made when she drove Youdini to victory at the Melbourne Showgrounds track in 1974.Blue with yellow vertical panelbendigo cup, adaptor, horse, jack hargreaves, bhrc, bendigo harness racing club, lords raceway, j hargreaves

KEVIN ‘BOOFA’ INNES By Lucy McCormick Kevin was a member of the celebrated Innes clan from Inglewood, in Central Victoria. “I think the first Innes’ came to Inglewood in 1851. My daughter used to say she can’t marry anyone from Inglewood, because she’s related to them all,” says Kevin. ‘Boofa’ is enjoying some well-earned relaxation on the couch after breaking a kneecap six or seven months ago in a track work incident. Not that it seems to be bothering him too much; he’s got plenty of time to keep up with the trots on television. “I do follow them,” Kevin says. “I don’t miss many, and I do have a bet. I like to sit in the chair and drive a race as much as anyone.” With an illustrious career both as a trainer and in the sulky, it’s a safe bet that Kevin Innes is a more than handy ‘grandstand driver’. His name is associated as a trainer/driver with many handy horses, including Lea Sands, Imatoff and Stormy Morn to name a few. Kevin is typically circumspect about his bigger triumphs, however that doesn’t seem to be what interests him the most. “I’ll tell you something,” he declares, doing just that, “I like winning with the horses that were no good. Some people never get a good horse. Imagine that. Luck is a very, very important thing. You have to have luck to buy a good horse at the sales, to get it going, keep it sound, find a race for it, find and owner and get a draw. And they still make a liar of you.” Funny, interesting or quirky stories seem to be of greater interest to Kevin, such as the time he had a strong chance in a standing start race – the favourite in the race being his only worry. “I told the owner it only had a 20-metre handicap – I couldn’t beat it off that,” he remembers. “So I was leading, waiting for the favourite to run past me. Toward the finish, I heard it coming, and it ran straight past all right – minus the driver. He’d fallen out of the cart and I won the race. Just lucky.” The Innes family have always been heavily involved in one sporting pursuit or another – Kevin himself being a champion bike rider of his time. “My Uncle Roy was a good bike rider, so he dared me to have a go. It turned out I was quite good at it as well.” So good, in fact that for many years Kevin was able to make a living from bike riding, riding the ‘board track’ for many years. “We trained hard. Bike riding was very big back then, we’d train and ride three or four times a week.” Kevin’s riding career spanned four Herald Sun Tours, a Warrnambool to Melbourne and a Sydney to Melbourne race, to name a few. “It definitely gets you in – it was long hours,” he muses. “But like anything, horse racing included, you only get back what you put in. We trained hard. I never drank, and I still don’t. I’ve seen that many athletes, great ones too, brought down by alcohol.” Lucky with injury too, Kevin can only remember a sore ankle – as well as the requisite scrapes and abrasions from tumbles on the wooden boards of the velodromes. He still enjoys watching all the big bike races when he can. “You can watch them race all over the world – France, Sweden, Germany. “To be honest I sit up and watch them with my son and we get just as much of a kick looking at the countryside than anything else. It’s so different to when I was racing.” Betting on the bike racing was big in Kevin’s day as well, and some of the bookies Kevin saw betting on the bike racing, he saw at the Showgrounds betting on the trots on a Friday or Saturday night. “Racing was different back then. There would be twelve thousand people at the showgrounds – they don’t have to come anymore, it’s just as easy to watch it on the TV.” Kevin remembers in those days that drivers had to ‘weigh in’ as well – everyone who drove needed to weigh ten stone (just under 65 kilograms). It’s something he remembers fondly. “I know not everyone will.” Kevin won’t be drawn on the subject of favourite drivers, either. “Look. Driving is different now. No disrespect to current drivers, but you had to think a lot more on a three furlong track than they do now on the bigger tracks. You had to drive with brains. And I really believe that good horses make good drivers. The horses are very good these days. Today’s drivers – your Gavin Langs, Chris Alfords – they’re thinkers, and brains will beat brawn every time. The girls are just as good now too. You only have to look at Kerryn Manning.” A garrulous and popular character, Kevin has trained horses for the likes of legendary Richmond player Jack Dyer, and also spent his fair share of time hosting sportsman’s nights, holding his own with the likes of Ron Barassi. On one such night, they had flown in a light aircraft to their destination. During their show, Kevin noticed their pilot, sitting in the front row, laughing appreciatively. There was one problem. He had a beer in his hand, and was consuming it with some enthusiasm. As the night wore on, the pilot became more and more inebriated, and Kevin became more and more disturbed, knowing that this was the same pilot who was to fly them home when they finished. Unbeknownst to Kevin, however, the flight had been cancelled and the pilot hadn’t told anyone, instead deciding to take full advantage of his client’s hospitality. For now, Kevin is happy living in Inglewood with partner Barbara. Son Grant and daughter Carla aren’t far away (both work at the Bendigo Harness track, and Carla has held both a trainer and driver’s licence). His granddaughter, Barclay Sands, was born on the same day of the demise of their star performer, Lea Sands, and may give the biggest hint yet just how important the world of harness racing is to Kevin ‘Boofa’ Innes. Blue with white yolkKevin Innes embroidered on left side chestkevin innes, k innes, bendigo harness racing club, bhrc, bendigo, horses, race colours, trotting, pacing, harness racing