Historical information

The Warrnambool Amateur Turf Club was first formed in September 1859, but didn't become a properly constituted club until April 1873, when a meeting was held at the Commercial Hotel, now the Whaler's Inn, and a committee was elected.Part of the present racecourse of 100 acres was set aside as a racing and recreation reserve in August 1855. It is one of the finest racecourses in Australia, ringed by the gentle slopes of a huge basin.The first race meeting was held on the course in August 1858. The Warrnambool Racing Club has managed racing at Warrnambool since it was formed on 5 April 1873.Apart from a number of smaller meetings held throughout the year, the feature of racing in the district is the Grand Annual Steeplechase. The first steeplechase over the now famous cross-country course was run on 13th June 1872 then known as the Grand Annual Steeplechase. The paddocks now know as Brierly and Granters were first used on that date. The course, over four miles, was made up of different kinds of jumps including a stone wall, a log fence, a ditch and parapet, a paling fence and numerous post and rails.
The name Grand Annual was first used for this steeplechase in May 1895. It is the longest horse race in Australia, and the thirty three fences of the course, the most of any steeplechase in the world is raced over 5,500 metres. The three day May racing carnival is the major racing event on the horseracing and social calendar. Many of these race booklets relate to those May meetings. The Warrnambool Racecourse has been the home of district racing clubs such as Woodford, Purnim and Koroit over the latter part of the 20th century.
The Woodford Racing club holds their annual meeting after Christmas each year.
The Winslow races were held from approximately mid-19th century to around 1946. It began as a small picnic race club in Tobin’s paddock to a splendid race course on the property, “Green Hills” owned by Mr. John O’Keefe about one mile north of the Winslow township.. The annual meetings held on New Year’s Day drew crowds of seven to eight thousand people.
All of these books contains family names which in some cases are still strongly linked to horse racing in the district.

Significance

These booklets are a tangible link to a great sporting and social event in the Western District.

Physical description

A collection of programmes for race meetings. They relate to Warrnambool, Woodford, Purnim, Winslow and Victoria Racing Club meetings in the period 1922 to 1931. All are soft card covers with approximately 16 pages in each in white paper. They are numbered as follows:
001250.1 WRC Soft green cover with blue text 01/05/1923
001250.2 WRC Mauve cover with blue text 03/05/1923
001250.3 WRC fawn cover with red text 06/05/1924
001250.4 WRC Orange cover with blue text 08/05/1924
001250.5 WRC Soft green cover with light brown text 05/05/1925
001250.6 WRC Soft green cover with red text 07/05/1925
001250.7 WRC fawn cover with brown text 04/05/1926
001250.8 Woodford racing Club soft pink cover, Blue text 01/04/1922
001250.9 Woodford racing Club green cover, Blue text 07/04/1923
001250.9 Woodford racing Club grey cover, Blue text 05/04/1924
001250.10 Woodford racing Club grey cover, Blue text 05/04/1924
001250.11 Woodford Racing Club green cover, Blue text 22/11/1924
001250.12 Woodford Racing Club green cover, brown text 04/04/1925
001250.13 Woodford Racing Club orange cover, blue text 10/04/1926
001250.14 Woodford Racing Club pink cover, green text 10/04/1926
001250.15 Warrnambool Racing Club pink cover, blue text 18/11/1922
001250.16 Warrnambool Racing Club pink cover, red text 13/11/1926
001250.17 Warrnambool Racing Club cream cover, brown text 15/11/1924
001250.18 Warrnambool Racing Club cream cover, green text 18/01/1922
001250.19 Warrnambool Racing Club grey cover, blue text 15/01/1924
001250.20 Warrnambool Racing Club cream cover, blue text 13/01/1925
001250.21 Warrnambool Racing Club pink cover, blue text 15/01/1925
001250.22 Warrnambool Racing Club olive green cover, blue text 12/01/1926
001250.23 Warrnambool Racing Club blue cover, blue text 14/01/1926
001250.24 Warrnambool Racing Club soft green cover, blue text 13/01/1931
001250.24 Warrnambool Racing Club orange cover, black text 16/01/1930
001250.25 Warrnambool Racing Club orange cover, black text 16/01/1930
001250.26 Purnim Racing Club green cover, blue text 19/05/1924
001250.27 Winslow Racing Club pink cover,black text 21/04/1923
001250.28 Winslow Racing Club green cover,black text 06/12/1924
001250.29 Victoria Racing Club cream cover,green text 11/07//1923
001250.30 Victoria Racing Club cream cover, red text 14/07//1923

Inscriptions & markings

Most of the booklets have markings with place getters and jockeys marked in pencil.
Warrnambool Racing club books have R U Forbes, C T Alexander A H Davies and William White as secretaries. Woodford club has Thomas Gleeson as secretary, Winslow 's secretary is W Latta and Purnim is P J Kelly. The local booklets are printed by The Modern Print Co Koroit St Warrnambool.