| TWO-DAY NEWCASTLE CARNIVAL a major drawcard in NSW Spring |
 |
 |
 |
|
NEWCASTLE SPRING CARNIVAL OFFERS RECORD STAKES THIS YEAR Wednesday, September 17: Patinack Farm Cameron Handicap Thursday, September 18: Tooheys New Newcastle Gold Cup THE two-day Newcastle Jockey Club Spring Carnival attracts thousands of visitors each September and this year has the added incentive of a record $1 million in stakes. The carnival, to be run at Broadmeadow on Wednesday and Thursday, September 16 and 17, will this year offer an incentive of $50,000 to any trainer who prepares the outright winners of four races over both days, including at least one of the four feature races. These are the $185,000 Tooheys New Newcastle Gold Cup, 2300m; $175,000 MGA Insurance Brokers Spring Stakes, 1600m; $150,000 Patinack Farm Cameron Handicap, 1300m; and the $100,000 Patinack Farm Tibbie Stakes, 1400m. The Cup, Spring Stakes and Cameron are all Group 3 and the Tibbie is a Listed race.
The club now has eight different function rooms following a multi-million dollar refurbishment. There are two levels of members’ bars, a newly-designed public bar and the ever popular lawn marquees, all overlooking the track. Important features of the 2009 carnival include: • Winners of the Cameron, Spring Stakes and Gold Cup will again be exempt from ballot for the 2009 Epsom Handicap, Spring Champion Stakes and The Metropolitan. • The NJC will continue to pay the final acceptance fees for each of the three place-getters in the Cameron, Spring Stakes and Gold Cup should they start in the Epsom, Spring Champion and The Metropolitan at Randwick. The NJC will pay $485,400 in prizemoney and trophies on the carnival opening day, when minimum prizemoney is $20,000 (previously $17,000.) That decision looks certain to lure one of Australia's top sprinters, Black Piranha. Rosehill trainer, Con Karakatsanis, plans to launch at ambitious spring campaign in the G3 sprint. “The club's decision to bring the Cameron back to 1300m is perfect for us,” he said. Black Piranha was eased after brilliantly winning the G1 Stradbroke Handicap, 1400m, at Eagle Farm in early June. He was previously runner-up to the outstanding Victorian sprinter Apache Cat in the Doomben 10,000 in May. A versatile performer, Black Piranha has won at distances between 1100m and 1500m. Stradbroke success took his record to seven wins from 35 starts and earnings of just under $1.7million. Last year's Newcastle Spring Carnival feature winners were: Bianca (Newcastle Cup), Sousa (Spring Stakes), Raheeb (Cameron Handicap) and Miss Pageantry (Tibbie). Racing in Newcastle is extremely competitive all year round with meetings attracting some of the leading Sydney stables. In the 2008-09 season, top trainer Gai Waterhouse won the Max Lees Medal for the first time. It is awarded to the trainer with the best strike rate at Broadmeadow. Her main provincial jockey, Mark Newnham, captured his first Bill Wade Medal. HORSE RACING HAS A LONG HISTORY IN NEWCASTLE HORSE racing has a long and colorful history in Newcastle. Sports loving workers, accustomed to the horse as their main means of transport were quick to support competition between thoroughbred gallopers when organized racing began in 1848. Within a short time numerous racecourses in various forms of disrepair had 'mushroomed' throughout the area. The first race meeting was held in 1848 on a track cleared through bush and scrub in an area known as Wallaby Flat. This area took in most of Hamilton, a portion of Broadmeadow and Merewether. For thousands of years previously, the area had been known as ‘Ahwar-tah Bulboolba’ (a name translated from the language of the Awabakal Aborigines meaning ‘flat it is’, ‘wallaby place’).
The future of Newcastle was made secure when the first meeting of race-goers and enthusiasts of the Sport of Kings met to form the Newcastle Jockey Club in 1901. Since then the NJC has become one of the leading and most progressive racing clubs in Australia and rightly earned its place in the thoroughbred racing scene. With its close proximity to the rich breeding areas of the Hunter Valley, the club has also developed one of the major training centres in NSW with many champions of the past and present commencing their racing careers at what has now become known as Beautiful Broadmeadow. NEWCASTLE A POPULAR TOURIST DESTINATION PERCHED between a working harbor and beautiful beaches, Newcastle is a vibrant cosmopolitan city, bursting with energy and creativity. The emerging food scene is evident in the great restaurants, bars and outdoor cafés around the city. Newcastle’s beaches are still the major highlight for visitors who can choose from five great surf beaches and two outdoor ocean baths. For those with cultural inclinations, there are more than 30 art galleries to visit in and around the city. For a large cosmopolitan city Newcastle is equipped with a first-class array of beaches. From the crashing waves of the harbor in the north to the shifting, peaky waves of Nobbys Reef and Caves Beach in the south, this is a city where surf is serious stuff. Every March, Newcastle hosts Vodafone Surfest, one of Australia’s biggest surfing events. The city has spawned some of the supremos of the surfing world, among them Mark Richards, Matt Hoy, Simon Law and Luke Egan. There’s plenty for all tastes from rock-pool lovers and sandcastle builders to swimmers, at the wonderful Merewether Baths.
THE PHOTOGRAPHS USED IN THIS STORY WERE PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE NEWCASTLE JOCKEY CLUB
|
Broadmeadow Racecourse is located in the heart of Newcastle on the picturesque Hunter Coast only two hours’ drive north of Sydney. The NJC is the largest provincial club in New South Wales and has been operating for over 100 years.
The starting point of the races was at the city's first smelting works, located on the site once known as Beaumont Park, the junction of the Sydney rail line, not far from the Nine Ways. Broadmeadow was the finishing point and therefore it is fair to say that parts of the Broadmeadow course have known the hoof-beats of horses since the 1840’s.