56 150 YEARS AGO The main chances in the inaugural Warrnambool Handicap Steeplechase, on 13 June 1872, were Hugh Gallagher’s Druid, which had recently won the Great Western Steeplechase at Coleraine, and Prior, which started 5-2 favourite on the strength of his win in the Maiden Steeplechase at the Melbourne Hunt Club races at Flemington. In a magnificent spectacle in front of a crowd of between 3,000 to 4,000, nine of the eleven runners finished, with the other two not taking the fence that led out of the racecourse reserve. Prior cantered home 20 lengths in front of Marquis of Lorne, with the other seven finishing very close together. After a tight struggle Royal Charlie finished a head in front of Druid in third place. However, Jack Quinn, the absentminded young lad who rode Royal Charlie, forgot to weigh in and third place was awarded to Druid. Prior’s owner, Thomas Skene, always maintained it was the biggest steeplechase course ever jumped in Victoria, and without an accident of any kind. The Warrnambool Examiner proudly proclaimed that the new Winter Steeplechase Meeting, at the time limited to one day and only four races (all over obstacles), was successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its promoters and predicted that it could not be doubted that it would become an annual event. 90 YEARS AGO Mr. S.O. Wood, a veterinary surgeon, originally sent Jack’s Jason to Caulfield mentor Fred Doran to be trained for pony races, and it was intended to try to bring off a coup with him in the Ascot Thousand, a rich pony race at the old Ascot course near Flemington racecourse. But when measured Jack’s Jason was a quarter of an inch over the maximum height of 14.2 hands. The diminutive gelding was injured while spelling and considering him to be worthless Wood decided to give him to Fred Doran’s young son Jack. Jack and his sister Nancy hunted the gelding and he crossed hundreds of fences with them in the saddle. When Jack’s Jason won the 1932 Grand Annual the runner-up, Welcome Stranger, aged 15 years, was only a year younger than the winning owner, Jack Doran. Welcome Stranger won the 1931 renewal, aged 14, and finished third to Solo King in 1933. He is almost certainly the oldest winner of the race and its oldest placegetter. Grand Annual Steeplechase First run 1872 Ranji (Dan Coleman), leading Sweet Alice at the stone wall in the 1903 Grand Annual. Source: The Australasian, 9 May 1903.
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