These were the two main race fields for Doomben, in the Australian newspaper of Saturday November 30, 1974.

I admit that I love coming across an old racing newspaper, or an old Form Guide from yesteryear, somewhere around the house, due to the wonderful memories they can revive.

By chance, clearing out the shed the other day, I opened an old port which held my prized running shoes from my days as an athlete when I was a kid – and in that port, with those running shoes, well preserved, was an old Form Guide from the Australian newspaper dated Saturday November 30, 1974. There were also three greyhound Form Guides, in date order, they were from the Metropolitan Greyhound Racing Club (Lawnton) meeting of 21^st May 1974, the Gabba Greyhound Club on 22/5/80 and from the Beenleigh Greyhound Club on 13/4/81.

The Australian newspaper Form Guide for Saturday November 30, 1974 covered meetings at Doomben, Rosehill, Moonee Valley, Morphettville, Ascot and Newcastle gallops and the Globe Derby trots.

Over the next three weeks, at the rate of one article each week, I’ll reproduce a stack of information pertaining to the fields at some of those meetings.

So today I’ll reproduce the Doomben fields from 30/11/74 and the Lawnton Cup heat fields from 21/5/74 along with the Free-For-All from the Globe Derby harness racing meeting of 30/11/74. Next week I’ll reprint the Rosehill fields for 30/11/74 and the main races at the Gabba greyhounds for 22/5/80, then the following week I’ll reproduce the Moonee Valley fields from 30/11/74 and the main races at the Beenleigh greyhounds on 13/4/81. The notation “N/A” below denotes the jockey was not advised at the time the fields were produced.

The Doomben fields from Saturday 30/11/74 were:

Race 1 – 2YO – 1010 metres – worth $3,000.

Race 2- Novice – 1200 metres – worth $2,600 (First Division)

Race 3 – Novice – 1200 metres – worth $2,600 (Second Division)

Race 4 – Novice – 1200 metres – worth $2,600 (Third division)

Race 5 – Flying Handicap – 1200 metres - $3,000

Race 6 – Open Company BATC Handicap – 1610 metres - $3,000

Race 7 – Transition Handicap – 2020 metres – worth $2,600

Race 8 – Encourage Handicap – 1200 metres - $2,800

A couple of points to note out of these Doomben fields on the day are that the best two horses that competed at the meeting were no doubt firstly the horse that couldn’t get a run in the opening race the Maiden, Our Cavalier, as his form read 0-6 from his two lifetime starts. In later life the 1972 foaled son of Pandour became a top class galloper winning such black type races as a Prime Ministers Cup at the Gold Coast, a Labour Day Cup at Doomben and a Tancred Stakes at Rosehill in Sydney. The other top class horse racing on this day was Spedito who was a 1970 foaled son of Bluescope.  Spedito went on to win the Doomben 10,000/Stradbroke double in June the following year (1975), even though his form coming into this ordinary Doomben race was 1-8-0. He was assessed at 8/1 in early markets for his race this day.

On a second point, the trainers of horses can only be advised for three of the eight races on the day as they were legs of the Treble on the then Queensland TAB, now Unitab, so there was a “Treble comment” in the paper that previewed those three races.

The Metropolitan Greyhound Racing Club meeting for 21^st May 1974 had 10 races, with the first at 1.30pm and the last at 4.30pm. The first nine races were run over 475 metres and Race 10 was over 600 metres. In later life those distances became 482 metres and 609 metres, but I don’t recall why that change happened.

The highlight of the Lawnton meeting was that Races 2, 4, 5 and 8 were the four heats of the Lawnton Cup (475 metres), therefore many of Queensland’s top greyhounds were nominated for the meeting. The first two in each of the four heats were noted in the racebook as going to the Lawnton Cup final and amazingly the prizemoney for the winner of the final was “$1,000 plus a Cup valued at $100,” not bad given that at Doomben the Open company BATC Handicap race above had total prizemoney of $3,000.

Track records at the time in the Lawnton book were noted as being held by the greyhounds below, however the 366m record was held jointly:

The Course announcer was noted as being the late Mick Cox, the President was A. Hauff and the Chief Steward was W. (Bill) Brittan. On the committee were A. Belford, B. Curran, P. James, R. Belford, S. McDonald, T. Siganto, K. Turner and T. Fitzgerald.

The 10 starters, their sire and their trainer - for the four Lawnton Cup heats were, in heat order (Number 9 is first reserve and number 10 is second reserve, as per what happens these days).

Heat 1 – Lawnton Cup – 475 metres.

Heat 2 – Lawnton Cup – 475 metres

Heat 3 – Lawnton Cup – 475 metres

Heat 4 – Lawnton Cup – 475 metres

It is interesting to note these Lawnton Cup heats featured the inaugural 1972 Brisbane Cup winner Garron Court. The trainer of that greyhound is recorded as having the surname Reimers, not Reimer.

The most interesting runner in the Lawnton Cup heats was the classy greyhound bitch Hi Now who was deaf, so she couldn't hear the lure coming - and she used to miss the start because of that, but often she rounded up her opposition to win. I thought that Leo Hoare trained her, but if he did in later life, he didn't when she contested the Lawnton Cup.

At the Globe Derby harness racing meeting the Free-For-All field consisted of:

Next week I look back at the fields for Rosehill in Sydney from 30/11/1974 and the Gabba Greyhound club meeting from 22/5/1980.