The committee of the Cootamundra Turf Club (CTC), led by President Jeffrey needs your assistance to discover the Turf Club’s history dating back to the CTC foundation year, 1876.
In and across the Cootamundra and Riverina community districts there is a wealth of treasured memories, those days gone by of many events and race meetings held at the Cootamundra racecourse.
“Next year is the 150th year since the Cootamundra Turf Club began operating, we are probably now one of the oldest in NSW still racing today. Our aim is to document those treasured memories of time gone by. Help us to discover our history, that is my request to the Cootamundra community”, said Jeffrey at his recent committee meeting.
And it’s the Turf Club committee led by Graeme ‘Dick’ McAllister, an elder racing statesman in the town, who with other committee members are out and about to gather the stories, press clippings, photographs, art-works and racing memorabilia of these past times in the proud history of Coota-mundra horse racing.
CTC was formed in 1876 with approximately 30 members. The Club was granted custodian of 160 acres of Crown Land about seven kilometres from the new township of Cootamundra. John Barnes was the inaugural President and was supported by Anthony Simpson as Secretary. The committee were Messrs Mullaly, Eager, Barnes, Mealey, Dempsey, Pinkstone, McDonald, Byrne, Hurley, Archer, Strongitharm and Chapman. Many of these surnames are icons of the district in their time.
Today, Cootamundra has suburbs, buildings, roads and streets bearing several of these names; they are the ‘fore-fathers’ of the Cootamundra Turf Club.
“We are open to anything related to the racecourse history over the past 15 decades, and anything surrounding the 100 plus winners of the annual Cootamundra Cup is the prize storyline. There have also been many other events at the racecourse over the past years. We want to complete the ‘jigsaw puzzle’ and see what we looked like in the past and what was achieved along the way as a club. Looking back as a racing community from those early days when Cootamundra was first put on the map to where we are today, is the aim of the exercise,” said Dick.
Secretary Mark Lee has been allocated the role to collate these memories with the words and images combined to publish a historical book of our timeline history. By late next year is the deadline, this is to become a feature part of the club’s 150-year sesquicentenary celebrations in 2026. If you can assist with a storyline, old or new photograph, race books or perhaps even an old ‘Cootamundra Cup’ trophy sitting in grandpa’s shed, the club would like to hear from you. The Club Secretary can be contacted on mobile 0417 223 040 or private email markslee2010@gmail.com and items delivered via Australia Post, PO Box 203, Cootamundra Post Office are the pathways to our history.
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