The Cootamundra Picnic Race Club held their annual picnic races at the Cootamundra Racecourse at the end of last month, boasting a record crowd.
However, whilst the races themselves provided wonderful entertainment, perhaps the biggest achievement on the day went to John Scott, who was awarded Life Membership to the Cootamundra Picnic Race Club.
The 74-year-old Scott received a large round of applause from the crowd when he received his engraved plaque from current Cootamundra Picnic Race Club President, Diane Williams, before the main cup race.
Scott was President of the Cootamundra Picnic Race Club from 1993 and sat on the committee of the Southern District Picnic Race Club.
Diane Williams spoke to The Times on the fantastic race day and the achievements of John Scott.
“We’ve never had a life member in 113 years of the picnic races.
So, we just thought we’d like to honour people who had helped the club and put some time into the races along the way.
“I thought it was time to do something. We went through and looked at people who are still involved and we thought John was a good candidate.
“John has been well involved in the Race Club for a number of decades and still has the races at heart and is still happy to help whenever he can.”
Whilst Diane set-up the announcement of John’s Life Membership by telling his family, John himself was unaware of his honour until it literally was announced.
“He [John] was very surprised.
His family were involved because we wanted them all to be