If their pacer or trotter happens to claim the spoils, they often wander over towards the grassed area in front of the administration building.
Understandable, we suppose, as that used to be the parading area for horses before a race and it also doubled as the winner’s circle afterwards.
The old stewards’ stand was demolished in December 2009, leaving behind 90-odd years of history.
Racing Matters never set foot inside the stand, as all Forbury Park visits before to taking up this role tended to be the bar formerly known as Wobbly’s, or cheekily sneaking up to the members’ lounge until we got asked to leave.
So the creaking seats, the dark underbelly of the building and the copious bottles of booze available to the press in the media room back in the day is not even a memory — let alone a distant one — for this columnist.
... and taking stock ...
Forbury Park accountant Ken Dempster tracked down some old stories in relation to the stewards stand — many of them from the period of the construction, which began in 1919.
Some of the writing is just outstanding, such as when hot, oppressive weather (yes, in Dunedin) meant the track was "far from at its best" as a scribe wrote in the Star: "I learned that the club had been continuously watering it for a week past, and with the heavy training work during the last few days it had cut up badly, affording a very bad surface and there was no grip for the horses.
"A. Fleming, who drove Dean Dillon in the chief event, was in front fifty yards from home, and he told me that going down the back stretch after the first round, he could see neither the rails nor the outside fence. What the drivers of the horses behind Dean Dillon had to put up with can be left to the imagination".
A look in the 1919-20 New Zealand Turf Register for the Dunedin Cup result from that day reveals the two-mile race was won by General Link in 4.36.4 — a mile rate of 2.18.2!
The stand was completed in 1921 and shortly after, it attracted the biggest crowd "since the inception of the club".
"Galtymore" noted in the New Zealand Truth that "something should be done to prevent the gaping non-investors from thronging in front of the tote".
The aforementioned throng was described as "immense" by the esteemed correspondent.
Pumper’s pennings
Congratulations to Barry McCone of Dunedin, who won the copy of Jim Cassidy’s book Pumper. It will be winging its way to you in the next few days, Barry.
Lazy Fiver
Third again with Kingdom Come. Never mind the international raiders, we’re with Jameka in the Caulfield Cup.
