COVER STORY
At midnight on Friday a brave posse will charge into the freezing, dark and likely sodden bush of Scottsdale to ride in the 160km Tom Quilty Gold Cup
The Tom Quilty Gold Cup sets off from the NorthEast on Friday
Tasmanian riders are hoping to claim their third win in a row at this year’s Tom Quilty Gold Cup, Australia’s toughest endurance horse riding event, in which competitors ride 160km in one day. Tassie teams have won the past two prestigious events and with this year’s ride being hosted at Scottsdale in the state’s North-East, local riders might have the edge in terms of familiarity with terrain and conditions.
While many eyes will be on defending champion Brooke Brown-Cordell, from Tunnel near Launceston, and 2016 winner and last year’s second placegetter Debbie Grull of Sheffield, pictured left, there will be a huge contingent of Tasmanian horseand-rider teams taking part on Saturday, October 5, all striving to complete the gruelling ride.
Grull says she will be chuffed just to finish again. This will be her eighth Tom Quilty with her Arabian gelding Lauralyn Notorious — aka Fred — and they placed in the top five in six of the previous seven events together. But she is philosophical about her chances of placing again.
“Oh it would fantastic but there will be a lot of Tasmanians competing in this year’s event and I could name at least 10 horse-and-rider combinations that are a chance to finish in the top five this year,” she says. “I’d be happy just to see another Tasmanian win it. I just want to complete it again. In the Tom Quilty, to complete is to win.”
The ride starts at midnight and the first riders are expected to finish around lunchtime on Sunday, October 6.
The first Tom Quilty Gold Cup ride was held in 1966, inspired by a similar event in the US, the Tevis Cup, which saw riders tackle a 100-mile endurance course in the space of one day.
The idea of a 100-mile ride inspired Australian legend R.M. Williams — editor of Hoofs and Horns and eventual creator of the iconic outdoor wear that still bears his name — to extend an invitation through his magazine for people who might be interested in taking part in an Australian version of the Tevis Cup.
The first ride was organised to be held in the Hawkesbury district near Sydney. In trying to shore up financial support for the ambitious event, Williams wrote to his friend Tom Quilty, a horseman and cattleman living in the Kimberly area of Western Australia. In response, Quilty donated $1000, a significant sum of money at the time. The money was used to create a gold cup, which would be the perpetual trophy for the event, and the event was named in Quilty’s honour. The original Gold Cup now resides in the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, in Longreach, Queensland and a different one is presented to present day winners.
To this day no prize money is offered for the event, because at the time it was inaugurated it was illegal to race horses for money over public roads. So the event is technically an amateur sport but attracts top riders and horses from around the country and even overseas.
And while there is no cash prize, the winner’s name is added to the gold cup and every rider who completes the ride — regardless of the time taken — earns a coveted silver buckle in keeping with the event’s philosophy that there should be satisfaction in simply participating and that to complete the ride is as good as winning it.
Each state takes turns in hosting the annual event. Tasmania last hosted the Tom Quilty in 2012, at St Helens, and this year it returns to Tasmania, taking place at Jetsonville, near Scottsdale in the North-East. 2018 event director Graham Bucknell says more than 140 horse and rider teams have registered for this year’s event and roughly half are Tasmanian, the rest are from the mainland and a handful are from the US and New Zealand. “It becomes a bit of a tourism boost, too,” he says. “When the ride is over a lot of people will agist their horses and then take a week or two to travel the state and have a holiday. The horses need a week or two off as well.”
Bucknell says each state has challenges in terms of course and riding conditions, be it the dry heat of WA or the rugged bush and mountains of NSW.
“The weather in Tasmania is always a factor, it can change unexpectedly. And some say our track is more technical than others in that it involves more turns and twisting tracks through the bush. Seldom is it flat, it’s up and down all the time. There aren’t any really steep hills but it’s enough to mean the horses are working all the time.”
Grull is feeling well prepared for the challenge and has great confidence in the Tasmanian riders and horses taking part.
“We Tasmanians punch above our weight in these events,” she says. “We’re tough and we deal with tough terrain here. It’s hilly and the weather can change from hot to cold without warning, there’s stony ground, clay, soft earth, sand, everything, so we tend to be very adaptable in that sense. And our local vets here are very particular. If they see a problem with a horse