JENNIE A TRAILBLAZER A LIFE IN THE SADDLE

while the apprentices were on holiday, but we apparently were up to scratch with looking after the horses and riding work and we ended up staying almost 10 months,” Jennie said.

“If horses were going away (to race) Mr Greene would let Lillian or I take turns to go each time. He was very good like that.”

Jennie said the situation was all the more remarkable as it was quite unusual for women to be given the chance to ride racehorses at all in either Australia or New Zealand at the time.

She said before going to NZ the only competitive racing experience she had was the ladies’ race at the Ewan Amateur Turf Club (EATC) meeting at the old Ewan township near Paluma, when she was 13.

“It was the only competitive race I’ve ever ridden in, and I finished third,” she said.

“The story goes I was only six months old when my grandmother put me on a pillow on the pommel of her saddle.

“And so I’d ridden horses from a young age.”

Jennie’s father, Mac Core, was heavily involved with the Ewan race club and was president for almost 21 years.

In 1971 he encouraged the committee to move from the old track to the current location on the banks of Stockyard Creek.

Modern transportation had been a catalyst for the move, difficulties transporting horses up the Paluma range by truck meant another location was sought.

Fifth generation solicitor Peter Roberts had strong family connections in country North Queensland, although he grew up in Townsville.

He also found himself involved with the Ewan club at the time of the move, rolling his sleeves up to help hand mix cement and throw the branches on the first bough shed.

The two-day race meetings back then would see at least 100 people attending from all over the district, with the crowds growing a lot since then. “My legal practice involved a lot of rural work and I had relatives on the land in Julia Creek and in the Charters Towers district,” Peter said.

It was because of this connection he found himself involved with the EATC and eventually he took on the position of secretary.

Jennie and Peter married in 1984, and have maintained their association with the EATC to this day.

Peter is one members.

Jennie’s partner in the 1965 NZ adventure, Lillian, also has strong ties to the race club. Her son David Woodhouse is the current president.

Peter and Jennie have travelled plenty of miles following race meetings in the North. of the club’s life

Peter and Jennie Roberts, who have had a long association with country racing, at the Ewan Races (above).

They’ve even owned a few racehorses over the years, “a few slow ones,” said Peter.

Slow, except for the year they were overseas.

“We had one that won Ewan once when we were away,” he said.

“Bloody thing, she went and won the double,” Jennie recalled.

Peter and Jennie continue to host the Mount Fullstop camp at Ewan for guests, which has been running at both the old site and new, since Jennie’s parents Jean and Mac Core began hosting a camp in 1956.

Happily retired these days, the chaos of owning horses and running the race meetings behind them, Peter and Jennie are taking more time to relax trackside, play host at the camp and to enjoy each race day as it comes.