The Chronicle

NEWS FROM THE PAST

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THE DARLING DOWNS TURF CLUB

In our last issue we adverted to a proposal emanating from Mr Cobham, of Clifton, to the effect that the Drayton and Warwick race meetings should be amalgamate­d, and a club formed for the purpose of carrying out the measures necessary to ensure success.

A numerously attended meeting was held at Warwick, on the 19th instant, having for its object the due considerat­ion of the questions above mooted, and seldom has it fallen to our lot to record the proceeding­s of any public assemblage at which such entire unanimity of opinion and reciprocit­y of good feeling prevailed.

The meeting was held in Mr Fleming’s “Down’s Inn,” where some fifty or more of the promoters of our national sport were congregate­d by 3pm.

The race course at Warwick, however, is capable of much improvemen­t.

It is badly laid out; the horses, almost directly after they have started for any race, “once round,” are obliged to make a sharp turn before they have had time to settle into their places.

The only bit of good running is at the back of the course, where horses may race for half a mile.

Then comes a bad turn, followed by the shortest run in we ever saw on a race course.

In fact, it is exactly the sort of course over which a Galloway might compete with a moderate plate horse, and we would back a well trained rabbit’s scuttling scramble round the Warwick turns against the imposing strides of the “Flying Dutchman.”

We trust our Warwick friends will take these remarks in good part; a little exertion can make the course a good one, and we look forward to the next “Club meeting” with the conviction that it will prove a most complete success.

Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser, January 27, 1859

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