Saturday, March 24, 2012

Cloncurry Races

Cloncurry races are a great day, with many social activities and excellent catering. However, horses, too, are important and trainers bring them great distances.

Cloncurry Race Club has been established since the early 1890’s, and is strongly supported by the local racing fraternity and regional horse trainers. The Race Day caters for the whole family with children’s playgrounds on course, lollydrops & entertainment for the kids. Ladies get involved by entering our Fashions of the Field competition by frocking up on the day.

General information:

There are full bar and catering facilities available and bookmakers for local and southern races. Local charities benefit from races as we offer the catering to a local organisation and another organisation supervise the gate entries for a donation in return so all in all the whole town benefits from the races in Cloncurry.

Did You Know?

Racing in the Cloncurry district dates back to the 1880s; a horse called “Grenadier” is recorded as winning the 1884 Cloncurry Cup. The horse was owned by the Magistrate of the time, Richard Uhr, and the cup is on display at the Mary Kathleen Memorial Museum. The Cloncurry racetrack in the early 1900s was a very grand place - "Randwick of the North", according to some older people in the town! There was a large grandstand with a stairway up the middle, a roof and a tea room underneath and lawns surroundings. This grandstand was blown down in 1940 by a freak storm. Part of the stand remains and a bar now stands where the tearoom once was (refreshments have certainly got stronger!).