HAROLD PARK

When I was 9 or 10 my grandfather, or sometimes my uncle, would occasionally take me to a race meeting at Harold Park in Sydney. It is a vivid part of my childhood memories. It was an exciting and different place to play, and it was fun trying to “guess” which number would win the next race. On the 17th of December this year I again attended a race meeting at Harold Park, again trying to “guess” which number would win the next race. However this was to be the last ever meeting to be held at Harold Park as the site had a few weeks earlier been sold to developers. Sports writer Michael Hutak described the night as “one of the saddest in Sydney’s cultural history”. It is the end of an era.


On the 4th June 1902 a group of 33 harness racing enthusiasts met in J. McGrath’s saddle and harness making shop. Donations totaling nearly twenty pounds were taken and on October 10th the New South Wales Harness Racing Club was officially incorporated. On the 19th November the club held its first race meeting at the Harold Park site, then called Forrest Lodge, a track leased from the Metropolitan Rugby Union. This first event was made up of five races with total prize money of 99 sovereigns. Two more races were held before the venue was switched to a course belonging to Kensington Pony Club. In June 1904 race meetings were again switched back to Forrest Lodge, which had had a name change and was now known as Epping.


In 1911 the track was purchased from the Metropolitan Rugby Union. In 1929, because of confusion with having the same name as a Sydney suburb, the track was renamed Harold Park. This name was inspired by world famous race horse, Childe Harold. The stallion had been bred in Kentucky and had won races all over the world, including in Russia, before being imported into Australia from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1882.


In October 1941 the NSW State Parliament passed legislation which made night racing possible. This gave harness racing, and Harold Park, a tremendous boost. Friday night racing became a very popular pastime and in 1974 visiting international drivers described Harold Park as “the best lit trotting track in the world”.


Several Inter-Dominion races have been held at Harold Park. In 1960 a world record crowd of 50,346 gathered at Harold Park to see the final of the Inter-Dominion. The two favourites were Australia’s Apmat and New Zealand’s Caduceus. The crowd was so large that spectators pulled down ply walls on the side of the grandstand to get a view of the race. The race was won by the New Zealander but was only declared after a protest by the Australians was dismissed. Other famous winners of this event have been Hondo Grattan (1973), Koala King (1980) and Our Maestro (1988).


However the best-known event at Harold Park was probably the Miracle Mile. This race was instituted in 1967. It has attracted some of the most famous trotters in the world, among these Paleface Adios, Hondo Grattan, Caduceus and Smooth Satin. Paleface Adios contested this race every year from 1974 to 1980. The last time this event was run at Harold Park was in November 2008; after that the event was moved to the new racecourse at Menangle.


In October 2008 the members of the NSW Harness Racing Club voted to sell the Harold Park site for a minimum of $150 million. The Board of Directors eventually accepted an offer from property developers Mirvac, believed to be close to $200 million. The ten hectacre site will be redeveloped into a residential area; there will be 1200 new dwellings in buildings up to eight storeys high, the historic tram sheds will be converted to retail and commercial concerns and thirty five percent of the area will be turned into public recreational area. Trotting will relocate permanently to its new home at Menangle, near Campbelltown. The sale and proposed redevelopment have divided the local community and the trotting community. Trotting officials see the input of cash as a means to revitalize trotting in NSW.


The last meeting at Harold Park saw eighteen thousand fans turn-out. The historic last race of the night was won by Karlow Mick. The winning posts were sold as souvenirs and were purchased by Ray Hadley for $10,000, proceeds going to Lifeline. Other spectators invaded the track after the last race souveniring items from the site, including one group who walked out with a large section of the running rail. Such was the scramble for a piece of history that during the next morning officials had to close the place and post security guards as souvenir hunters turned up in utes. The final word again goes to Michael Hutak , “we haven’t just shut down a venue , we have buried the trots in Sydney forever”.