RACING IN VICTORIA, FROM THE BEGINNING 1 5 



two well-bred looking mares. Both were heavy in foal, and it was believed 

 that they had been stolen. The overlander found employment on the station 

 of a Mr. Riley, and here the foals, both of them colts, were dropped. One of 

 these was Petrel. 



At two years old the colts were sold to the overseer of a Dr. Martin for 

 thirty-six pounds the pair, and the future champion commenced his education 

 as a stock horse. Mr. Colin Campbell soon heard that Petrel had shown 

 wonderful speed after cattle and emus, and you may be pretty sure that the 

 stockmen had also discovered on their homeward way of an evening, that 

 "the big chestnut beggar could gallop like fun." Mr. Campbell swopped a 

 mare worth twenty pounds for him, and his racing career then began. He 

 was the undoubted champion of Victoria, and was then despatched, per sailing 

 ship, to Botany Bay, to "take the Sydney-siders down." But the voyage over 

 was long and rough, he had no time before the races in which to recover him- 

 self, and he was very well beaten. The excitement in Sydney was tremendous, 

 and the description of the event reminds one somewhat of a latter day 

 happening when the Victorian, Artilleryman, was unexpectedly defeated by 

 the New South Wales representative, Millieme, in the St. Leger. 



It is pleasant to know that the old champion ultimately fell into the hands 

 of Mr. James Austin, in whose possession he lived a life of ease, "roaming the 

 flats by the homestead creek," until, at the ripe age of twenty-five, he passed 

 in his checks. 



And during the Petrel fever days, one is glad to notice that at length the 

 winners in the metropolitan areas were beginning to come from horses which 

 were eligible for, and ultimately were entered in the Stud Books of Australia, 

 and were now repaying their enterprising owners for their extensive outlay 

 and boldness. Thus, when Petrel was carrying off the champion prizes at 

 Flemington, Garryowen, the second living son of our old friend Nora Creina, 

 was winning Town Plates and Publicans' Purses, whilst Paul Jones, a colonial- 

 bred colt, foaled in '41, by imported Besborough out of imported Octavia, 

 threw down his Van Diemonian gauntlet to Petrel, and on one occasion, to 

 the wild delight of the Tasmanians present, actually finished ahead of him in 

 a heat. But while these exciting happenings were taking place in the centres 

 of population, racing was also catching a hold on the dwellers in the wild 

 bush. Thus you will find, if you read the works of the late Revd. John 

 Dunmore Lang, that in 1 846 this distinguished divine made the overland 

 journey from Sydney to Port Phillip, during which he kept an extensive diary 

 of events. 



On his arrival at Albury, he relates how he discovered the inhabitants of 

 the town and neighbourhood, "on the Christian Sabbath Day," indulging in 

 the excitement of their annual races. So shocked was the minister that he 

 broke into the Latin tongue: 



"Quadrupedente patrem sonitu quatit ungula campum," 



which, in the words of "Young Lochinvar," he aptly and freely translates as: 



"There was racing and chasing on Albury Lea." 



"The respectable publican of the place, one Brown, told me that he was, 

 with great reluctance, compelled to serve out rum in pailfuls to his customers 

 who were attending the races." And all over the huge colony of New South 

 Wales we find at this time, and during the succeeding few years, that racing 

 was becoming the favourite pastime of the people. There was a meeting at 

 Maitland in '46, where Jorrocks beat Emerald, and the event was considered 

 so important that it is immortalised in the calendar for 1867 printed in the 



