THE V.R.C. AND OTHER RACING CLUBS 19 



Chapter VIII. 

 The V.R.C. and other Racing Clubs. 



Racing, always a peculiarly popular sport the world over, but more 

 particularly so in Australia, was fairly on its legs in the new country by the 

 time that Stud Books and Turf Registers had been established. A little snow- 

 ball had been formed, and from this time onwards it continued to accumulate 

 in bulk, until to-day, the quantity of racing, in proportion to the population, 

 is simply extraordinary, and the snowball has grown to be an avalanche. 



Between I 850 and I 864 the destinies of the Victorian Turf were guided 

 by two sporting bodies, the Victoria Jockey Club and the Victoria Turf Club. 

 Both associations held their races over Flemington, and although each was 

 managed by a high-class Committee and Stewards, they were ever at war 

 one with the other, so, naturally, the house divided against itself came to 

 the usual termination, and neither of them could stand. In 1 864 it was found 

 that neither the Victoria Jockey Club nor the Victoria Turf Club were sound 

 financially, and that racing was not progressing under their management as 

 it ought to have been doing. A meeting of those interested was therefore 

 held, and this conference resulted in the formation of the Victoria Racing 

 Club, w^hich newly risen body declared itself w^illing to take on the liabilities 

 of the others, provided that they, in their turn, were willing to dissolve. This 

 was agreed to, and the V.R.C. has, from that moment, governed all Victorian 

 racing, and ruled it extremely well. Mr. Henry Creswick was its first chair- 

 man. Immediately after its inauguration a Secretary was appointed at a 

 salary of One hundred and fifty pounds per annum, and Mr. R. C. Bagot 

 was chosen to fill the position. The Club has been miraculously lucky, in 

 that, from 1864 until this year of grace, 1921, there has only once been a 

 change of hand at the wheel. Mr. Bagot worked strenuously, enthusiastically, 

 and with knowledge, until his death in I 88 I , when Mr. Byron Moore succeeded 

 him, and he is still working with all the old fire w^hich distinguished his 

 efforts of forty years ago. The fact that he applied for the position at all 

 seems to have been one of those freaks of fortune, or dispensations of Provi- 

 dence, which sometimes work out for the greatest good. Mr. Byron Moore 

 was not a racing man. He knew little about the sport, and cared less. But 

 he had known Mr. Bagot, and was well aware of his aspirations in connec- 

 tion with the Club. When Mr. Bagot died, his widow urged upon Mr. 

 Moore the advisability of his applying for the position, and, more to please 

 her than for any other reason, he hastily wrote an application, briefly sub- 

 mitting his name as a candidate, but sending no credentials, and giving the 

 matter no further thought. Indeed, the circumstance had passed from his 

 mind until, meeting the Ranger of the Course, the well-known and faithful 

 Jonathan, in the street one day, that official stopped him and immediately 

 gave him the information — "Well, they've guv it ye." "Guv what?" "The 

 Secretaryship." And Mr. Byron Moore has been installed there ever since. 

 Here, there, and everywhere, never absent from his post, always courteous, 

 bland, obliging, yet inflexibly businesslike and punctilious, he has been, and 

 is "the most precise of business men." And so the Victorian Racing Club 

 has had, probably, the unique advantage of having been managed by only 

 a couple of Secretaries during nearly sixty years. 



So soon as Mr. Bagot undertook the management of its affairs, so soon 

 as the two contending bodies agreed to cease operations, so soon, too, did 

 the affairs of the Victorian Turf enter into a period of wonderful prosperity 

 and vigorous growth. Indeed, with the exception of short intervals, now 



