CHAPTER LIII.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES.
SYNOPSIS:—The First Races in Melbourne. —"Collar Grinning." —The Second Race Meeting. —The First Race Meeting at Flemington. —Formation of the Port Phillip Turf Club. —The Meeting of 1841. —Subsequent Meetings to 1846. —The Melbourne Meeting. —Petrel and "the Polka." —Subsequent Meetings to 1851. —"In Memoriam" of Mr. Isaac Hinds. —A Retrospect. —Venery. —The First Hunt. —"Old Tom Brown." —Mr. T. H. Pyke. —The First Pack of Hounds. —The Corio Club. —Death of Mr. John Perks. —The Werribee Hunt Club. —Mr. James Henderson. —The Hounds at Emerald Hill.
The Turf.
HISTORY hath it that Melizyus, a king of Thessaly, was the first to tame horses for the use of man,
"And he himselfe did first the horse bestride;"
But history knoweth not, and is silent as to the personnel of the first horse-breaker in Port Phillip. Given the proverbial germs of an Australian township, the water-hole, forge, store and grog-shop, amongst all British-born colonizers, these are usually succeeded by a Wesleyan Chapel, a Temperance Society, a race club, or cricket club; and so it was in the instance I am writing of. The Wesleyans and the Teetotallers got the start of the Sporting fraternity, for in the beginning of 1838 a kind of association was improvised, which dubbed itself the "Melbourne Race Club," and its first step was a preliminary canter towards the inauguration of those "Isthmian Games" which aftewards became so racey of Port Phillip soil, and have since placed Victoria second to no other off-shoot of the Mother-country in that sport which has maintained a popularity in every clime and age, drifting back as far as a glimmer of history can be found to light the way. "Johnny Fawkner " commenced the rôle of the demagogue in this remote era, and he so far patronised the club as to permit it to hold its first gathering at Fawkner's Hotel, on the 15th January, when a Mr. Henry Allen was voted to the Chair. Business was commenced by a declaration that it was right and proper to initiate annual races, and the following office-bearers were elected nem. con.:— Stewards: Messrs. Henry Arthur and William Wood; Secretary and Treasurer: Mr. Francis Nodin; Clerk of the Course: Mr. David Morley. It was decided that the races should come off on the 6th and 7th March, and the stakes to be competed for were:— First Day.—Town Plate—25 sovs.; entrance, 1 sov.; distance, 2 miles; heats; the weights varying from 8st. 6lb. for three-year-olds to 9st. 12lb. for six yearers and aged. Ladies' Purse Of 20 sovs.; I sov. entrance; gentlemen riders; distance one mile; heats; and weights from 9st. 12lb. to 12st.; adapted to the ages from three to six years and over. Second Day.—The Hunter Stakes—15 sov.; entrance, 1 sov.; gentlemen riders; heats; one mile and a distance, with five leaps of four feet in height; catch weights. Beaten Horses—10s., post entry; one mile and a distance; heats; Town Plate weights. The following rules of management were agreed to:— No horses to be entered unless the real property of a subscriber of £2 to the race fund. The Clerk was authorized to superintend the marking out of the course and preparing it for the races; and the members of the Club were to dine at Fawkner's Hotel on the evening of the day upon which the Hunter Stakes were disposed of. All horses were to be entered for "the three first races" on the 5th March, between 7 and 10 p.m. Winning horses were to pay £1 to the Clerk of the Course "for the use and porterage of the scales and weights," and disputes (if any) were to be settled on the course by the Stewards, whose decision was to be final. Great were the preparations made for this interesting "Maiden" event, and the young men and maidens of
