In 1842
The interest connected with the yearly race gathering increased much in attractiveness for the public. It commenced on the 1st March, an intensely hot day, for a thermometer on the course was up to 135, and the publicans m a d e a great harvest. This year each booth-holder had to pay ,£10 for permission to erect his groggery on the course, and the average cost of putting up an establishment was ,£40. T h e T O W N P L A T E was w o n by Lamb's Plenipo, the L A D I E S ' P U R S E by Hunter's Flying Shingler, and the M A I D E N P L A T E by Snodgrass's Baroness. 1'he horses were, generally speaking, in the reverse of good condition. T h e day's amusements were varied by the occurrence of a curious case of police obstruction. At this time the police authorities had a rough-and-ready way of dealing with prisoners in custody, not only disregardful of anything like comfort, but frequently, of ordinary humanity. At race meetings it never occurred to them to erect a shed or pitch a tent on the course as a receptacle of persons arrested. A long strong chain stapled to a tree was the watch-house, to which the handcuffed culprits would be padlocked in all sorts of weather, wet or dry, baking or drenching, and here for hours unfortunates were exposed. There were present on the course a Mr. Oliver Gourlay, a fast " deil-may-care-ish" merchant of the period, and the Hon. James Erskine Murray, a Barrister, the most popularity-loving Scotchman in the province. S o m e half-a-dozen prisoners were on the chain, snarling, and incessantly yelling for water with not a a drop to drink. S o m e constables marched up an additional prisoner charged with shying an emptied rum bottle at some person, and he was so roughly handled by his captors that Gourlay and Murray cried out shame, and backed up by such encouragement, a few rowdies had some notion of not only effecting a rescue, but shivering the main chain, and emancipating the whole lot. In the midst of the turmoil, Dr. Martin, a Territorial Magistrate, resident at Heidelberg, rode by, and seeing that an outbreak was imminent unless a prompt blow was struck, ordered the arrest of Gourlay, w h o was forthwith violently dragged from his horse by District Chief-Constable Brodie, pinioned, and chained up with the rest. Murray vehemently remonstrated, and would have been hooked on too, but owed his escape to the fortunate combination of being the scion of a noble Scottish house and a m e m b e r of the Port Phillip Bar. After an hour's parboiling, Gourlay was released on bail by Mr. William Verner, another J.P., and on appearing next morning at the Police Court, the alleged offender was committed for trial at the Criminal Sessions. Six weeks after this, Gourlay was one of five gentlemen volunteers w h o gallantly rode d o w n and captured a band of bushrangers on the Plenty, and in consideration of the intrepidity so displayed, the Crown Prosecutor entered a nolle prosequi for the racecourse escapade. T h e second and third days of the meet were m u c h cooler and pleasanter in every way than thefirst,except that the racing was not so good. T o maintain order a number of ticket-of-leave convicts were enrolled as special constables—a most injudicious step—which gave great public offenceSeveral times during the two days there was m u c h danger of collisions between the free population and the hectoring blackguard squad of batoned bondsmen; but fortunately beyond some vehement shouting and threatening nothing serious occurred.
IN
1843
The races were run on three consecutive days in March, and in the interest taken in them there was a perceptible annual increase. T h e T O W N P L A T E for 50 sovs. added to 10 sovs. entrance was won (both heats) by Fletcher's R o m e o . 1844. The 19th March was the first of the three days' races this year, and though a terrible financial crisis had purged the colony for the past two years, and times were hard enough, the monetary atmosphere was just brightening, and the settlers were in every disposition to enjoy themselves. T h e ww 2
