May 28 2000

In 2000, Yarra Glen and the jumps racing community needed each other.

Yarra Glen had slipped from being in the upper group of Victorian provincial tracks, and allocation of meetings was being assessed on betting returns and attendances. Yarra Glen was not faring well by either criterion.

Jumps racing, from a high watermark of 275 races in Australia 10 years before, was starting to get squeezed by the Melbourne metropolitan clubs. Opportunities were becoming harder to secure, and race numbers were well below those of a decade before. Jumps racing’s traditionally poor betting returns were making it hard to enthuse clubs to take on more events.

Jumping officials at the time went to Yarra Glen with the concept of creating a course that would rival Mornington, Warrnambool and Oakbank. Some, including training doyen Jim Houlahan, believed it could be the most exciting course of all.

The Yarra Glen area, east of Melbourne, had a great tradition with jumping, having created a steeple course some 40 years prior. Many top horses had been trained at Yarra Glen, and the local hunt club was easily the most racing-oriented of such clubs in Victoria.

The Yarra Glen club enthusiastically embraced the plan, which gained financial backing from Racing Victoria. Within a year the course was built, and a three-day jumps-themed carnival created in late May.

The construction of the new steeplechase course included building two bridges over Steele’s Creek. The course took in a climb of the big hill at the back of the track, then ran silhouetted against the horizon, over three fences there, before a very sharp downhill run, back on to the course proper.

Anticipation of the first meeting was high, and strong numbers accepted in the jumping races. The club also had a heat of the VRC Winter Championship.

Big numbers of stallholders signed up to a market oncourse, and hospitality bookings were strong for the Sunday feature day.

On the opening day of the meeting, Preludes, ridden by John Hulls for Eric Musgrove, won the maiden hurdle and Flash, trained by Mario Zampatti and ridden by Martin Mills, won the $30,000 steeplechase.

The following day the club ran a point-to-point meeting with five steeplechases and two flat races.

Craig Durden, who was unable to ride at the meeting after being suspended at Sandown the week before, said, “It was a speedy course. You came downhill real fast. It was like a combination of Oakbank and Warrnambool.”

Jamie Evans rode over the course a couple of times and said, “I loved it. It was exciting, and different.”

Brian Constable was a leading rider at the time and said, “It was like being on a rollercoaster. The hills were steep, and the pace was fast.“

The Saturday point-to-point went off without incident, but adverse weather was closing in, and Yarra Glen had a reputation of not handling wet conditions.

It rained heavily overnight, and the $75,000 Great Victorian Steeplechase never came to fruition.