Seventy-five years ago on Tuesday,  August 29, 1939, the headlines gracing the sporting pages of The Scone Advocate after the successful race  meeting on the previous Saturday read “Racing in Scone revived - Scone Hospital Racing Club’s opening meeting attracts record crowd”. 

Dormant for many years, racing in Scone was revived on August 26, 1939, when the Scone Hospital Racing Club launched its initial meeting on the St Aubins private racecourse, generously made available by the owner WJ Smith.

For many years Scone was a flourishing racing centre which attracted some of the best performers in the state. 

The time came, however, when country racing generally suffered a depression and Scone, along with many other centres, dropped out of line and racing disappeared for a long time. 

The race meeting set down for the 29th celebrates 75 years of continuous racing in Scone. 

Racing in Scone has been at different venues such as Belmore Heights,  Alabama, St Aubins and even at Aberdeen on a couple of occasions before the club settled into White Park on May 7, 1947. 

The club raced there for 48 years before gaining a new home at Satur, virtually on the site of the original Satur racecourse which had hosted its first race meeting on December 15, 1892.

Looking back at the meeting in 1939 we find the club president at that time was well known businessman and thoroughbred breeder WJ Smith who was a great supporter of the sport making his private track at St Aubins available not only for this meeting, but on several other occasions during the early 1940s.

The name St Aubins has a close tie with racing in Scone, many of the earlier meetings were held on a portion of the property when owned by Bakewell Bros in the 1800s.

The 1939 vice-presidents read like a who’s who of racing and breeding, with names like Sir Hugh Denison, owner of Sledmere Stud, AE Cooper of Segenhoe Stud, Percy Miller of Kia-Ora, WT Badgery of Redbank and WH Mackay of Tinagroo Stud and for many years patron of Scone Race Club when it moved to White Park.

The odd man out amongst the vice-presidents was AF Smith, founder and editor of The Scone Advocate, a paper that fully supported any sport in the town, but its editor was highly critical of any form of gambling, however, and this led him to being one of the forces behind the formation of the Scone Amateur Turf Club in 1895

Well known local identity Steve Clark filled the position as clerk of the course, while stock and station agents were well to the fore in the organising and running of the meeting. Treasurer Neville Lochhead was ably assisted by CA Gracie while the honorary secretary was SG Keene who was well known and closely associated with the selling side of thoroughbreds in Scone since 1944. 

He was assisted by JA Simpson.

The honorary surgeons would be well remembered by some of the older residents of Scone. They were Dr ES Stuckey, Dr WO Pye whose premises were situated in what is now Airlie House, and Dr O Barton whose in-house surgery is now the home of Bill and Sarah Howey.

Of the jockeys competing, local horseman L Duncombe proved the most successful, scoring a double on the day, including the Northern Travellers Flying Handicap on the Scott Johnston trained Golden Glass.

Maryland - the small state with big racing

If you think of North American horse racing, odds are you think of the Kentucky Derby. 

If you go beyond that, you might think of the Triple Crown, which is also comprised of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. 

However Maryland, which is the home of the Preakness, has an incredibly deep association with horses.

Not only does Maryland host the second jewel of the Triple Crown, it also can lay claim to one of the toughest steeplechase races in the world. 

Given Maryland’s deep rooted affection for horses, it makes sense that the love for them extends beyond flat racing. 

During the season you will find foxhunts, team chasing and point-to-point racing more or less every weekend somewhere in Maryland.

The crown jewel is the Maryland Hunt Cup, which was established in 1894 and to this day remains one of the most difficult steeplechases in the world. 

The race was originally established between two hunts, The Elkridge Fox Hunting Club and The Green SpringFox Hunting Club. 

Throughout the years, who was allowed to compete was expanded. 

In 1903, any horse belonging to any hunt club in the country was welcome, and in the late 1970s, women were allowed to ride. 

The first female jockey to win was Joy Slater on Cancottage in 1981, and the pair repeated the next year.

One of the things that makes the race so challenging is the fact that it is a timber race, which is steeplechase run over solid timber fences. 

Some of the timber fences in the hunt are close to five feet (1.5m) tall! 

Since 1922, the permanent home of this four mile, 22 fence racecourse has been in Worthington Valley, where on the last Saturday of April families gather to watch the thrilling competition from the same spot their ancestors did more than 90 years ago.