Pony racing was defined as "any meeting at which the conditions of any race included any condition relating to the height of any horse, mare or gelding eligible to compete". By 1930 restricted height races were generally programmed for 14.1- or 14.2-hand ponies.
South Sydney's major venues for them in the 20th century were Ascot (now a Sydney airport runway), Victoria Park (a housing development), Rosebery Park (part of Mascot) and Kensington racecourses. Other Sydney circuits for them included Liverpool, Lillie Bridge, Brighton, Belmore and Epping.
In 1907, in opposition to the registered clubs, headed by the Australian Jockey Club, they formed the powerful Associated Racing Clubs (ARC). But it has long gone. Rosebery went in 1962 but the final meeting there took place almost 23 years earlier. Sydney's last pony meeting was at Ascot on August 22, 1942. Rosebery was still operating as a training track in my time and the betting action on official two-year-olds' barrier trials, with the likes of Hollywood George Edser betting (illegally), was greater than at your average Randwick Saturday these days.
Horton said describing the scene from the Anzac Parade side.
"George Meddick had lived there and he had the Kensington billiard room. Next door was [trainer] Fil Allotta, he owned two houses, alongside Arthur Kuhn. He and his twin brother went to India when they were 18, earned a fortune. Arthur told me he was riding for a Maharajah who said he could be paid in cash or diamonds. He took the diamonds, and sent them home with a pilot to his mum.
Horton and his wife, Joan, moved into a flat owned by George Moore at Coogee, but Horton retained his link in Doncaster Avenue, where he had Kuhn's old stables.
"George rode for the Aga and Aly Khan in France and said they were bad payers," Horton said. "By telling them gangsters were after him, George was able to break his contract."
Which goes to prove, as they have said along Doncaster Avenue since the Kuhns, diamonds are a jockey's best friend.
http://www.smh.com.au/
Between 1888 and 1942, unregistered pony racing broke away from and
challenged registered horseracing to become one of Sydney’s most popular
sporting industries. It was also big business elsewhere in Australia, and in
England, South Africa and India. Peake’s important contribution to
Australian sporting and public history focuses on this little known
phenomenon. Sydney’s pony racing epicentre stretched from the city to Botany
Bay, with the main courses located in Rosebery, Kensington, Ascot and
Victoria Park.A fascinating picture of the sport’s prominence in Sydney life
over half a century emerges in these pages. For example, on January 1, 1918,
12 000 punters attended a meet in Victoria Park, where they managed to vote
on the course in the second referendum on conscription. Challenging
historical orthodoxy, Peake argues that the pony racing culture was not a
haven for working-class loafers and spielers, the poor, alcoholics,
prostitutes, inveterate gamblers, and criminal syndicates. Rather, pony
racing was a complex trans-class affair reflecting broader socioeconomic
divisions and aspirations, thus meriting the nuanced excavation of
historical detail that Peake brings to his subject.
5 Apr 2007
All pony tracks – horses 14.2 hands or less
1892
1879
1876
1877
Brought up in the Cooma district, Myles learned his horsemanship helping his father to round up cattle in the high snow leases, like A. B. Paterson's 'Man from Snowy River'. Until he was 18 he rode at Cooma and local bush meetings; he instinctively adopted the crouch style of riding, before the famous American jockey Tod Sloan. In 1899 he went to Sydney and was licensed by the Australian Jockey Club, but got few mounts. Next year he switched to the unregistered 'pony' courses. Over the next six years he became a leading rider and between October 1901 and October 1902 rode 105 winners. In 1907 the A.J.C. offered an amnesty to 'pony' jockeys and Connell was again licensed in June.
By 1910 he had won most of the important 2-year-old races in Melbourne and Sydney. In October 1909 he rode Williamson's Blue Book to a dead heat in the Caulfield Cup. That evening, dressed in the owner's colours, he appeared in a sketch in a Williamson production, The Catch of the Season, at Her Majesty's Theatre.
He rode throughout World War I—among his most important wins were the Brisbane Cup, the Queensland St Leger twice and the Randwick Doncaster.
From 1917 he rode for trainer F. Williams and won eleven races on Greenstead. His best season was the spring of 1920: he won five feature races including the A.J.C. and Victoria Derbys on Salitros. He rarely used his whip and even in close finishes depended on hands-and-heels riding and 'scolding'. By 1921 Connell was having weight problems, and that year he visited England. In May 1922 he settled at Glenelg, South Australia, where the climate suited his asthmatic son. He retired in 1924. All his life he had carefully recorded the details of his career: out of 5886 mounts he had ridden 1080 winners, 908 seconds and 742 thirds. He claimed to have made a fortune by not betting, and invested in real estate round Randwick and Clovelly in Sydney.
After he retired he was registered as an owner-trainer until 1954 and exercised his horses with his daughter Gwen on Glenelg beach.
Connell was about 5 ft 4 ins (163 cm) tall, handsome, with blue eyes and straight brown hair. Utterly honest, he was a devout Congregationalist and a strict Sabbatarian; he enjoyed bowls and golf. He died at Glenelg on 11 April 1958 and was cremated. Predeceased by his wife and son, he was survived by his daughter. His estate in New South Wales and South Australia was valued for probate at almost £80,000.
1903 Chantress Louis Kuhn 1902 Sir Foote Louis . Kuhn I 1900 The Watchdog Frank Kuhn