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Sport

31 July, 2024

Corfield club preparing for 125th year of racing

The bush club will celebrate a major milestone on Saturday.

By Matt Nicholls

A blast from the past ... this picture was taken at Corfield, likely in the early 2000s. Keith Ballard, right right, is still riding today.
A blast from the past ... this picture was taken at Corfield, likely in the early 2000s. Keith Ballard, right right, is still riding today.

Considered to be one of the last true bush race meetings left in Queensland, the Corfield Amateur Race Club will celebrate 125 years on Saturday.

Just a handful of people live in the locality of Corfield, which is located south of Richmond and north of Winton, with about 125km between either town.

However, the remote location won’t stop about 500 people from flocking to the iconic bush meeting, which is considered to be the “home of the real Corfield Cup”, a light-hearted jibe at the Group 1 Caulfield Cup.

Secretary Bob Elliott was a little stumped when North West Weekly asked him the secret to the club’s survival, but said he thought it had to do a lot with the generational cattle grazing families in the district.

“A lot of the families in this area are the same families who were running the races from the beginning,” he said.

“My granddad Robert ‘Bob’ Elliott, who I was named after, was the secretary and president for many years.

“Families like the Godfreys and the Whiteheads are still in the district.”

The nearby Stamford Race Club had to move its meeting to Hughenden this year due to Queensland Racing’s changes in compliance and it sparked fears that bush clubs like Corfield could soon becoming extinct.

Mr Elliott said it was hard work keeping up with the latest changes – seemingly each year – but praised the committee for its dedication.

“The commitment of the committee is second to none,” he said.

“We’ve got some talented people like John Godfrey who does all of the work himself.”

While Corfield usually gets a crowd between 450 and 550 for its once-a-year meeting, the club secretary said there could be an extra 100-200 people through the gate on Saturday.

“Because it is our 125th birthday we’ve promoted it a fair bit and we think we’ll get a few more people than usual,” Mr Elliott said.

There are six races on the program, and while acceptances were not known at the time of print, the feature Corfield Cup (1400m) should boast a strong field with trainers from the North West and Central West vying for the $15,000 in prizemoney.

The first race will jump at 1pm and the last at 4.25pm.

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