Austrotforum

About the best bit of news for country trotting in New South Wales at the moment,is the return of registered racing to Goulburn after a spell of 21 years.Even better is that the track has been rebuilt and is now a very desirable 1060 metres in circumference.It's great to see the light harness sport come back to a city steeped in trotting history and surrounded still by people who make their living in the rural sector.The country has always been the rock upon which trotting has been based in NSW,and I confidently predict that the Committee of Goulburn HRC will have little trouble pulling good crowds to their meetings.
It's not the first revival witnessed at Goulburn,there were no races for 2 year olds conducted in Australia from 1916 until the 26 and 28 of January 1935 saw 20 pacers and 12 trotters battle through heats and finals to determine the winners of the "GOULBURN SAPLING STAKES".For the record ,the pacer's division went to "THE WOBBLER" who rated 2.25 (having rated a record 2.22 winning his heat),while the the trotters went to RED WALLA 2.41(a son of the mighty WALLA WALLA,Goulburns greatest pacer who,among many other fantastic performances,gave a good field of pacers a flogging from the back mark of 180 yards.)The Sapling Stakes spawned a host of top liners in the 26 years of its running,VAN HALL,SET POINT,CONVIVIAL and TACLOBAN to name a few.Situated handy to major road systems south of Sydney,Goulburn is set to go to the top yet again...austrot.