WAYNE PEAKE’S BOOK A REMINDER HOW GOOD SYDNEY RACING WAS IN THE 70s

WAYNE Peake perhaps might never have been a racing fan but for noticing a sign advertising Kembla Grange races.

“I was eight years of age and we were returning home to Sydney from a holiday on the South Coast,” Panania-born Peake recalled.

“The sign said the races were on today, and I mentioned this to my Pop, who loved the races, and he told my father Jack to pull over.

“It was my first time going to a race meeting, and I was taken by the great expanse of lawn and what was going on.”

Three years later he went to Royal Randwick, Canterbury races followed some time later where he “plunged” a dollar on a horse, and the bookie continued to let him on even though officially the author wasn’t supposed to bet then at his tender age.

Peake enjoyed going regularly with a large group of mates (“there used to be around 20 of us”, he said) to Warwick Farm, when the former Australian Jockey Club (AJC) raced there on Saturdays nearly a dozen times annually.

Peake says he was hooked, and eventually inspired to publish a book titled “Sydney Racing In The 1970s”.

It’s a thoroughly comprehensive coverage – both editorial and photographic – along with a precis of every meeting (including crowd attendance figures of a bygone time which we no longer see but for some major racedays) of a remarkable period in Sydney’s racing history.

As legendary Sydney journalist Max Presnell so aptly wrote in his foreword: “For we who were there, Sydney Racing in the 1970s; an Illustrated Companion, is a reminder of how good it was, and others will discover just what they missed”.

Not only does it detail everything which happened in Sydney racing in 70s, but understandably, given Peake’s introduction to the industry at Kembla Grange as a youngster, an entire chapter is also dedicated to the provincial racecourses and their history.

“Racing In The 1970s certainly didn’t happen overnight however.

Whilst it wasn’t officially “born” until November 2023, the near 500-page book understandably took decades to get off the ground.

“I had spent a few years in the editorial library at News Limited, and actually started my research in the 1990s,” Peake said.

“Racing in Sydney in the 1970s was a great era.

“I couldn’t have completed the book without the Sydney journos of that time.

“Whilst I never met Bert Lillye (former Sydney Morning Herald racing editor), I was able to access so many of his wonderful articles.

“Along with Max (Presnell), fellow racing journalists such as Bob Charley AO, Ken Callander and John Holloway also were a great help.

“And I was very fortunate to have so much assistance from the Australian Turf Club’s Heritage Centre (which is now closed) for my research.

“However, most of the book was written whilst I was a staff member at Western Sydney University campus.

“When I retired in July 2022, the Dean of the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Professor Matt McGuire, provided me with an adjunct fellowship which enabled me continuing access to the on-line resources of the University, including its library collection.

“Without that privilege, the book could not have been completed.”

Such was his blossoming love of racing that Peake developed a huge liking for the Queensland-born stayer Tails, the wonderful chestnut who had a farewell at Lang Park (now Suncorp Stadium), breaking new ground for a thoroughbred.

“John Barnes, the son of Tails’ owner CE (Ceb) Barnes, provided several previously unknown images of Tails and also a copy of “Ceb: Studmaster of Canning Downs”, which also was most informative,” Peake said.

As with Tails, Kevin Moses, the former successful Sydney jockey and then trainer and often referred to as “The Little Aussie Battler”, was another favorite of the author.

Peake had led the cheer squad after Moses won the 1980 Golden Slipper Stakes on trainer Neville Begg’s filly Dark Eclipse, and followed closely his career.

“Sydney Racing In The 1970s” isn’t Peake’s first book, though given the vast amount of time it took to put it together, one wonders how he ever found time to write anything else.

“It’s my fourth book,” he said.

“Sydney’s Pony Racecourses: An Alternative History” was my first book, and then “The Gambler’s Ghost and Other Racing Oddities” followed.

“My third book “Wandrin’ Star: Wild Jack Peake of Peakhurst”was special. I wrote it about my Dad.”

Peake says he would like to publish a second volume of “Sydney Racing In The 1970s”.

“I have written half of it already, and hope I can get sufficient support from a publisher to make the book a reality,” he said.

. All Wayne Peake’s books, including of course Sydney Racing In The 1970s, are available at www.waynepeake.com.au and good book stores.

Story John Curtis, March 13, 2025 - Pics supplied