Why The Far North Is The Hub For Australia's Big Wheels
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 19, 1988
THE Far North Queensland Amateur Turf Club's two-day annual at faraway Cairns's Cannon Park racetrack is the most remarkable race meeting in Australia.
The horses, relatively weak by city or even country standards, attract the rich and the powerful from the southern States - business leaders who make it their business to be there.
It is the social gathering of the year in Queensland, where executives of powerful southern companies, many of them with a big stake in the northern State's prosperity, meet to discuss business before horse form in the tropical climate.
The young Aboriginal with the broad-brimmed hat - obviously a visiting stockman from the Gulf country with an innate knowledge of horses - could not have known that the man standing directly behind him in the tote queue was William Lane, the US Ambassador.
Such is the atmosphere and the contrasts at this amazing gathering of racegoers.
This year the Premier of Queensland, Mr Ahern, came north for Cup day. So did Mr Lane (from Canberra), who spoke in glowing terms of the annual and all it stood for in sport and business at Ansett-TNT's annual luncheon on Cup day
The luncheon guest list was a who's who of Australian business, if not the turf world.
It is said that the start of many a business deal involving billions of dollars in the south is often discussed under the tropical palms in early September in Cairns.
This meeting is for amateur riders only, but there is nothing amateurish about the organisation.
Cairns Botanical Gardens are used as a champagne "brunch" venue. The Tobruk swimming pool with its broad expanse of lawns and tropical gardens lit and festooned in all their glory was used for the Friday night open-air dinner which attracted more than 1,000 people.
It seemed to me that the social strength was at the Ansett-TNT luncheon -hosted by TNT's general manager, Ross Cribb, at the Pacific International Hotel, which is part-owned by Ansett-TNT.
How's this for a high-powered guest list - and it is only a selection of those who dined before heading off for the races: Harry Baynes, chairman of the Bank of Queensland; Ken Biggins, executive director Elders, Victoria; Ian Burgess, managing director CSR; Frank Burnett, managing director Bond Brewing; Ian Callinan, chairman Queensland TAB; Ross Cribb, chairman NSW TAB and general manager-director TNT; John Cockburn, Queensland manager BHP; John D'Arcy, chairman Herald and Weekly Times; Stuart Fowler, managing director Westpac; John Gough, chairman BHP Gold Mining; William Lane, US Ambassador; Peter Lawson, executive director Carlton United Brewery, Sydney; Dick Leonard, chairman and managing director Mobil Oil Australia; John Reid, chairman James Hardie; Keith Williams, proprietor Hamilton Island, and Michael Willesee, racehorse breeder and owner Transmedia?
Willesee, speaking at one of the dinners, said it was his first annual, that he had waited a long time to "make it" and that he had heard a lot about the Cairns Amateurs and "it is all true".
The annual this year was held on September 9 and 10. The attendance on the Friday was around the 5,000 mark while there were at least 8,000 there in wet, sultry weather the following day.
Sir Sydney Williams, the enthusiastic president of the FNQATC, does not reveal attendance figures but he said the attendance each day was a record.
"This is our 30th annual," he said. "It gets bigger and better every year. We are planning for 1989 already."
Top amateur riders from around Australia always come to Cairns for the annual. It is their red-letter week of the year, the prize money being the highest in the nation ($125,000 for 13 races) for amateur racing.
The honour of taking the $20,000 2,000m Cup this year went to the 39-year-old Darling Downs farrier Andy Fraser.
"If I was 12kg lighter I would have been a pro. I like riding better than blacksmithing," said Fraser, who wasted 7kg to ride the Toowoomba six-year-old Bename (by Hit It Benny) at 63.5kg.
Fraser said that he expected a "nice present" for winning the Cup, but that amateurs were paid no set fee.
During the 1970s a grateful winning owner presented Nobby Cairns, the then crack amateur jockey, with a prized Santa Gertrudis bull after winning a good race at the Amateurs.
Yes, this meeting is different.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald