Don’s cup runneth over

But none would match the exploits of his own great uncle Douglas Grant, who not only managed to win a Melbourne Cup, but celebrated with a party that has surely never been matched in the history of racing.
“Doug Grant was the owner of a Melbourne Cup winner, a horse called Spearfelt who won in 1926,” Don said.
“He was unmarried, so upon winning the cup he took off overseas with a battery of friends and hangers-on and didn’t return to Australia for some years later, having spent all his winnings.
“When we cleaned out his house later on we emptied his trunk which was full of cards from hotels and the Follies Begere and other dances he’d been to in Paris and wool suits he had had made up in London.”
While Douglas retired to a quieter life as a fisherman at Sorrento, Don’s childhood interest in racing lay dormant until his own folly of horse ownership in his twenties.
“I had a couple of friends and we bought a horse that wasn’t a very successful investment, it always came forth or sixth or seventh,” he said.
Gelding the horse and trying it on country New South Wales tracks didn’t improve its speed so Don and his mates cut their losses and sold their barrier-filler to the highest bidder.
With a growing family, the dream of winning the family’s second Melbourne Cup was put on hold until the late David Bourke asked him to join the Pakenham Racing Committee.
What he found was a committee very different to what is expected from a racing club board in 2011.
“When I joined the committee, the meetings were on Sunday mornings after Mass. I wasn’t a Catholic, but that was when the meetings were held,” he said.
“The meetings only went for about half an hour before we adjourned to the bar for a quick drink before going home for Sunday lunch.”
While Sunday morning may not have been the ideal time to convene a committee meeting, at least there was not much for a young board member to think about.
“There were no papers provided before the meetings … of course the committee involved many of the Bourke family and they of course would talk about issues during the week,” Don said.
“So you would get along to the committee meeting and they were pretty au fait with the issues and decisions had often been made before the meeting.”
But times changed and so did the committee.
The advent of poker machines and the multi-million dollar sale of the current racecourse land meant that a more sophisticated business model needed to be developed.
“Now the operation is really running a business,” Don said.
“We have a very successful Tabaret and with the sale of the site and move to Tynong, you really need to have some switched-on people.”
The imminent move to Tynong will see the Pakenham Racing Club boasting one of the best racetracks and spectator facilities in the land.
The shift up the Princes Highway is seen as a chance for the club to fight back against flagging attendances that plague every racecourse in Victoria outside of the Spring Carnival.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to move down to Tynong. There’s probably no other club in the state except for the city clubs who have had this opportunity,” Don said.
“One of the big things that has changed over the years is the advent of the TAB and television and the way punters can sit at home, watch their races and punt on the internet.”
“The way racing is going is that there be will far more racing transmitted overseas to other countries. You are putting on the event, but you are not necessarily expecting a lot of people to be there to watch it.”
When he’s not involved in racing, Don certainly has plenty else on his plate.
The Pakenham lawyer is on the Pakenham Cemetery Trust (“a life sentence”, he joked), is a life member of the Pakenham Agricultural Society and is a former school council chairman of St Margaret’s School in Berwick where his children were educated.
His involvement with the school board seems to have given the 65-year-old as big a thrill as anything he has seen in racing.
“Schools are wonderful organisations and I really enjoyed my involvement with the school. Just to see young people grow through the school experience is quite a thrilling experience,” he said.