[AusRace] The Kalgoorlie Cup

Tony Moffat tonymoffat at bigpond.com
Sat Oct 6 15:00:45 AEST 2018


The Turnbull today.

If we concede that Winx will place in this, and that will be the win, then
is there any value amongst the also rans?
The sums about Trap For Fools are mostly positive and he is $6.50 to place
(and better elsewhere) so I took that.
It's close to start time so we will wait and see.

Cheers

Tony

The Kalgoorlie Cup
Is running again tomorrow 06/10/2018. The runner numbers are down this year
and without a lot of early investigation it might be decided between the 1
or 2 or 3 - which doesn't help at all much.
I have been to several 'racing rounds' as the Goldfields carnival is sub
dubbed and I dare say it rivals the gangsterism and debauchery you find over
east, think some of the carnivals on the Murray and especially those on the
north coast. All fun though, especially if you are sober and the majority
are not so.
The first occasion, for me, was 1977, and that by default.
 I had been out to Eucla on my motorbike to meet family there, it was miles
of dirt road then, some of it side tracks to the new road being built. I got
back to civilisation, almost, between Norseman and Widgie when I got a rear
wheel wobble. A spoke had broken away from the hub and caused a crack and
each revolution made the bike shimmer some. The work around was to remove
the wheel, and the brake shoes, drum brakes of course Saintly, and run slow
like that. So it was several hours of third gear up through Kambalda, which
had/has no services and onto to Kalgoorlie which was in carnival mode, a la
racing round. 
The Hannans Handicap had been run the day before and there was a mini exodus
out to some bush track somewhere for more racing and two up.
I shopped the bike around the place, looking for parts, a fix or a work
around but no fix or remedy was available.
Anyways, there were no parts, and no likelihood of parts for a few days, or
after the week end at least and I decided I would be rescued. I had a Dodge
ute, with one of those slant six motors, in Perth, and a cousin, Pet, had
her p plates, within the last week it seemed so she would drive up the 7 or
so hours and then we would load the TS400 and together get back to the
Suzuki dealer. 
I had minimal camping gear, enough though, money and a cheque book and I
found a place to park out beyond a golf course at Boulder, with a service
station (a toilet it should read) within sight and ants.
 I heard the races, the course announcer first, then when I walked closer I
saw the horses running and heard their hooves, saw their rumps and the dust
cloud. I went to the races, Kalgoorlie Cup Day 1977, and had a feed, some
drink, a look round, and a few tote bets. It was busy. Lord Wood (although I
first typed Lord Forrest) won the cup and no I didn't pick it but I got a
place or three in some of the races.
I had agreed to meet Pet (and co.) at the start of the main street, Hannan
Street, and when I did move to go there the rear hub crumpled up completely.
So I walked a distance, somehow carrying the bike with a star picket jammed
into the rearwheel, then into the swingarm, as a lever while progressing
nowhere quickly. I did make it in to Boulder shopping centre and parked the
bike and went to the meeting place. Pet was there already and it was a
simple matter of returning to the bike and loading and securing that on the
back. Pet had brought friends along, two others, so three on a bench seat,
four with me, and high, wide and not handsome.
We left Kal later that night, after Pet was shown where first gear was, she
had been starting in second, those three in the front, me in the back with
the bike, under the cover, in my swag, such as it was, and I recall, or
don't, that I slept most of the way home.
That Suzuki TS400 still lives, elsewhere though, and presently in three
pieces, and I got a TM400 Cyclone motor for it, when horsepower, and noise,
was a pre-requisite. My new bike was a GL1000, a Goldwing, and I sold that,
and the ute, and put a deposit on a house in a few years ahead.


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