Of Heath And Horses: A History Of Cranbourne Turf Club
Australian History Local History Sports Reference Animal Sports Horse Racing History Thoroughbred Racing Antiquarian Sports Racing Nostalgia
Of Heath And Horses: A History Of Cranbourne Turf Club is the definitive 1993 first-edition hardback that racing historians and Melbourne Cup collectors have been hunting for years. Written by respected Australian turf writer Marc Fiddian, this 300-page official club history charts the Cranbourne training track’s rise from windswept heathland in 1860 to the multimillion-dollar facility that conditions Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate winners. Every stakes result, every champion galloper and every colourful trainer is recorded with Fiddian’s trademark meticulous research, making the book both an absorbing narrative and an essential reference for anyone who follows Australian thoroughbred racing.
What sets this copy apart is its scarcity in the original dust jacket. Most copies were library-bound or jacket-lost; this one retains the bright pictorial wrapper showing horses thundering past the Cranbourne grandstand, plus the sturdy Cranbourne Turf Club hard-cover binding that has kept the pages square and tight for three decades. A neat gift inscription on the front pastedown is the only marking; otherwise the book is clean, un-dog-eared and ready for display beside other classic racing tomes like Bold John’s Australian Racing Encyclopaedia or Wray Vamplew’s Australian Turf.
Collectors value the work for its depth of detail—pedigree tables, race records, archival photos of greats such as Eurythmic and Comic Court training on the heath, and interviews with now-deceased trainers whose memories would otherwise be lost. Students of Victorian and Australian social history will appreciate how Fiddian weaves the club’s fortunes through two world wars, the 1930s depression, and the post-war boom that saw Melbourne’s suburban sprawl threaten, then preserve, the track. Whether you need authoritative data for a form-guide article, background for a heritage study, or simply a riveting weekend read about the sport of kings, Of Heath And Horses delivers in spades.
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