Bush racing at Eulo is a tradition reaching back to the first race meeting here in 1878 and the formation of a Eulo Jockey Club a decade later. From the late 1880s onwards, local publicans like Isabel – Eulo’s very own Opal Queen – realised the power race meetings had to pull a crowd into town.
She kept two racehorses on hand in case a passing droving crew was up for a match race. By putting on a dance the following evening she then made sure of keeping the paying customers in town for a while.
The town’s first racetrack was located on a barren claypan alongside the north eastern entry into Eulo. With a complete absence of shade however, umbrellas were a very desirable fashion accessory.
In the decades following Isabel’s departure from Eulo in 1922, the decision was taken to relocate the racetrack across town to this venue here beside the Paroo River. With races starting over at The Granites, the track looped around over a maximum 6 furlong (1200m) length to finish here amongst the trees.
The last Paroo Club race meeting to be held here took place on 12 October 1957. As the photo of the ladies sitting on the back of the ute reminds us, the 50s were the decade when motor vehicles really took over from horses in the life of station work across the Paroo and Warrego communities.
With good local gallopers in increasingly short supply, the annual races at Eulo took a break for a decade. The town’s racing traditions were re-imagined however in 1968 when the first of the Eulo lizard race festivals was held in town.
Top weight favourites
The powerhouse behind bush racing was the pride station owners and stockmen alike took in their horses. Many stock horses had thoroughbred lineage and there was no lack of riders around who were up for the challenge of a gallop around the track. Few however had the ideal jockey physique.
We can get a sense of this diverse jockey pool today from the handicapper’s weights that were in play for the 1955 Eulo Race Meeting. The top weight of ten stone / 10 pounds today equates to around 68 kilos. This is a full 10 kilos heavier than present day top weights! Small wonder that the shorter 4 furlong races (around 800m) were the mainstay of the race meeting.
A DAY AT THE RACES 1890 STYLE
We can get a sense of what the early improvised race metings at Eulo felt like from a series of recollections published in a newspaper report in 1939. They recall a stockman's short stay in Eulo when he took up training the Eulo Queen's two racehorses as well as serving as their jockey on the occasion of an ad hoc race meeting.
