The first horse racing events in South Australia took place at a well-attended picnic meeting held over 1 and 2 January 1838.
[1] In August 1838, riding his grey gelding Charley, Fred Handcock won the first steeplechase event ever held in South Australia.
Following several successful race meetings organised by E. M. Bagot and Gabriel Bennett on their grazing property south of Henley Beach Road, Thebarton (where Mile End is today), the first being 6–8 January 1859,[4] and a series of preliminary discussions held in June and July 1861,[5] a new committee was formed, whose members included Sir James Fisher (president), E. M. Bagot, Gabriel Bennett, W. K. Simms, P. B. Coglin (starter) and William Blackler, with James Chambers as judge.
[6] The Thebarton course, dubbed the "Butchers' Course", grew increasingly unpopular with both the racing fraternity and the racegoing public.
It was difficult of access compared with the "Old Course" on the East Parklands; moreover it could be unpleasant (depending on wind direction) on account of smells emanating from nearby animal processing industries on the banks of the Torrens.
[7] A notable race held in this period was the 1865 Grand Steeplechase won by the horseman-poet Adam Lindsay Gordon on Cadger.
[13] Seth Ferry and W. H. Formby (c. 1818–1892) were commissioned to investigate the suitability of (later Sir) Thomas Elder's property at Morphettville, then marshland known as "Bay of Biscay Flat" (alluding to its unpleasant clay soil), for a racecourse.
The directors elected at the first general meeting of the Company were Sir Henry Ayers, Sir John Morphett, Thomas Elder, John Crozier, R. C. Baker, Philip Levi, Joseph Gilbert, E. W. Pitts, and H. B. Hughes, all highly influential gentlemen and racing enthusiasts.
Then in 1883 Parliament passed the Totalizator Repeal Act, which had the immediate effect of making South Australian racecourses much less profitable.
In December 1884 the South Australian Jockey Club Company (Limited) was voluntarily wound up, with Barnard appointed liquidator,[22] and carried out the secretarial duties of the S.A.J.C.
Morphettville racecourse was placed in the hands of the Queensland Mortgage Company, and fell into a state of disrepair.
[27] A. O. Whitington, who had previously had a supervisory role at race meetings,[28] and whose employers John and William Pile were prominent racegoers, was approached by T. F. Wigley[29] to help revive the Club, and Whitington convened a meeting in the arbitration room of the Stock Exchange in Pirie street on 19 September 1888, presided by Sir Richard Baker.
[29] Those present included Sir Richard Baker, Tom Barnfield, William Blackler, Irwin A. Bleechmore, P. Frederick Bonnin, Dr. Thomas Cawley, Hugh Chambers, John Deeney, Daniel Dunlevie, James A. Ellery, William Filgate, James Hay, Ernest W. Howard, Henry Hughes, Philip Lee, W. B. Rounsevell, A. Simms, H. Simms, W. K. Simms and T. F. Wigley.
The outcome of the meeting was that Whitington was appointed Club Secretary, Baker, Rounsevell, Wigley, Pile, Chambers, Bonnin, and Ellery were appointed committee members, and agreed to lease the Morphettville course from Browne for £900 per annum with a right to purchase after four years for £12,000.