Club Spotlight: Dingo

By Jordan Gerrans

The hard-working team behind the Dingo Race Club cannot wait to unveil their new-look surface when racing returns to the town this Saturday afternoon.

In years gone past, the Dingo club would race on a track that was grass covered but after discussions with racing officials, the decision was made to convert the track to dirt.

The Dingo Race Club’s committee considered turning their track into a complete grass track but with the drought in some areas of Queensland, they thought it would be much too expensive.

When they race their five event non-TAB program this weekend, headlined by the $10,000 Dingo Cup for 2021 over 1200 metres, it will be the official opening of the new track, which was given the tick of approval by stewards in the lead-up to Saturday.

“We used to run a grass covered track and that was only natural grass, not turf, so this will be our first year will be the first time we race as a full dirt track,” Dingo club president Jeff Olive said.

“With volunteer labour and machinery, we have ploughed the track and pumped water in it and actually changed it to a dirt track, we are looking forward to using it for the first time.

“We spent about 20 hours on my tractor ploughing and harrowing it to 300 mills getting water trucks in to pump it into the soil to keep the dust down so it does not annoy the neighbours.

“We have worked the track for four or five weekends just to get it to where it is now, to get rid of the grass and turn the soil over.”

Veteran Bluff-based trainer Ross Vagg supports the introduction of the new dirt track.

With no permanent racing stables based at Dingo, Bluff’s Vagg is the closest trainer to the racetrack.

“That is the go and I think it will be better racing now,” Vagg, who has trained two winners in his career at Dingo, said.

“Before the grass, it grew in clumps and a lot of horses would pull up scratchy there, so hopefully now it is all even and ok with the dirt.”

To get the new track up to standard, as well as everything else that goes with running a once-a-year racing club in Queensland, the Dingo Race Club is led by five committed volunteers that are busy for weeks leading into this weekend.

And many of the people involved behind the scenes have the same last name – Olive.

Jeff has been the president for around five years, his mother Susan is the treasurer while another family member – Leanne – is the secretary.

“It is pretty much us as a family, Jeff is my son and Leanne is my niece-in-law, she is married to one of my nephews,” Susan said.

“We try and keep the race cub going together.”

President Jeff recalls members of his family being involved with the Club over four decades ago, when horses were trained on the Dingo track.  

“It is a family operation, my mum and I pretty much organise the entire day and Leanne is the secretary and comes in and helps on the day,” Jeff said.

“We have been busy organising it all since the end of March.

“We have never really been racing people, we just like to keep the Club going, keep country racing for the community.

“We do not own horses or anything, we just have been involved since the early 1990s as a family, with my mum the first involved.”

Around 200 people live in Dingo – based in the Capricornia racing region of Queensland – which is in-land from Rockhampton.

With only a couple of hundred people based in the town, the population swells significantly on race weekend on the back of a rise interest in racing over the last decade.

“When I took it over, we were getting maybe 500 people to a race day, and that was considered a big day, we were a small club then,” Jeff said.

“Now we have grown it to something pretty special with a good core group of helpers, as volunteers at the club, as well as great sponsors – helping build the club up.

“We have potentially up to 2,000 or 3,000 people at a race day now, compared to 500 a decade ago.

“Our facilities are good, we put on a good outback event and after every year, people bring their friends and family back with them the next year.”

Race meetings at Dingo are supported by stables from Rockhampton, Blackwater, Bluff and Mackay’s John Manzelmann will always bring a massive team of horses, as well.

President Jeff remembers being told trainers were based in the town in the 1970s and early 1980s, but not since.

Bluff’s Vagg only has a small team of horses and is looking forward to getting to Dingo this weekend.

“It is a good leaders track at Dingo,” Vagg said.

“It has tight corners all around it.

“I won the Newmarket; they call it the Cup as its run over 1200 metres once – the horse led all the way that year.”

Club spotlight will be a regular feature that shines a light on the unique and individual racing clubs across Queensland.