Club Spotlight: Ingham

By Jordan Gerrans

North Queensland club Ingham are optimistic they are through their woes with their track and will soon be able to race all year round without concerns.

The Ingham-based Herbert River Jockey Club will next week host their second meeting of the year, following on from their popular Gold Cup day in July of 2021.

To be able to race at their own track for their two annual meetings of the season is not something the club has been able to do consistently in recent years.

With dry weather leading to a dry track at Ingham over the last five years, the club were forced to transfer meetings to Townsville and Home Hill, going through a period of time where five programmed race days where they were only able to race one individual day on their own track. 

Herbert River Jockey Club president David Adcock, who has been involved with the club for over two decades, explained that officials have been working hard for some time to be able to race consistently on their own track.

“We have done a lot of work on it to get it right,” Adcock said.

“It has been about the control of weeds, fertilizing, aeration and top dressing, it all works that way, which has been completed at a club level.”

Tony Comerford, who is a long-time North Queensland trainer, says the Herbert River Jockey Club is always a popular a venue for racing in the region.

“They have done a bit of work recently on the track and it was great on the day we won the Cup there earlier this year,” Comerford said.

“The track was good; it was good racing.

“It is always a great day at Ingham, they always get a massive crowd and plenty of people, the locals get behind it with a bit of buzz.”

Adcock believes adding irrigation to the track will provide a sustainable racing surface for the club going forward.

The Herbert River Jockey Club, based just over an hour north of Townsville, and the local golf club in Ingham have worked as a team to secure the required water for the irrigation system, with hopes to get the project off the ground in the near future.

“We are actively searching for some funding for our track to get some irrigation at our track put in there, to set the track at a position where it then will always be able to be raced on,” Adcock said.

“If we are able to secure that, I think we will be right going forward.

“We have had some really dry years in Ingham and it has taken effect.

“If we can irrigate the whole track, that would be great, as we have found the water to use if it was to happen.

“Hopefully if that can happen, we can race all year round.”

Trainers such as Mat Adornetto and Errol Covell have been based at Ingham over the years with multiple North Queensland Cup winning hoop Chris Whiteley a stable rider for Covell earlier in his career.

“It wasn’t until after I came out of my time and started riding for Errol Covell in Ingham that it all changed for me,” Whiteley said earlier this year.

“Errol was getting good quality horses from Sydney and Melbourne and I’d drive up there to work them. 

“I did that for 12 months or so and we had a lot of winners. That really kicked things off.”

Adcock, whose family have long been involved in the racing industry, is hopeful of attracting trainers back to the town – which will provide an extra income stream for the club – once the irrigation has been organised for the racing surface.

He says their two race days ever year always popular events on the local calendar. 

“There is never any problems with getting a crowd up here,” the president said.

“The upcoming racing meeting is the smaller of our two, being our family race day.”

Cluden Park-based trainer Comerford claimed the 2021 Ingham Gold Cup – which was raced as a Benchmark 60 Handicap over 2000 metres – with the much-improved Potawatomi, ridden by Wanderson D'Avila.

The Trusting gelding went more than 20 starts without breaking his maiden status in the South East of Queensland but has settled into life in Townsville beautifully.

The Ingham triumph was one of five Comerford has prepared Potawatomi towards since he had his first start for his yard in early 2021.

“He got a good run and it was a good ride by Wanderson,” Comerford said.

“They went pretty hard in front and with him being a back marker, he rode it good Wanderson, he came to the outside and was just too good for them.

“He has had a good ride, he has settled in well up here and we have picked out the right races for him, which you need to do.”

Mackay-based trainer Jade Doolan hails from Ingham.

Doolan, who is also striving to be an apprentice jockey, lifted the 2019 Ingham Gold Cup with stayer Captains Way.

“My dad started his training career in Ingham, I spent my first five years there and was involved with the horses from day dot,” Doolan said at the time of the Cup triumph.

“To win my hometown Cup within 12 months of me starting training, that is pretty good.”

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