Australia's/world's first horse race radio broadcast by Arnold 'Ike' Treloar in 1924 on Adelaide station 5CL
After winning a battle in the Australian high court in 1937 to be able to call races inside Adelaide's Victoria Park (pictured in 1920), broadcasters still found its conditions a nightmare, as legendary ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission/Corporation) commentator Alf Gard (left) made clear.
Main image courtesy State Library of South Australia
The first horse race radio broadcast in Australia, and probably the world, was in 1924 when Arnold “Ike” Treloar called thoroughbred events at Port Adelaide in 1924 for radio station 5CL.
Treloar, the South Australian pioneer of race calling in Australia, broadcast races for the next 21 years, mostly for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) that took over the previously private 5CL radio station.
Within a year of Treloar's initiative, radio race callers were describing events across Australia – but from outside the racecourses. Race clubs objected to them broadcasting, fearing that patrons would listen to the radio, rather than go to the track, and patronise off-course bookmakers. The first radio race callers had to resort to using outside buildings, temporary stands and even trees overlooking the tracks, to see the races and give their commentary.
The issue came to a head in Adelaide in 1937 when the Victoria Park Racing Company, that conducted race meetings in Adelaide’s eastern parklands course, sought court orders to prevent Cyril Angles, one of the most popular callers of the pre-World War II era, broadcasting from an elevated platform outside the course. Ultimately, the high court of Australia found in favour of the broadcasters, with the chief justice John Latham, observing that “some people prefer hearing about the races as seen by Angles to seeing the races for themselves”.
Victoria Park racecourse (its last meeting was in 2007) remained a nightmare for radio race callers even inside. As former radio 5AA race caller Terry McAuliffe said: “As much as I miss racing at Victoria Park, I certainly don’t miss calling there. The broadcast box was perched at the back of one of the grandstands and some 80 metres or so before the winning post … once they reached the finishing line, runners quickly disappeared from view behind the judge’s tower. Throw in the fact we had the 1000m straight races there as well. Friday nights were often sleepless thinking about the challenging days calling coming up on a Saturday.”
Adelaide ABC race caller Alf Gard, who made a spectacular last call in a blowup on live Saturday night television (after a Victoria Park race meeting) in January 1976, was also quoted making his own criticism of Victoria Park commentary difficulties during a race call there: “Down the back straight and there's one taking off from the rear ... it's absolutely flying ... the colours are obscured from my view, I can only see the white cap, but it's doing two to their one ... Never seen a horse move so fast in my life. Oh ... it's a fella on a motorcycle on Fullarton Road.”
