Adjuncts to ‘Treasured Valley Vignettes’
With webmaster Teresa Herbert’s very able assistance I have just managed to launch my monograph series entitled ‘Treasured Valley Vignettes’. No sooner had I completed the upload than I discovered some notable omissions. This is my none-too-subtle attempt to redress the balance and partially retrieve the errors? One thing that strikes me is that there is a certain ‘dignity’ which used to prevail? Maybe we have lost something; or am I simply an even more irrelevant old curmudgeon?
Featured Image: Presentation for Scone Lightning Stakes 1968, 5 furlongs, Saturday 15th June 1968, won by ‘Friendly Joy’; owned by Mr H R Hayes; trained by Victor Oakes, Muswellbrook; ridden by Bill Wade; by Nautilus (imp) ex Joy Zone; Pale Blue, Purple Sash and Cap; won by 2 lengths and 1length from Star Bright (M Eveleigh) and Gynbeau (J Ollerton). Time 59.3 secs.
John Inglis was the ‘rock’ of the thoroughbred industry and a great friend to Scone. Harry Hayes and Bill Wade were both ‘champions’ and shared common ground throughout the Newcastle Hunter & Central Coast Racing Association. Miss Margaret Johns was a ‘champion filly’ from Newcastle who married locally. Her father Dr Kevin Johns was on the NJC Committee with Harry Hayes and Roy Mahoney.
Introduction to ‘Treasured Valley Vignettes’
See: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/treasured-valley-vignettes/
I want to do something different; so I did! I thought my books were rather too long (‘prolix’) and my ‘blogs’ limited to only one featured image? Publishing and printing in small numbers is exorbitant and they don’t sell well anyway. This is my compromise solution. My spouse Sarah was also a trite anxious I was about to burst out in print again; just when she’s trying to economise on space and eliminate ‘stuff’! I could be next; another COVID refugee? I think you’ll get the drift?
I decided on the title on a whim. Originally I thought of ‘Monographs’; which they are? I wanted to celebrate and record for posterity individuals in the thoroughbred industry I respect, revere and remember; for all the right reasons. I’ve knew all of them. I thought vicariously I could both enhance and enrich their collective memory with modules or ‘digestible chunks of learning’? I trust the title captures both the premise and the promise.
WPH
August 2021