The Grand Annual is an Australian Thoroughbred steeplechase for horses that run at Warrnambool, Victoria during its annual May Racing Carnival. The distance is officially listed as about 5500 metres because many sections of the race are run in open paddocks with little or no fences. The race is the longest horse race run in Australia on a public course. There are 33 obstacles, more than any other steeplechase in the world.
Horse run clockwise and counter-clockwise at various points of the race and features a section in open paddocks, these paddocks were bought by the Warrnambool Racing Club in the 1800s. When re-entering the racetrack itself horses turn left on the first lap and right on the second. This has created problems on many occasions when horses have tried to veer left rather than right second time around.
Knowledge of the course and stamina are vital to the chances of horse and rider. With the Great Eastern Steeplechase and VRC Grand National it is considered to be one of the top three Australian steeplechase races.
History
1800s The Grand Annual was first run on Thursday 13 June 1872. Francis Tozer, Henry Phillips, Samuel Macgregor, Anthony Mackenzie and John Russell Evans were appointed as stewards and laid out a unique steeplechase course over the paddocks adjacent to the racecourse. The first two of fourteen fences, opposite the grandstand, were a post and rail fence and a paling fence. Next was the three-railed fence enclosing the racecourse reserve and then a post and rail fence into what is now Brierly paddock. There were four paddocks at the time, so an obstacle was installed at each boundary – a log fence into the second paddock, then a post and railer, and a log fence into the fourth paddock. Next came a post and railer and a log fence either side of the road at the top of Cox's hill. The stewards upped the ante over the racecourse lane now Tozer Road - first a rough stone wall and then a difficult log fence. Back in the racecourse reserve, there was a ditch and parapet fence and a couple more post and railers before the horses embarked on the second lap. When the new course was laid out some of the professional jockeys protested that it was too dangerous. To show that it was not Tozer entered his mare Compass for the first race over the course, the Maiden Steeplechase, who was ridden by Sam Robinson, an Aboriginal. They flew every fence and wall with ease, quickly settling the grumblings from the other riders.
Prior started favourite in the inaugural race. Prior's jockey William Harden predicted that Prior would be the only horse to finish, but in fact nine of the eleven runners finished the race. Prior won by 20 lengths. The Warrnambool Racing Club was officially constituted one week after the 1873 meeting and it has staged every Grand Annual since then. In 1875 the meeting was expanded to two days, with four races on each day. WRC reduced the meeting to one day in 1877 but went back to two days in 1878 and more than doubled the stake for big steeplechase, extended the distance to four miles, and renamed it the Grand National Steeplechase. Greystanes won the 1878 and 1880 renewals, taking more than eleven minutes on wet ground in both years. The changes to the race were short-lived, due to bad weather in a couple of years, the introduction of the VRC Grand Nationals, and financial pressures of conducting two feature meetings and of the construction of a new grandstand (still in use as subsequently extended).
In 1880 the club effectively merged the Steeplechase Meeting and the Annual Races, at which the first Warrnambool Cup was run in 1873. With the Warrnambool Amateur Turf Club racing on the middle of three days this was the start of the modern May Carnival. Dan Coleman with 7 wins has the most wins as a jockey leading Tom Corrigan, Alf Williams, ‘Butch’ Londregan, Brett Scott and Craig Durden with 4 wins.
WRC purchased 20 acres of ‘Brierly’ before the scheduled auction on 18 November 1890. The price was £1,400, at a time when the Grand Annual carried a stake of only £175. The WRC still did not own the land between the top of Cox's Hill and Tozer Road and which was owned by James Granter. Negotiations with Granter for the continued use of his paddock dragged on until, extraordinarily, at a committee meeting on 14 April 1896 Walter Manifold, annoyed by Granter's stance, proposed that the club run the Annual on the old inside steeplechase course around the outside of the course proper. The committee debated an amended motion that the club use the paddocks one last time and give Granter six months’ notice of its intention not to do so in the future. This amended motion was only carried on the casting vote of the chairman, Henry Parrington. The committee resolved in September 1897 that the club dispense with any further use of Granter's land after the expiry of the existing arrangement on 31 December 1897. Granter did agree to one-year deals in 1898 and 1899. Finally in August 1899 a final offer of £800 to James Granter was offered for his paddock which he accepted.
The race was known as the Warrnambool Handicap Steeple until 1877, the Grand National Steeple from 1878 until 1881, the Warrnambool Handicap Steeple again until 1894, and the Grand Annual Steeple since 1895. The popularity of the Victoria's biggest provincial race meeting was irrevocably established. It was estimated the attendance on Grand Annual day in 1888 at nearly 10,000 and in 1891 at 12,000, at a time when Warrnambool had a population of only about 6,000 people.
Early 1900s Dan Coleman has the most wins as a jockey with seven Grand Annuals in the space of only 13 runnings: Butler (1900), Ranji (1903), Wooral (1904), Napier (1906, 1907), Alcuin (1910) and Tramp (1912). Following the 1903 Steeplechase Meeting, the course proper was now left-handed and thus bringing it into line with almost all other Victorian courses. The steeplechase course had a third fence opposite the grandstand added to it. Steeplechases continued to be run entirely in a clockwise direction. Only three horses finished the 1909 race ran in atrocious conditions won by Mossbank by five lengths.
During the 1920s there were three controversial runnings of the race. The first was in 1920 were an aeroplane followed the runners and was responsible of five of the seven horse field falling. The second was in 1922 St. Simonian and Orison jumped the last together with the former winning by a neck but in the bumping duel up the straight he hung out badly, with both horses finishing near the outside rail. A protest was lodge and upheld meaning Orison was the winner. The third was in 1929 Agricolo and Cooliel, jumped the last fence together; with Pick Me third. Pick Me surged home and finished two lengths in front of Cooliel. It was immediately suggested that Pick Me had not jumped the second last fence. A protest was lodged alleging that Pick Me had run around the second last fence. The stewards concluded that Pick Me ran around the end of the wing of the fence, and continued in the race. Pick Me's rider Jack Smith insisted that the horse had negotiated the fence near the junction of the wing, but the stewards would have none of that. They disqualified Pick Me and awarded the race to Cooliel. Also in the 1920s saw the champion Doiran win a Grand Annual. He made his first and only appearance here in 1923, by which time he had won Great Eastern Steeplechase in 1918, 1919, 1922 and 1923. The record stake of £1,000 for the 1923 Annual attracted a strong field of 12 runners - including previous winners Tenarqui, Cotswold and Orison, although not one of them completed the course. In front of a huge crowd in warm weather under a cloudless sky Doiran took charge approaching the Cox's hill double on the second lap and won easily, cutting 7.5 seconds off the then record time.
The 1934 renewal was one of the most sensational in the Annual's history. Diamond Plume ran off early and Merry Eye stopped at the first of the Tozer Road Double. Lanilda fell at the second of the stand treble. Royal Artist had set a fast pace and was leading by about 20 lengths passing the stand the second time; but he fell at the first of the Alfred Road double. As the field entered Brierly for the second time only Giff, Flavedo and Wang-ka-Pang were still standing. At the first fence in Brierly Giff fell and Flavedo ran off. Wang-ka-Pang only had to stay on his feet to win, but he fell at the next fence. No horses were left in the race. Jockey Ron Sweetnam got Flavedo going again and Alex Fullarton remounted the other equal favourite, Lanilda. Flavedo fell at the sod wall at the bottom of Granter's paddock. Sweetnam was dazed, severely shaken, had abrasions to his face and injured a wrist which had been broken recently. However, some bystanders helped him back into the saddle and eventually got the bit back into Flavedo's mouth. Sweetnam got Flavedo home by 12 lengths from Lanilda, which had also fallen again. Sweetnam almost collapsed after dismounting but was able to weigh in correctly. Merry Eye ultimately got around the course and took third place, nearly a mile behind Lanilda. The time of 8:55 was the slowest since 1909 and was about a minute and a half slower than the course record set by Peter's Pence in 1930. In January 1936 the Warrnambool Steeplechase course began converting from solid fences to brush fences. Why Fail was the last horse to win the Annual over the old fences. No race meetings were held at Warrnambool for approximately two and a half years after the 1941 Steeplechase Meeting and the carnival would not resume until 1947.
Mid 1900s In 1947 the May Warrnambool Carnival returned. Quixotic won the 1947 race. For seven successive years from 1947 to 1953 the gate takings on Grand Annual day set a new record. The field for the 1948 Annual included the previous three winners of the VRC Grand National Steeplechase: Quixotic, High Flash and Formidable, along with Tente which would go on to win the National a couple of months later. High Flash won and completed the Brierly-Grand Annual double. In the aftermath of the carnival the achievements of High Flash were overshadowed by the death of a young jockey. Charles Henry Jarman rode Kindervale into second place in the Brierly. Kindervale led over the Tozer Road Double on the second lap but, tiring badly and fell at the second last fence, and threw Jarman heavily to the ground. Jarman made a desperate attempt to vault back into the saddle, but Kindervale went down and one of the horse's hoofs struck Jarman behind his left ear. Jarman appeared to simply have mild concussion. After the race he sat in the jockey's room with his head in his hands complaining about a splitting headache. He was taken to hospital so that he could be kept under observation for 24 hours, but later in the evening developed signs of internal hemorrhage and an operation was performed at 2:00 am. Tragically, Jarman did not respond and he died on the morning of Saturday 8 May 1948. Jarman's death was the sixth on the Warrnambool course following those of Jack Hickey (Junior Steeplechase, April 1887), Jimmy Williams (Hurdle Race, February 1900), Adrian Bettess (Hopkins Hurdle, May 1914), Gerald Kenny (Grand Annual, May 1928) and Arthur Newnham (Lady Bay Hurdle, January 1947). In 1952 two scratchings reduced the Grand Annual field to three, the second smallest ever behind the pair of runners in 1882. The race's prize money was doubling to £2,000 in 1953. This attracted 16 starters, the equal largest field ever, shared with 1949. Prior to the 1952 Summer Meeting the winning post was moved half a furlong down the straight, to around its present location.