For the second consecutive year the Victoria Racing Club will hold the Adam Lindsay Gordon Handicap as a feature race on Country Race Day at Flemington – 19 June 2021.
Gordon made his name at Flemington 153 years ago when, on 10 October 1868 he rode in and won three major races on the one day, the final day of the VRC spring steeplechase meeting. He won the Hunt Club Cup on Babbler, the Metropolitan Steeplechase on Viking, and the Selling Steeplechae on Cadger. This feat was recognised with a plaque unveiled by Governor Sir Dallas Brooks at Flemington on 3 November 1956, Derby Day.
And, in 2014 Adam Lindsay Gordon was recognised for his contribution to horse racing by being posthumously inducted into the Australian Jumps Racing Association’s Gallery of Champions.
Gordon’s poetry and prose articles about horses, racing, riding and steeplechasing began appearing in the 1860s in sporting publications of the day. He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the Australian voice in English literature. Few poets have matched his capacity to convey the special bond between man and horse. He is the only Australian poet to have a bust in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.