Oakbank Racing Club is calling for memorabilia to mark its 150th anniversary in 2025

Racing fans are being called upon to help find memorabilia for a 150th anniversary display at Oakbank Racing Club.

Never-before-seen documents and photographs of an Oakbank legend will soon occupy a special place in South Australian racing history.

Oakbank Racing Club historian Mike Hudson plans to donate family memorabilia of Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame inductee Doiran – the only racehorse in history to have won the Great Eastern Steeplechase four times.

The donation will be the first in a series of memorabilia hoped to be acquired by the race club to mark its 150th birthday in 2025.

Arabella Branson, Chair of the Oakbank Racing Club, with historical items. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“My grandfather Henry Hudson bred and co-owned Doiran, which of course a real legend in the racing industry,” Mr Hudson said.

“As a result of that, I got in touch with the (club) and spoke to them about lending them my memorabilia, which includes the original leasing document of the horse, signed in 1918, and letters between my grandfather and racing industry officials.

“I also have a magnificent photo of the horse that, when I was little and was going to primary school in Victor (Harbour), stopped the wind coming down the chimney in the bedroom that I lived in.”

This historic photograph of Doiran will go on display at Oakbank to mark the 150th anniversary of the club. Source: Mike Hudson

Club chairwoman Arabella Branson said she appealed to the public to get behind the initiative.

“The anniversary is roughly about four years away and I know that sounds like a long time, but it takes years to put these types of events together and we have to start somewhere and collecting memorabilia is part of that,” she said.

“We have a lot of pictures and trophies that people return to and we’d love to build on that collection.

“This includes more fashionable items that go back in time, especially if you can identify that, for example, it was used to ride Doiran in one of the Eastern.”