Danny Williams, Barb Joseph, Matty Dale, Mitch Beer, the 2024 Snake Gully Cup and Norm Gardner. Below them is the 2024 field storming down the home straight.
The Snake Gully Cup, now firmly established as one of the most popular and well-known country race meetings on the Australian calendar, is more than just a race; it’s an event with a history as rich and engaging as the thrilling sprint down the final straight. Its origins trace back to a humble vision in the early 1970s, a spark of an idea that took nearly two decades to gain traction and eventually transform into the Friday feature that now draws thousands to the iconic Gundagai racecourse.
The initial concept to hold a “Snake Gully Cup” was first floated at a committee meeting of the Gundagai-Adelong Racing Club back in the early 1970s. Yet, despite the potential charm of the name, the concept failed to materialise due to a significant lack of support from the committee at the time. The timing, it seemed, wasn’t right for such an ambitious undertaking.
The true momentum for the race was built nearly a decade later, following a pivotal cultural moment for the town. The unveiling of the iconic statues of Dad, Dave, Mum, and Mabel at the Snake Gully Service Centre in November 1979 provided a tangible focal point and inspiration.
It was here that Ted Tout, one of the Centre’s principals, proposed the idea, suggesting the possibility of a Snake Gully Cup being run as a picnic race meeting. Tout was specifically “drawing inspiration from the success of the popular Bong Bong Cup meeting,” seeing a template for a successful community-driven event that could capitalise on the region’s folklore.
The concept became reality in November 1982. The Gundagai-Adelong Racing Club, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the famous Dog on the Tuckerbox, conducted a mid-week race meeting.
The main event for the day was designated the Snake Gully Flying Handicap, a swift 1000-metre sprint generously sponsored by the Tout family themselves.
This race was quickly embraced and remained the feature of the Club’s November meeting for the following two years, laying the critical groundwork for the Cup’s evolution. The Club, recognising the race’s growing potential, took a calculated gamble and sought TAB status for the 1985 meeting. Their application proposed the formal debut of the first Snake Gully Cup over the distance we know today, 1400 metres. Although the initial application to secure TAB coverage was unsuccessful—a minor set-back in the broader timeline—this ambitious moment marked the definitive beginning of the Snake Gully Cup in the structure and distance we celebrate today.
The dedication of the Tout family remained instrumental during this foundational period, as they continued to sponsor the Snake Gully Cup for a full decade, until 1991. A major turning point, the critical moment that secured its future prominence, occurred in 1990 when the Club successfully reapplied for TAB status for the Cup. Success was finally achieved, with the race securing vital TAB coverage for the 1992 running.
Since that milestone event, the Snake Gully Cup has been strategically held on a Friday, a move that has solidified its place as a cornerstone of the Australian country racing calendar and fully realised the vision first dreamed up years earlier.
Gully Cup.
The rich history is only half the story; the other half is the undeniable magic of the day itself, a factor that consistently draws some of the nation’s top country trainers. Leading the chorus of praise is leading country trainer Danny Williams, who achieved victory in the Cup with his horse Don’t Give a Damn. Williams describes the event with passion: “It’s a fantastic meeting. It’s got such a great ambience, and the track itself is such a theatrical type of environment. To win it with Don’t Give A Damn,” he states emphatically, “was an incredible moment for us.”
Williams goes on to measure the Gundagai win against his metropolitan successes, finding the country experience profoundly moving. “We’ve won Group One races and we’ve won some very nice races all around the state, in Victoria and Queensland as well, but to win a Snake Gully Cup, with 5,000 people there and the way it’s all squashed in was very exciting and a great moment for us.
For Williams, the win with Don’t Give a Damn was particularly poignant, considering the horse’s history. “He was potentially touted as an Epsom horse earlier on in his career, and I think he went in the wind, and we never really saw the best of him,” he reflects.
The Snake Gully Cup came “right at the end of his career and he was made to lug a fair amount of weight, that’s a horse that started favourite at two Kosciuszko’s, the Country Championships to end up at Snake Cup and great thrill.”
Ultimately, it is the fundamental nature of the meeting that wins him over. “It’s got a great history,” Williams says. “The atmosphere that you get there. I’m a country boy, and those races mean more to me than winning those good races in Sydney.” He places the Cup firmly amongst the best regional features: “We’ve gone close to winning the Albury Cup and the Wagga Cup, and I think it’s right up there. The Gundagai race is just an incredible race to be in.”
Williams, who is currently focused on his Kosciuszko runners, Highway Strip and Bandi’s Boy, noted how the pressure eases once a major goal is met: “Now that we’ve got into the Kosciuszko, it’s taken a lot of pressure off us and we can ease back and just train them properly going into the Kociuszko because obviously it’s a markable process going into it that you need to be running horses leading into the draw and we were under a little bit of pressure to run horses, perhaps where we wouldn’t have run them had we been entered earlier.” The immediate plan is set: “They trialled at Goulburn and again on the 7th of November, and I couldn’t be happier with them.”
Another legend of the country racing circuit, Barb Joseph, shares equally powerful memories of the race.
“Probably one of my fondest memories in my career is winning with Medicine in the 2002 Snake Gully Cup,” she recalls, smiling. “Johnny Scorse rode him. We were so sure we could win the Snake Gully Cup, and he actually won by about three or four lengths, and I think he held the track record for a long, long time.”
Joseph’s conviction that day was so strong that she even braved the elements alone. “All the owners stayed away because it was pouring rain, and they said the race meeting wouldn’t go ahead. I said, ‘I will get from Bombala to Gundagai, I’ll be there anyhow to get the trophy, and sure enough, we won.”
She champions community involvement, which she feels elevates the meeting to the elite tier of Australian racing. “It’s been one of the best race meetings for years and years I’ve been going there. The people and the town, everybody looks after you.
“It stands up with the Canberra Cup and the Wagga Cup, as far as I’m concerned,” Joseph’s attendance is a testament to its enduring quality: “I never miss it,” she declares. “I reckon it would probably have to be nearly 40 years, I’ve been making the trip to Gundagai. It’s a great race and a lot of friendly people, and I’ve got a lot of old friends over there.”
For Joseph, the event’s unique character is immortalised in the trophy she won with another runner, Mercurial Lad, in 2017. “It’s very, very unique,” she explains. “The one that I won with Mercurial Lad has put one of my most valuable trophies in my cabinet. It’s the winning post and all these little women dressed up, all cut out of tin and all painted and coloured, sitting around tables with the betting ring. It just reminded me of all the women and people that were in Merimbula Bay and our horses, how they all get dressed in their bright colours. I really love that trophy.”
Looking to the future, Joseph confirmed her stable is preparing a strong contingent: “Well, it’s early in the game (in terms of what horses she’ll have running this year). Probably Zouatica, Super Helpful, Louie’s Legacy and probably Cougars. He shows a lot of promise. Whether it’s too far for him, but he’s a very promising horse. Zouatica has been out for a couple of weeks’ break to get ready first up there. Super Helpful, of course, is already in the Big Dance or the Little Dance, so he’ll be racing there, and he’ll probably be backing up. Louie’s Legacy is also in the Big Dance or Little Dance, and he’ll probably be freshened up and backed up be-cause it’s only 10 days later.”
Another trainer with immense success at Gundagai is Matty Dale, who views the meeting as a genuine country carnival: “It’s a great carnival, good country carnival, and a good day out at the races, XXXX Gold, every other person has got a XXXX Gold and a hat on for when the weather really heats up and the racing does too. We love winning the Snake Gully Cup and have been lucky enough to win it three times.”
For Dale, the desire to win the Cup was ingrained early on. “Growing up, there was always a couple of big country opens I wanted to win, which were the Wagga Town Plate and the Snake Gully Cup. So absolutely thrilled to have won it three times, and we’ll be giving it everything to win it again.”
He agrees with Joseph on the exceptional quality of the unique prizes. “Probably the best thing; one of the most unique things a lot of people don’t realise about the Snake Gully Cup is they do an unbelievably good trophy. Very individualised trophy each year, and it’s one of the things that sits on my mantlepiece with great pride. It’s not just a normal, cliché trophy; they think outside of the square and that adds to the whole race as well.”
The Cup’s positioning in the racing calendar is a strategic advantage, drawing elite fields. “It sits in and around the Kosciuszko, it sits in and around the Big Dance and also Canberra’s new race, which they have put on the Community Chest,” Dale notes. “It’s in a good time frame to sort of have horses running 1,200 metres and stepping up, and horses that are going a mile and coming back to the 1400, so I think it’ll get a cracking field. They only run 12, but it’ll be 12 solid performers there this year.”
Dale is targeting a key runner for this year’s edition: “I think Cavalier Charles is the horse I’m targeting this year. He’s just come back in, and he’s going to be set toward it. We will probably look to claim in it, but regarding the preparation, he will chime in just after the Kosciuszko and then build into a Snake Gully Cup third up is my plan at this stage.”
Last year’s Cup winner, Mitch Beer, who won with Clever Art, detailed the journey to his emotional victory. “If you had of told us a few months out that we’d be winning a Snake Gully Cup with a horse we didn’t even train yet, it would have been hard to believe, obviously a mare that we knew well that raced down that area and she had good form with Donna (Scott), arrived up here with us via the digital sale and she just thrived from the moment she got here, went to the beach and spent a lot of her time down there and it was an incredible period. She’s sort of hit the ground running, and everything fell into place for a pretty special day.”
Beer recalls his initial impressions of the carnival. “I remember going to my first Snake Gully Cup carnival, and I was just blown away. The number of people and the couple of days of racing were just unreal, and a time-honoured race that not only is a great little race, but is also very hard to win. Any races on those two days, especially Cup day, they’re hard races to win, and Gundagai had been a bit of an elusive meeting for me.”
He attests to the challenging nature of the track itself: “I remember taking a horse called Princess Cordelia there and thought it was an absolute moral, and she got beaten on Snake Gully Cup day and won her next two at Randwick and Rosehill. It’s a tricky track. A lot can go right, a lot can go wrong. It just makes it all the more special.”
Clever Art is scheduled for a return to defend her title. “She will be there with bells on. A fast run of 1400 is right up her alley, and she’s on target. She had a little freshen up, and I think she tends to sort of peak at that time of year,” Beer says.
The lead-up will be carefully managed: “We will probably use those traditional lead-up races for her. I see we’ve got that great race at Canberra now also, and there are good options to lead into that. She’s already qualified for the Dance races, so that’s a massive bonus to have that in the bag early for the Snake Gully Cup.”
His stable will also target the sprint feature: “The Dog on the Tuckerbox is a race that we won a couple of years ago with a mare called Gweneth, so it’s a race that we will be targeting as well with a couple of the older sprinters. I can’t wait to be back there, and hopefully it will be just as fun as last year.”
Norm Gardner, a veteran Canberra trainer, rates the Snake Gully Cup highly and is targeting the race this year with his mare, Dupli Kate. Gardner knows the difficulty of the task: “I have only ever had one runner, and Upper House ran second a few years ago, and the great thing about it was we got into the Little Dance. So I think it’s a great race to target, with that aspect of it.”
He doesn’t mince words on the challenge: “It’s a very hard race to win, and the thing is, you need a good horse to win it. It’s up there with all of the best races, probably third to the Wagga Cup and Wagga Town Plate, but it’s a very hard race to win.”
Gardner acknowledges that the race has evolved significantly: “It’s been around for a long time. It’s been won by a lot of good local horses, but things have changed now. Being Big Dance eligible, it is probably harder to win than it was in the past.”
His preparation for Dupli Kate is based on the race’s demands. “She’ll be about fourth up. I will just have to space her runs a bit, because she’s probably a miler, which you probably need to be to win that race. It is a high-pressure race.
Gardner highlights the specific challenge posed by the 1400m distance at Gundagai: “Coming back from a mile to 1400 Snake Gully Cup is the problem; we will see how she handles the pressure.”
The Snake Gully Cup, born from a simple dream and fuelled by decades of community support, has secured its place not just as a race but as an essential fixture on the Australian racing calendar—a day of exceptional quality, unique atmosphere, and challenging competition, where country pride rivals any metropolitan victory.
– Tully Potts
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