President Jeremy Pearce with Cup designer Joe Morton and the 2025 Snake Gully Cup.
In a modest Sheridan Street workshop, the final, gleaming touches have been placed on one of Australian racing’s most unique and sought-after prizes: the Snake Gully Cup trophy.
Gundagai graphic designer Joe Morton is the craftsman behind this year’s coveted award, a task of distinction he was personally invited to undertake, making him just the fourth individual in the Cup’s 40-year history to hold the honour.
The trophy is not just an award; it’s a genuine piece of Australiana, a living nod to the country’s pioneering spirit, and a source of fierce local pride. Forget polished silver bowls or traditional figurines—the Snake Gully Cup trophy is inspired by the fictional world of Steele Rudd’s late 1800s works, home to characters like Dad, Dave, Mum, and Mabel.
“The inspiration was in thinking if the race was held 100 years ago, how would they go about making a trophy?” Morton said.
“If you were having a horse race in those times, you couldn’t just go buy a trophy, so this is probably what someone like the local blacksmith would do – take something useful like an ordinary, everyday lantern and reconfigure it to turn it into something of value.”
This rustic, utilitarian starting point is what gives the trophy its truly unique feature. According to research by local historian Gordon Lindley, Morton notes, this award is believed to be the only racing trophy in the world with its own wick.
“It’s the most sought-after trophy in Australian racing today,” Morton asserted.
“Its nearest rival would be the Melbourne Cup or the Golden Slipper, but as far as being an icon, this leaves them all behind.”
While the construction itself takes Morton about a week, the process of gathering the unique components is an all-year commitment—a continuous, communal scavenger hunt for the right pieces of history.
“I’ve got my eyes peeled wherever I go,” he said. “I nearly always grab something at the ARTHC’s tractor pull and swap meet in February each year, and I also have John and Deb at Junque & Disorderly keep an eye out for me, as well as the Clark’s at Tuckerbox Antiques. People like Col Percival are also very handy with ideas, and he’s also on the hunt too for bits and pieces.”
Morton describes the construction as a “real community effort,” with local antique dealers, friends, and swap meet vendors keeping an eye out for unusual or historical “knick-knacks.” This tradition of incorporating unique, old-time elements is a slight shift from the work of the previous craftsman, the legendary Ike Smith, who created detailed, one-of-a-kind trophies often depicting full rural race scenes.
Morton has adopted a more standardised base design but still allows for annual variations.
“Ike always made a different one every year, no two were the same at all,” Morton explained. “I more or less standardised it, and the design I’ve got now is almost the same, just little tiny tweaks, nothing much to the untrained eye.”
However, he leaves the door open for one-off additions: “If I find an interesting little knick-knack or something from an old time period, I might add that in the middle of the trophy or something like that. Other years, if nothing speaks to me, so I’ll leave that out.”
The trophy’s unique nature is inextricably linked to the Gundagai-Adelong Racing Club, which hosts the annual Snake Gully Cup carnival in November.
Morton highlighted the club’s reputation in racing circles as a small, regional powerhouse.
“Not too many communities have a race club anymore, so we are incredibly lucky in that respect, and it’s going from strength to strength; they hold some incredible events,” he said.
The club hosts seven meetings a year, but the two-day carnival, which now features a $100,000 Snake Gully Cup feature race and the Hair of the Dog Cup on the second day, is the headliner.
Morton attributes the club’s success to a simple yet powerful formula. “The recipe for that is simple; you’ve just got to have people who are passionate about their community and passionate about horse racing,” he said, naming families like the Lindleys, the Reardons, the Readfords, the Taits, and the Tozers as examples of generations who have inspired the club’s continued strength.
As for his own involvement, Morton knows his time as the Cup’s craftsman is not a lifelong appointment. “You don’t put your hand up to make the Snake Gully Cup trophy; you are invited,” he noted. “Your tenure is not guaranteed. For one reason or another, it will finish one day, and someone else will be asked, and then they’ll get the opportunity to put their own take on it. And that’s exactly how it should be.”
– Tully Potts
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