Jeremy Pearce Chairman of Gundagai Adelong Racing Club, Helen Lindley, Sandy Tait who presented the membership, Gordon Lindley and Dr Saranne Cooke, Chairman of Racing NSW.
Over the weekend, Gordon Lindley was awarded a life membership from the Gundagai-Adelong Racing Club after more than 64 years of involvement.
Mr Lindley, who has been involved since he was 18 years old, said his involvement with the club over the years has been a great journey that he has loved every minute of.
“It’s been a great journey; I am very appreciative of what the club has done for me. It was great to receive the award from Sandy Tait. The Tait’s are probably one of the biggest families in racing, not only in NSW, but Australia, with the wonderful horses they’ve had.”
“It has just been a journey, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have been very lucky with great support from my wife and family, and from the racing club here, too. We are very lucky with the club we have. We have a lot of young people coming along, which we have always encouraged, and I think that the Snake Gully Cup is definitely growing. I think Friday’s crowd was the biggest I’ve seen, and then Saturday’s was the same,” Gordon said.
Gordon has always been interested in horses and had his own horses growing up, which is where his interest began.
“From when I was a young boy, I was interested in horses. When I was six years old, I used to ride nine miles backwards and forwards to school, so I have always been interested. We used to ride from home into town just to ride our horses for show day, so that was a seven-mile ride, but we just did it because we had no other way of getting there. I’ve also done a lot of breaking and that over the years, too,” said Gordon.
“I’ve been involved with the race club since I was 18. I started doing a bit of clerk of the course at 18, and from there I got completely involved in it and became Chairman. I ran the barriers for a few years, organising all the barrier attendants and all of that, and then got heavily involved with the racing and became Chairman, and then went on to New South Wales racing and became Chairman of NSW Racing, Country Racing, and then I spent 2 years on the Racing NSW Board. After that, I became an Assistant Starter for the SDRA (Southern District Racing Association).”
“It’s just been a great involvement on the committee. I first got involved with it when we decided to try and get something done for country racing. I was one of the first Board members for Country Racing NSW. A group of us got together and decided that we needed to get a bit more for country racing and a bit more recognition, which we did. We went to the Politicians, and it was a fairly big journey, but we got there. We formed the NSW Country Racing Council, which has been a big suc-cess, and it makes you pretty proud that it’s working,” said Gordon.
Gordon said the recognition and award were unexpected but lovely and meant a lot to him. “To be appreciated and recognised is lovely. You don’t expect these things, but it was certainly a big surprise, and I got a bit emotional. I didn’t know anything about it. I thought they were just doing the Hair of the Dog presentation, and next minute, they were calling me out to give me a life membership, which was pretty special.”
“To get where I got wasa milestone for me. I was always wanting to make a contribution, wherever I went. That’s what you want to do when you want to see things improve. I look at this club now, and we are so lucky to have all the Chairmen involved when I was first growing up, and all the people after me, we have been very, very lucky with all the people who have been involved, and they have come through and kept the tradition going for the Gundagai-Adelong Racing Club.”
“It certainly means a lot to me and to my family. My wife is very pleased. I have been lucky with family. We’ve got four lovely children and grand-children, and Helen and I have been very lucky inour lives. I grew up in a lovely family with three brothers and a sister, and so I think you can be lucky, and I have been lucky, very lucky.”
“It’s an absolute pleasureto be involved with Gundagai. It is a great community and a great town, and it is something that I feel proud to be part of,” said Gordon.
– Emily Flint
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