SAY HELLO TO TOMMY
Meet the Irishman who found Australia..and discovered some of racing's greatest stories
With little more than ten quid in his pocket, a battered suitcase and an old tweed cap
Every racecourse has its characters. Some carry binoculars. Some carry a race book. Tommy carried stories.
Tommy arrived in Australia as a young Irishman from County Cork with little more than ten quid in his pocket, a battered suitcase and an old tweed cap his father insisted he’d need “when the weather turns.”
Whether there was really only ten quid… well… Tommy has told that story so many times that even he isn’t quite sure anymore. Sometimes it was ten. Sometimes it was twelve. Once, after a good day at the races, he reckoned he’d arrived with twenty-five. What never changed was why he came.
He was chasing opportunity, adventure and, although he didn’t know it then, a lifetime among horses. Like many young immigrants, Tommy worked wherever work could be found. Factories. Building sites. Country jobs. Anything that paid enough to put a roof over his head and a meal on the table.
But Saturdays belonged somewhere else. If there was a race meeting within reach, Tommy somehow found his way there, sometimes Randwick, sometimes the Farm, but his favourite was Rosehill.
Even little country tracks where the tea was hot, the pies were legendary and everyone seemed to know someone.
Years later he’d save enough to travel home again. Whenever he did, there always seemed to be a visit to Ascot, Newmarket, Epsom or one of the old Irish meetings tucked away in the countryside. Tommy loved the racing. But he loved the people even more.
He discovered something over the years. The biggest stories rarely happened after the winning post. They happened before dawn in the stables. Over a cup of tea in the tie-up stalls. In bookmakers’ queues. In float parks. On long drives home. Standing beside complete strangers who somehow became lifelong friends before the next race jumped. He realised racing wasn’t really about winners. It was about people.
Owners whose eyes sparkled like children after their first winner. Stable hands who knew every horse by the sound of its footsteps. Jockeys carrying hopes much heavier than their saddles. Families who returned to the same racecourse year after year, generation after generation.
One day Tommy looked around and smiled. “Someone should write these stories down.” That’s how this little corner of Race Day Co came to life. So pull up a chair. The kettle’s on Tommy’s got another story to tell..
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A little note from Race Day Co
Tommy is a fictional storyteller inspired by the lives of many wonderful racing people we’ve met over the years, including the journeys of Irish migrants and the countless men and women who helped build Australia into the country it is today and proudly called it home. While some events and memories are inspired by real experiences, the stories themselves are lovingly woven together to celebrate the spirit, friendships and traditions that make racing such a remarkable community.
* More from Tommy
* Tommy's Report ( Around the World
* The Story Behind The Silks
Why not visit some of our other great pages
