A chance visit to a Broadmeadow racing meeting in Newcastle a few weeks back has saved a piece of local sporting history.
Music producer Phil Mahoney worked at the Broadmeadow track as an apprentice jockey in his younger years and later as a strapper and foreman in the 1960s. He had donated a copy of the March 1958 cover of the one-time Aussie sporting magazine Sports Novels which featured an illustration of then Sydney Apprentice Jockey of the Year Darryl Pritchard.
Pritchard, Mr Mahoney's cousin, had a storied career on the Newcastle and Metropolitan racing circuit and at just 19 years old was credited with more than 40 race wins in a mention in the Sydney Bulletin of 1957.
"His fine display at Rosehill seems bound to bring him plenty of engagements at city and provincial fixtures," the scribe wrote of Pritchard after he rode the racehorse Dipso to a late-breaking win in his first outing for Sydney trainer ED Lawson after transferring from Newcastle in 1957.
Mr Mahoney credits Pritchard with inspiring his own early career in the racing industry after growing up with his sporting relative in Lambton.
When Pritchard appeared on the cover of Sports Novels, Mr Mahoney's mother kept her copy for more than 35 years, until her death in 1993. Mr Mahoney would later donate a copy of the cover to the Broadmeadow race track's museum.
Years later, and on a chance visit, Mr Mahoney reclaimed the cover image after the racing museum sought to downsize its collection, prompting a search for the original magazine which had long since been lost.
"Over the years I had lost my photocopy of the magazine with Darryl and so was delighted to have found this copy from the museum just in time before it was dumped," Mr Mahoney said in a post on his social media recently.
A touch of internet sleuthing and Mr Mahoney said he was ecstatic to be reunited with a copy of the 1958 edition that had survived in Maryborough Queensland.
"So a chance visit to the races resulted in me being reunited with a copy of this magazine after 65 years," Mr Mahoney said,
"I am very happy as Darryl was a big inspiration to me and my family and everyone was so proud of him winning Sydney apprentice of the year."
Tributes to the fallen Sir
Speaking of Mr Mahoney's exploits, regular readers may recall the passing of musician Ron Knight, known as the Sir of Soul and Rock and Roll.
Mr Knight, whose Pacific-spanning career balanced between his home in the Hunter and the stages of the Las Vegas lounge scene, died in that US city in June at 73.
Mr Mahoney met Knight working as a producer at Abbey Records in Georgetown in the early 1980s.
Knight had followed his heart to the Hunter to live and raise a young family from 1982.
He was born in New Jersey in 1950 and as a teenager, appeared as a backing vocalist and dancer for Earth Wind and Fire before moving to the Hunter and striking out on his own.
"He asked me if I could get him started as a Newcastle entertainer," Mr Mahoney said. "The first job that he had was at Wests in New Lambton and he got a standing ovation."
After learning of Mr Knight's death, Mr Mahoney had planned a memorial concert in his name at the South Leagues Club earlier this month, which raised $4000 for the musician's family.
"He was the longest friend I have had," Mr Mahoney told this column in June, adding of his love of the Hunter.
"He was one of those really grateful kinds of people."
