McCluskey’s nomination sees the club having its first election for more than 18 years. He tackles sitting members John Hutson, Steven Waterhouse and John Krygger to fill one of the three vacancies. Krygger was seconded by the WRC in July this year to replace former chairman Ashley King who suddenly resigned after 18 years, while Hutson has been on the committee for 18 years and Waterhouse eight years.

Long-serving committee members Marg Lucas, Bill Slattery, Nick Rule and Peter Lynch all face re-election next year. The WRC has come under fire from various quarters over the past year. The issues relate to and include the ongoing saga of the equine swimming pool at the track, horse access to local beaches and the dunes and a super television screen installed at the course.

Just last week, the club announced it’s reviewing its management structure after Bryan White suddenly resigned after five months as the sales and marketing manager. Any business or sporting club needs new blood and change to bring fresh ideas and new initiatives to the table and the WRC is no different.

The WRC committee are custodians of many things including one of Australia’s leading country carnivals and the Grand Annual Steeplechase on behalf of more than 1700 members.

They have a responsibility to ensure transparency and the ongoing success of the club at all levels. McCluskey faces a tough task to replace sitting members Hutson, Waterhouse or Krygger on the committee but change may be coming and that can only be beneficial for the club.

Postal vote forms are being mailed out to members this week. The result will be announced at the AGM of the club on October 26.

A knee operation and further operations will not stop Camperdown’s Denis Daffy from training horses.

Daffy, 76, is happy with the progress of his new left knee and is now waiting further operations to his right hip and knee.

“I had my left knee replaced six weeks ago,” he said. “I’m up and hobbling around. I’m waiting for more appointments they want to operate on my right hip first and then my right knee. The doctors have not set a time for those operations. I just want to get back out and train the horses. It’s been really frustrating. I’m selling off a couple of our older horses as I’ve got a few younger horses to come into work.”

The veteran trainer is no stranger to operations on his body.

“Four years ago I had my left shoulder operated on,” he said. “It was bone on bone. The shoulder had seized up. It was full of arthritis. I’ve had no problems since the operation.”

GEELONG trainer Daryl Cannon admits he had a few worries before his jumper Tough Vintage won the time-honoured Great Western Steeplechase at Coleraine on Sunday.

Tough Vintage defeated Abebe and Pentomatic in the $30,000 jumps feature. Stewards were forced to increase the distance of the Great Western from 3600 metres to 3800 metres before the race after they transferred the chase to the course proper instead of the steeplechase track.

“I was not sure Tough Vintage would run 3800 metres,” Cannon said. “I was confident he could run 3600 but the last 200 metres was going to be a worry. I was also worried about the heavy 10 track rating. The rating was heavy six and I thought that would be alright but we got more heavy rain which took it to a heavy 10 rating.”

Cannon, a former jumps jockey, praised the ride of Paul Hamblin following the race.

“It was a top ride by Paul,” he said. “I told Paul my concerns before the race about the distance and the really heavy track. He listened and allowed Tough Vintage to bowl along and get some cheap sectionals in the middle stages of the race which I think helped him win. I’ll probably keep Tough Vintage going for a couple more distance flat races before giving him a break. We’ll put him back into work in April to prepare him for jumps races over the winter.”

Tough Vintage has won two of his 14 jumps starts.

ALAN Peterson handed out a decent tip to anyone who cared to listen after his mare One For Later won a flat race over 2000 metres at Casterton last Monday.

The former local jockey, who runs a small team at Mailors Flat, said One For Later needed the Casterton run to prepare the seven-year-old mare for a maiden hurdle start at Coleraine on Sunday.

One For Later never let Peterson or her supporters down, winning the maiden hurdle at the juicy odds of $8.50. Popular Japanese-born jockey Kosuke Kawakami had the winning ride on both occasions.

FORMER Toll Holding boss Brian Kruger is the new chairman of Racing Victoria’s board. Three members of the old board Mike Hirst, Greg Nichols and Michael Andrew are also on the new independent entity. They are joined by Rowan Craigie, Kate Joel, Sharon McCrohan, Ross Lanyon and Kruger as new directors. Sources predict changes will be made to middle management and above at the peak body for racing in this state by the new board over the next few months.

They commence duties on October 9.

KING’S AUTHORITY: three runs from a spell have him ready to salute. He finished off an 1100 metre race strongly and looks ready to go up in distance.

SAVANNA AMOUR: solid performance to win over 1200 metres at Caulfield. She’s won three from four at Caulfield and will be hard to beat in rich mares races there over the next few weeks.  

FAST ‘N’ ROCKING: super effort to run third when resuming on Saturday. He’s getting on in years but can still win a nice sprinting race. 

JOHNNY DOWRY: sensational run at his jumps debut to run second at Coleraine. Trained by master jumps trainer Patrick Payne made up lots of ground over the last 500 metres to run second. Watch out for him over jumps next season.