'We always had a horse in the yard': Uncovering harness racing's female heritage

However, being the daughter of horse trainer Marion Planck meant one was never far away from the family home on Mayne Street, Invermay.

"We always had a horse in the yard," Mrs Jory said.

"I don't know whether this was true, but everyone said Mum would have been the first woman horse trainer in Australia.

"Back in those days she couldn't put the horses in her name though, and she had to put the trainer as Dad."

Mrs Jory had several stories to tell about her mother's exploits, mostly centred on a horse named Evicus.

In 1933 Mrs Planck was tasked with driving Evicus to Westbury for a race.

However, after a well-meaning uncle gave the horse a bucket of water to drink, Evicus placed second.

Evicus later won the 1936 Interdominon Championship at Perth, Western Australia on a points decision - beating race-winner and fellow Tasmanian Logan Derby.

Years later, Mrs Jory returned from an Interdominion Championship in New Zealand and showed her mother a photo she found in a magazine.

"She looked at this horse's head," she said.

"She said 'I know that head' she turned over the page. 'Oh, yes,' she said 'there's Mr Rudd (Evicus' owner). That's Evicus'."

After she eventually faced her fear, Mrs Jory became a trainer in her own right and has a bevy of awards to her name.

These were won by The Emperor - a descendent of another of her mother's prize-winning trainees Mayne Belmont.

Items from both women's careers are on display in the history room at Carrick Park Pacing Club, which officially opened in January after a"soft launch" in late 2023.

Other items include a sash won by Logan Derby, and horseshoes, a harness and a sash all belonging to legendary horse Halwes sit pride of place.

Museum co-ordinator Karen Dornauf is also of harness racing stock.

Her grandfather owned champion horse Golden Alley, who sired Mrs Dornauf's Jane Ellen.

One of the youngest women at the pacing club, Mrs Dornauf said a lot had changed since Marion Planck's days.

"Jane Ellen used to just fly everywhere," Mrs Dornauf said.

"She won in every state in Australia. They did drive her across to Adelaide, but if she went from Melbourne to Sydney to race they would just put her on a plane and she was there.

"Can you imagine, in the 1930s, taking a horse from Launceston to Perth, Western Australia? That would be quite an ordeal in itself."

Mrs Dornauf said without the efforts of the volunteers at the history room the items loaned or donated from across Tasmania, and their stories, would be lost to time.

"Somebody has to do it," she said.

"It was my husband's idea, he saw on the internet where somebody had set one up in Victoria. He said 'I think we could do that at Carrick'."