Bourkes give Cup Day a

– Brad Kingsbury
THE Pakenham Racing Club’s premier jumping race of the season, the M.J. Bourke Hurdle, will kick off the 2009 Pakenham Cup day program.
It is the first time the club’s long-standing feature race, named in honour of one of the district’s racing forefathers, Michael Joseph Bourke, has been held as part of the showcase meeting.
The race has been conducted as a feature since its inaugural running in 1957 when five-year-old gelding Carboongraph was successful.
Since then it has been a highly regarded event, won by many top-line jumpers including locally trained geldings Dalpic, Sir Cheviot and Silver Metal – all trained by Officer-based horseman Eric Musgrove.
The only multiple winners were Blue Sonic, trained by Bev Girling who won four features from 1977-1980 and the David Perkinson trained Lunar Haze that won twice in 1982-83.
The race is steeped in local history, having been named after the family patriarch of the Pakenham Bourke family, who settled in the district in 1844 after he and wife Catherine migrated from Ireland.
Four generations of the family have since been intimately involved in the Pakenham Racing Club and the Bourke Hurdle has become an annual tradition.
Mary Gannon (nee Bourke), the daughter of M.J. Bourke, attends every running of the race, together with every Pakenham Cup meeting and said it was a great honour to represent the keen racing family at those events.
“My father and my uncle were great advocates of jumping races and they owned a Grand National Hurdle winner before I was born, so it was something close to the family from the start,” she said.
“It used to be scheduled just prior to the Grand National Hurdle in previous years and was used as a main lead-up to that race.
“I go most years to the Bourke Hurdle and the Pakenham Cup and always enjoy the day.”
Mrs Gannon added that four-time Bourke Hurdle winner Blue Sonic was probably the best horse she saw win the race, but many top-line jumpers had competed and gone on to better things.
M.J. Bourke’s son, former Victoria Racing Club chairman David Bourke, will also be honoured with the running of the David Bourke Memorial feature on the Cup program.