Club Spotlight: Calliope

By Jordan Gerrans

When the Calliope Jockey Club have raced for their one time a year on Boxing Day over the last decade, it is only fitting the name of the racing surface they have used. 

For almost 10 years, the track at Calliope has been known as the "J. S Neill-Ballantine Park" to honour arguably the greatest contributor to racing in the area.

James (Jim) Neill-Ballantine has been the president of the local club for more than half a century and has played a vital role in keeping race alive in the region, which is based inland from Gladstone in the Capricornia racing district.

Like Neill-Ballantine, Gladstone-based Denis Schultz has seen plenty of horses, jockeys, trainers and administrators come through Central Queensland over the years and says Jim and his family are as valued as they come.

“I have been in racing since 1971 and that family have been there ever since I have known,” Schultz said.

“It is great they have kept the track going because we need somewhere to race our horses.”

It is not just Jim who has kept the club ticking along, it is his extended family over the years, and even into the final month of 2021, the secretary and treasurer at the club have the same surname, Margaret and Christene respectively.

It is not just professional thoroughbred racing that is held at J. S Neill-Ballantine Park, it is all sorts of horse sports, which Jim stresses.

While thoroughbred racing is in his blood – his father bred gallopers that would go on and win in Brisbane – the clan are also avid followers of Polocrosse, among other activities.

It is not just the racetrack named after Jim, but the entire precinct, which gives a great sense of pride to the popular figure in the region since it was unveiled almost 10 years ago.

“It was a thrill, I was pretty impressed when it happened,” Jim said.

“The Calliope Hack and Pony club are established out there, so is the Polocrosse club and is the Calliope and District Camp Draft Committee, it is a horse sports complex.

“It is still a racing reserve.

“Liz Cunningham, who was our member for the area at the time, and the steering committee for the reserve between all the different bodies, they made the decision to name it the way it is.

“It was a great thrill when it happened.”

The Neil-Ballantine family are into their fourth-generation at Galloway Plains, which is 35kms from Calliope, on a beef cattle property.

The 78-year-old was first introduced to the gallopers as his father bred race horses and it just grew from there, eventually landing on the Calliope Jockey Club committee in his older years.

“That is how I got into it, as a few of my father’s old trainer mates invited me to come on the committee to keep the club going,” he said.

“That was in the mid 1960s.

“My father had a number of good horses, he bred horses that went on to win in Brisbane, as well as the local country areas around here.

“I have been involved ever since.”

Just as the Neill-Ballantine name has been around for decades, so has the tradition of racing at Calliope on the day after Father Christmas comes every year.

There are busy race clubs in Central Queensland such as Rockhampton, Gladstone and Yeppoon but all the attention usually turns to the small grass track of Calliope on December 26.

They will go without their annual race meeting in 2021, after it was abandoned due to the state of the track.

Recent track inspections by RQ and QRIC have deemed the track unsuitable for racing.

Due to the abandonment, additional races have been added to the Emerald Jockey Club non-TAB meeting scheduled for Friday, December 31.  

The club used to race as many as a handful of times every season, which has gone down to just the one date annually now.

Schultz has trained 11 winners at the track over the years, as well as 16 minor placings.

“I have gone there over the years, it is a tight little track,” Schultz said.

The feature every year at Calliope is the Gold Cup.

“Our club racing on Boxing Day, it has been around as long as I have, I was first associated with the club in the late 1960s,” Jim recalled.

“It was going back then and we would race four or five times a year back then – including a date on Boxing Day – but now we are just the once a year club.

“It is traditional to go to the races on Boxing Day in this area, a lot of people would only go to one or two race meetings a year – maybe Melbourne Cup day and Calliope on Boxing Day.

“Racing here has a big following.”

Calliope is no longer regularly used as a training facility, Jim noting that trainers were based there a few years ago but they have all since moved on.

Club spotlight will be a regular feature that shines a light on the unique and individual racing clubs across Queensland.