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Trove Tuesday - Carrington Handicap

My nanna would always tell me stories whenever we visited her place. It's a shame now I can't recall them all. However, I do vividly remember her telling me that her father Michael Ryan was a good runner and often ran in races in  Sydney. Her future father-in-law Harry Dawson was his coach.

I've often searched on Trove without luck for some evidence to support this story.

Earlier in the week I think I may have hit the jackpot. The difficulty was knowing exactly what to search for in Trove. I was browsing for something totally unrelated when I saw an article about a Carrington Handicap. I now had the possible name of a race.

The following advertisement from 1888 indicates that professional footraces (or at least some of them) in Sydney were worth winning.

Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 1888, p. 2


A search for Carrington Handicap and Ryan in the period 1886-1895 (years selected as likely years he would be running) produced many results. Unfortunately the Sydney Morning Herald only gives the initials for a man's christian name. There are many entries for a M. Ryan. I hope I am not wrong in assuming that this man is my great grandfather Michael Ryan.

Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 2nd April 1891, p. 8 

In this race, Ryan the favourite finished third after winning his first, second and third rounds. Hopefully I'll be able to discover more about the running successes of Michael Ryan.




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