Who was I?

Image courtesy of The Australasian, October 1896 | An 1890 photograph of Kirkham, showing the homestead and stables to the right

Given the age of the Kirkham Plate, it’s hard to believe that it isn’t a stakes race these days. First run in 1925 at Warwick Farm, it has remained true to its roots for nearly a century as a short-course juvenile sprint.

The Kirkham Plate, then the Kirkham S., was added to the Sydney calendar in the same year as the Hobartville S., which has also remained a local staple but with Group 2 status. Both races were named after important thoroughbred properties in early Sydneytown, Hobartville still alive and kicking, and Kirkham long since forgotten.

Gallery: Images of the old Kirkham estate

The old Kirkham estate was sat a mile outside of the Camden township in southwest Sydney, ‘as choice a bit of country as heart of man could wish’. The paddocks, stables and homestead were in a basin of rich, almost chocolate-coloured soil and, in good seasons of rain, it provided plenty for raising thoroughbreds.

The original estate was first granted to John Oxley, a surveyor-general of early New South Wales, in May 1812, and it ballooned from 600 acres to over 1000 acres in just three years. Oxley came and went during his ownership, and it wasn’t until Kirkham was sold to the Hon. James White that it made its name.

White, as history has recorded, was one of the brightest lights in Australian racing ever. He came from an early landholding family in the Hunter Valley, and some of the vast runs associated with the White family are Segenhoe, Edinglassie and Belltrees.

In the earliest days of these properties, thoroughbred stallions were imported, but largely to improve local stockhorses. Therefore, it wasn’t until James White bought the Kirkham estate in the early 1870s that his legacy as a breeder of bloodstock truly blossomed.

Possibly because Kirkham Stud was so naturally equipped, but probably because it was so close to Sydney, the property entered a halcyon era in White’s charge.

It was the home of the brilliant, Melbourne Cup-winning stallion Chester, a son of Yattendon, and, from the time that White purchased Chester from Fernhill in 1876 ‘until the date that his racing stable was dispersed due to illness, the Hon. James White reigned supreme over the Australian Classic-racing calendar’.

Gallery: Historical images of the Kirkham legacy

From Chester was bred the likes of Abercorn, Dreadnought, Stromboli and Uralla. They were Oaks and Derby winners, Melbourne Cup and St Leger winners, and their list went on and on.

Kirkham was the home of 1883 Melbourne Cup winner Martini-Henry (NZ) and the dual Derby-winner Nordenfeldt (NZ), and, at its peak through the 1880s, its broodmare band was the stuff of legend, possibly equalled only by Fernhill Stud.

Much of the property’s success was down to White’s deep pockets. He could afford to be patient, and Kirkham mares were bred only every second year. White was careful with their nominations and, by many accounts of the era, it was his careful management of Chester that led to the horse being four times Australia’s Leading Sire.

In July 1890, the Hon. James White died and it was the beginning of the end of Kirkham Stud. It ticked along for a few years, but slowly its valuable bloodstock was dispersed and the inevitable creep of urban life reached its boundaries.

Today, its silvery old homestead still stands, renamed 'Camelot', and some of its buildings are heritage listed along Kirkham Lane. Chester's grave, year of death 1891, is still there.

That the Kirkham Plate still carries its name nearly 100 years later, long after the disappearance of its namesake, is one of those delightful quirks of modern racing.