Racing’s First Lady hands over the reins

– Garry Howe
THE First Lady of Racing in Cranbourne is bowing out.
Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive Yvonne Blackwood has announced she will retire early in the new year.
The decision will end her 36-year association with the club, the past 23 years of those as chief executive.
The new chief executive will become only the fourth person to hold the reins at the club since Joe Taylor was appointed secretary in 1918.
Colin McKaskill and Ms Blackwood are the only two other people to have held the position.
Ms Blackwood told the News this week that it had been a difficult decision and one that had consumed a lot of her thoughts during the year.
It was brought on by the health scare to her partner Pat Lalor, a former VRC chief steward and Cranbourne committeeman, late last year and a penchant to travel the world together.
“The time’s right,” Ms Blackwood said. “Pat’s probably lucky to be alive after his scare and that really made me think (about retirement) a bit more.
“We want to do a few things together, like travel, and you can’t keep putting them off forever.”
They would like to be travelling around Europe in April or May of next year.
Ms Blackwood said the hardest part of retiring would be severing direct ties with the many “great people” she had befriended over the years.
“The club’s been a huge part of my life… well, it probably has been my life. It’s been an enormous journey and I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone.”
Her appointment as secretary (chief executive) back in January 1982 was considered to be groundbreaking.
She was only the second female to take on the role, following the lead of Helen Cantwell at Sale.
Ms Blackwood remembers the infamous white line, which women were not allowed to cross, was still in vogue in Mornington and metropolitan clubs when she first joined the administrative team in 1968.
“We didn’t have a line here, but we weren’t allowed in the bookies ring,” she recalled.
When she took the top job in ’82, Cranbourne had only nine race meetings a year and was just coming off a period of great instability, where some in the industry wanted the course closed.
In the years since, Cranbourne has developed into one of Victoria’s marquee clubs, one of only five in the provincial area with Group A status, with 20 meetings a year.
Ms Blackwood said she was satisfied that she would be leaving the club in such a healthy state.
She paid tribute to her loyal and long-standing staff and the equally stable club committee, which she said had provided great support over the years.
One of her regrets is that she will not be there to preside over the club’s first Sunday cup meeting in October.