But this tough galloper kept on winning

Warren Nunn. First published in 2017; updated November 2025.

The wonderful achievements of the brilliant racehorse Winx was given an amusing twist recently when my former Courier-Mail colleague Rob Craddock wrote a lovely article that mentioned the achievements of the Queensland bush champion Picnic In The Park.

The lovely hook that he wove into the piece was the fact that Picnic In The Park did something that Winx could never do. At the time of publication Winx had won 21 races in a row; and, back in the 1980s, Picnic In The Park likewise won 21 straight on various tracks around Queensland.

While in no way trying to compare the achievements, Rob pointed out that Winx could never do what Picnic In The Park did … and that was win two races on the same day! That’s because Australian racing rules now prohibit a horse from starting twice on the same day.

Picnic, as he was affectionately known to the Raabe family who owned and raced him, ended his racing days in Rockhampton when he broke down while headed for his 22^nd consecutive win.

I was there that day and wrote the story that appeared on the front page of The Sunday Mail newspaper the following day.

It was a lovely trip down memory lane and I shared some of the memories with both Rob Craddock and Wade Raabe whose late dad Malcolm owned and trained Picnic.

And it reminded me of another interesting bush horse called Bororen who was racing at the same time Picnic was reeling off multiple victories across Queensland.

Bororen was not flashy nor a headliner but rather was a solid, dependable, tough-as-teak bush horse which did not have his first start until he turned four. Seven years later in 1983, as a rising 12-year-old, he won his second Mackay Cup, a race he contested six times.

Seven Cup runs

In July 1983, he was heading to Townsville for another attempt at that race in which he had only one placing.

That might seem fairly mundane and unspectacular in the world of horse racing but one of the interesting things about Bororen and his connections was the extraordinary distances they travelled to these events.

Bororen’s owner-trainer Tom Broughton was a shearing contractor based in Barcaldine, western Queensland, about 700 km (420 miles) from Mackay and 880 km (540 miles) from Townsville.

Tom, his wife Pat, and their jockey Ian Stenhouse mostly raced around western Queensland at tracks such as Barcaldine (of course), Longreach, Blackall, Emerald, Isisford, Jericho and Aramac but also went south to Toowoomba which is 945 km (595 miles) away. As well, they also took a trip to Brisbane (1000 km/660 miles away) where he had two minor placings.

Bororen was gifted to Tom and Pat as a two-year-old but did not race until he was four and averaged about a dozen starts a year thereafter.

Two Mackay Cups

There was obviously no drop off in his abilities as he aged because when he won the 1900m Mackay Cup in 1983 as a rising 12-year-old, he ran the distance in almost the same time (1 minute 58.8 seconds) as he did in 1980 when he stopped the clock at 1 minutes 58.6 seconds.

And in 1983 he was handicapped to carry 3.5kg more than three years earlier.

The Broughtons and jockeys such as Ian Stenhouse are representative of the great horsemanship that exists out in the bush away from the glare of publicity in the flashy metropolitan areas where all the glitz and glamour of the racing game is played out.

And in many ways the Picnic In The Park story is similar as Malcolm Raabe was based at Kingaroy which is 215 km (133 miles) from Queensland’s capital, Brisbane.

So the Raabes were faced with long drives such as the 484 km (300 miles) to Rockhampton and also the 1200 km (745 miles) trek to Townsville, in the state’s far north.

Picnic’s regular rider Chris Smith, like Ian Stenhouse, was from the far west at a place called Muttaburra only 153 km (95 miles) from Barcaldine where Ian was based.

 

As someone who no longer ‘follows’ racing but who spent almost a decade reporting and being involved with the sport, bush racing has always appealed. Not that I haven’t been to metropolitan racetracks, but the atmosphere is something else away from the ‘big smoke’.

So Bororen’s story (and Picnic In The Park’s) resonates as much with me now as it did 30-plus years ago when I first wrote about those gallopers.

 

I have a clipping of the article about Bororen which is accompanied by a photograph I took of him with Ian Stenhouse in the saddle. And there’s another article from 1986 when Ian Stenhouse, the jockey, met Ian Stenhouse, the cricketer.

UPDATE: Winx eventually extended to 33 her winning streak. Overall, Winx raced 43 times for 37 wins and 3 second placings. She had a world record 25 Group One wins.

FAMILY PERSPECTIVE: Comments I’ve received from Tom’s children reinforce how passionate country people are about the racing game. I had guessed at the time that the Broughtons named Bororen after the town south of Gladstone but never actually asked the question at the time. It turns out that his name was taken from the town.

Bororen’s race record

A summary of Bororen’s race record found in Australian Turf Register records follows. The bracketed reference numbers indicate a win:

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ATR 1976 Four-year-old

509d Unplaced Longreach 13 Sep 1975 over 1000 m

(662) Won Longreach 27 Sep 1975 over 1000 m

914 Unplaced Blackall 18 Oct 1975 over 1000 m

1106 Unplaced Barcaldine 4 Nov 1975 over 1100 m

(1344) Won Jericho 22 Nov 1975 over 1000 m

(1505) Won Isisford 6 Dec 1975 over 1200 m

2990b Second Blackall 3 Apr 1976 over 1000 m

3184 Unplaced Barcaldine 17 Apr 1976 over 1000 m

3407c Third Barcaldine 1 May 1976 over 1100 m

(3519) Won Longreach 8 May 1976 over 1200 m

(3793) Won Mackay 29 May 1976 over 1200 m

(3878) Won Mackay 5 Jun 1976 over 1000 m

(4000) Won Townsville 14 Jun 1976 over 1400 m

4343b Second Mackay 10 Jul 1976 over 1200 m

4518b Second Townsville 24 Jul 1976 over 1400 m

15 starts 7 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third

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ATR 1977 Five-year-old

(2294) Won Longreach Newmarket 11 Sep 1976 over 1200 m

(2579) Won Aramac 18 Sep 1976 over 1200 m

4078c Third Eagle Farm 16 Oct 1976 over 1400 m

4790 Unplaced Doomben 30 Oct 1976 over 1350 m

13477 Unplaced Doomben 3 Apr 1977 over 1200 m

15436c Third Doomben 30 Apr 1977 over 1610 m

17993 Unplaced Rocky Newmarket 11 Jun 1977 over 1300 m

18821 Unplaced Mackay 25 Jun 1977 over 1800 m

19919 Unplaced Mackay 16 Jul 1977 over 1000 m

20297 Unplaced Townsville 23 Jul 1977 over 1600 m

20629 Unplaced Townsville Cup 30 Jul 1977 over 2075 m

11 starts, 2 wins, 2 thirds

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ATR 1978 Six-year-old

(17289) Won Blackall 20 May 1978 over 1200 m

1806a Second Longreach 3 Jun 1978 over 1000 m

1900a Second Mackay 17 Jun 1978 over 1440 m

19351b Third Mackay Cup 24 Jun 1978 over 1900 m

20827 Unplaced Townsville 22 Jul 1978 over 1600 m

21174 Unplaced Townsville 29 Jul 1978 over 2075 m

6 starts, 1 win, 2 seconds, 1 third

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ATR 1979 Seven-year-old

679 Unplaced Townsville 12 Aug 1978 over 1400 m

1042b Third Townsville 19 Aug 1978 over 1400 m

(2180) Won Longreach 9 Sep 1978 over 1600 m

(2499) Won Aramac 16 Sep 1978 over 1200 m

(3725) Won Emerald 7 Oct 1978 over 1700 m <Note that the ATR result wrongly names Blush d’Or the winner with Bororen placed third (see explanation at right). However, in the index the (3725) reference denotes a win credited to Bororen.

11527b Third Ipswich 14 Feb 1979 over 1100 m

12867a Third Doomben 10 Mar 1979 over 1350 m

14076 Unplaced Toowoomba Weetwood 29 Mar 1979 over 1200 m

14540 Unplaced Doomben 7 Apr 1979 over 1610 m

15654 Unplaced Doomben 21 Apr 1979 over 1350 m

16642a Second Doomben 5 May 1979 over 1610 m

18259a Second Bundaberg 26 May 1979 over 1800 m

19166 Unplaced Rocky Newmarket 9 Jun 1979 over 1300 m

19529 Unplaced Rocky Cup 16 Jun 1979 over 2000 m

20432c Unplaced Mackay Cup 30 Jun 1979 over 1850 m

21272c Unplaced Home Hill 14 Jul 1979 over 2075 m

17 starts, 3 wins, 2 seconds, 3 thirds

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1980 ATR Eight-year-old

771 Unplaced Townsville 11 Aug 1979 over 1400 m

(1153) Won Townsville 18 Aug 1979 over 1400 m

(1970) Won Ingham 1 Sep 1979 over 2050 m

2424 Unplaced Cairns 8 Sep 1979 over 2000 m

(12406) Won Toowoomba 16 Feb 1980 over 1100 m

13219 Unplaced Gold Coast 1 Mar 1980 over 1600 m

13988a Second Eagle Farm 15 Mar 1980 over 1600 m

150216 Third Toowoomba 29 Mar 1980 over 1100 m

15605a Second Eagle Farm 7 Apr 1980 over 1842 m

16634 Unplaced Toowoomba Cup 19 Apr 1980 over 2000 m

19378 Unplaced Toowoomba 31 May 1980 over 1100 m

(199827) Won Longreach 7 Jun 1980 over 1600 m

(21166) Won Mackay Cup 28 Jun 1980 over 1900 m

22440 Unplaced Townsville 19 Jul 1980 over 1600 m

22857 Unplaced Townsville Cup 26 Jul 1980 over 2075 m

15 starts, 5 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third

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1981 ATR Nine-year-old

5630a Second Ipswich 30 Oct 1980 over 1200 m

6744 Unplaced Eagle Farm 15 Nov 1980 over 1600 m

8351 Unplaced Doomben 13 Dec 1980 over 1610 m

9717 Unplaced Inverell Cup 1 Jan 1981 over 1400 m

10978 Unplaced Eagle Farm 24 Jan 1981 over 1600 m

11813c Unplaced Ipswich 4 Feb 1981 over 1200 m

12232 Unplaced Doomben 14 Feb 1981 over 1200 m

(17462) Won Barcaldine 2 May 1981 over 1000 m

(19773) Won Longreach 6 Jun 1981 over 1000 m

(20808) Won Mackay 20 Jun 1981 over 1200 m

21149a Second Mackay Cup 27 Jun 1981 over 1900 m

22787 Unplaced Townsville 25 Jul 1981 over 1600 m

12 starts, 3 wins, 2 seconds

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1982 ATR Ten-year-old

249b Third Townsville Cup 1 Aug 1981 over 2075 m

2323c Unplaced Longreach 5 Sep 1981 over 1200 m

8836 Unplaced Eagle Farm 19 Dec 1981 over 1400 m

9743 Unplaced Eagle Farm 12 Jan 1982 over 1400 m

11350b Third Doomben 26 Jan 1982 over 1610 m

12081 Unplaced Eagle Farm 6 Feb 1982 over 1820 m

12895 Unplaced Doomben 26 Feb 1982 over 2025 m

20297 Unplaced Longreach 5 Jun 1982 over 1000 m

21275a Second Barcaldine 19 Jun 1982 over 1000 m

21729a Second Barcaldine 26 Jun 1982 over 1100 m

(22253) Won Longreach 3 Jul 1982 over 1600 m

23117 Unplaced Townsville 17 Jul 1982 over 1600 m

23515 Unplaced Townsville Cup 24 Jul 1982 over 2075 m

13 starts 1 win, 2 seconds, 2 thirds

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1983 ATR Eleven-year-old

2133 Unplaced Longreach 4 Sep 1982 over 1600 m

16845a Second Longreach 16 Apr 1983 over 1000 m

(17773) Won Barcaldine 30 Apr 1983 over 1000 m

18598c Unplaced Aramac 14 May 1983 over 1000 m

19823c Unplaced Longreach 4 Jun 1983 over 1600 m

(21272) Won Mackay Cup 25 Jun 1983 over 1900 m

22039 Unplaced Aramac 9 Jul 1983 over 1400 m

23061 Unplaced Townsville 23 Jul 1983 over 1600 m

23377 Unplaced Townsville Cup 30 Jul 1983 over 2060 m

9 starts, 2 wins, 1 second

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1984 ATR Twelve-year-old

2071b Third Longreach 3 Sep 1983 over 1600 m

3379c Unplaced Barcaldine 24 Sep 1983 over 1600 m

4396 Unplaced Emerald 8 Oct 1983 over 1900 m

20432 Unplaced Longreach 2 Jun 1984 over 1000 m

21977 Unplaced Mackay 23 Jun 1984 over 1200 m

22432 Unplaced Mackay Cup 30 Jun 1984 over 1900 m

6 starts, 1 third.

According to ATR records, Bororen started 104 times for 24 wins, 15 seconds, and 11 thirds.