Denis Smith and the Yea Racing Club

DENIS Smith, recent former president of the Yea Race Club, spoke about his time with the club and his plans for the future, as well as his history in Yea.

Denis originally left Yea in 1955.

He was the oldest in his family. His father, Arthur Harris (Mick) Smith. Mick, with his brother Mahon, had a cordial factory called AH Smith Pty Ltd. It was originally started by Denis’s grandfather.

They purchased a factory in Wangaratta, and Mick moved to the town to manage that end of the business, and Edward McMahon (Mahon) Smith stayed in Yea.

Mick died on November 1, and his family were “stuck in Wangaratta.” Denis’s younger brother was just two weeks old at the time.

Denis eventually moved to Melbourne in 1970 for work and to umpire football. Then in the late 90s or early 2000s, Denis’s cousin Sandra Cox, Mahon’s daughter, moved back to Yea.

Dick Cox started taking an interest in the local picnic club.

At that stage, Denis had a chauffeur driving business and he was invited to ferry the stewards around to their towers, which was the done thing at the time.

Denis joked, “I had a nice big car. They enjoyed it.

Had six races, a drink after every race. What could go wrong?”

He said that in connection with his business, he got to know the CEO of Racing Victoria, who said to him that they’ve done a survey of all of the clubs in Victoria, including picnic clubs, and that several club would lose.

He said that Yea looked like losing two out of three meeting due to poor attendance and communication issues.

Denis asked whether he could save one if he got on the committee. He was given two years. They did save one, and then the year after that, Denis became president, focused on…