It was a storybook summer afternoon in Newcastle, as the breeze cut across a heaving trackside field of the city's most fashionable dandies, daring punters and styled socialites for the annual Boxing Day race meeting. Login or signup to continue reading The queue at the gates of Newcastle Racecourse on Thursday around 2pm, moments after the first race of the day had jumped, extended well into the parking lot as crowds flocked to the Broadmeadow track to take in a balmy afternoon. As the punters tried their luck in the betting ring, the grandstands crowded for each race, and the field was overwhelmed by the colour and style of spring race fashions.
As temperatures peaked around 24 degrees on the beaches, blown under a gusty easterly and a pristine skyline, the course was packed for the annual holiday meeting. Simon McCarthy is a journalist with the Newcastle Herald and its sister publications in the Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW). He has contributed stories, photography, video and other multimedia to the pages of the Herald and its Saturday magazine, Weekender, since 2017.
In 2020, he co-created the Toohey's News podcast, which he produced for four years with sports writer Barry Toohey until the show's indefinite hiatus. Since early 2023, he has served as the paper's Topics columnist and, more recently, returned to reporting with an interest in deep-dive stories that illustrate the issues shaping daily life in Newcastle and the region.McCarthy has reported for Australi.
