The Steeplechase Riders

Words:  Will H Ogilvie
Tune:  Florian Pascal



We will deck them in cream and in crimson
In chocolate and tartan and blue
And speed them away from the barrier
And trust them to struggle it through

CHORUS (first and last verses)
Oh, the riders, the steeplechase riders
They carry their lives in their hands

We come with the best of our sportsmen
And the fairest fair girls of the land,
To speed them away from the barrier
And cheer them in front of the stand.

They don't have a fair lady wearing
Their colors of crimson and blue
But they'll put up their silk for a living,
And ride for a guinea or two.

There's a roar from the crowd on the corner,
A shout from the crowd on the hill.
For the green-and-white hoops have turned over:
A loose horse and a man lying still.

But the crimson and black's going strongly,
With the blue leading as they land,
And the horses must strain at the fences,
And the riders hold death in their hands.

For the fences are big ones and solid,
They make it top speed from the start,
And the man who rides out over Flemington
Needs more than the average heart.

Then here's to the luck of the winner,
And here's better luck to the last,
Here's to the pluck at the timber,
And here's to the Post flying past.


From the Joy Durst Memorial Song Collection.   Published with the following note:

Collected by Arthur and Kath Lumsden from Mrs Belle Brown, who learned the words about 1910.

The illustration to this post is a painting by George Hamilton entitled, The First Steeplechase in South Australia, 25 September 1846.