Picnic Race Clubs will benefit for years to come due to the efforts of Doug Allen, former president of the NSW Picnic Association.
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Doug who died in August was a relentless campaigner on behalf of the Picnic clubs and gained several important concessions.
In 2011, Doug felt satisfied to have achieved a goal when Racing NSW agreed to substantially increase funding for Picnic racing.
Another successful campaign was to gain better conditions and riding fees for jockeys competing on the picnic circuit.
Doug always acknowledged the invaluable support he received in these campaigns from Deidre Adam (Secretary) and Fiona Aveyard (Treasurer) from the NSW Picnic Association, Michael Kennedy (Western Racing Association
President and Country Racing Council board member) and Barbara Dunn (Central West Amateur Race Clubs Secretary).
After being a TAFE teacher in Sydney, Doug Allen moved to the Greenethorpe area, near Grenfell where he became a successful farmer.
His wife Jill Allen traveled extensively around the region as a teacher for deaf children.
Jill and Doug Allen were wonderful hosts at Grenfell Picnic meetings when Doug was President of the club and earlier this year he was installed as a Patron.
Doug was also President of the Central West Picnic Race Association, which covered an eleven meeting circuit.
Feng Shui, part owned by Doug and trained at Cowra by Kevin White was the joint Equimec "Horse of the Year" with stablemate Poker Pro for the 2012-13 Central West picnic circuit.
Doug was also an outstanding sportsman excelling at both rugby union and cricket.
When playing in a juniors cricket carnival, Doug Allen was the wicket keeper for New South Wales while the wicket keeper for Western Australia was Rodney March, later to become the long term Test wicket keeper for Australia.
Over the past five years, former rugby union team mates of Doug have traveled from Sydney to Grenfell picnics and sponsored the Cup.
Known as the Lane Cove Rugby Legends over 30 attended this year and celebrated a successful betting plunge when Doug Allen's horse Feng Shui was a winner at the meeting.
In January 1997, Doug became a part of history when a triple dead heat occurred at the Cowra Jockey Club meeting.
Since the introduction of the photo finish camera, there have only been four triple dead heats officially recorded in
Australia - Flemington (1956), Townsville (1985), Stony Creek (1987) and Cowra (1997).
Horses and jockeys involved in the triple dead heat at Cowra were Sir Laucrest (Tracey Bartley), Sleepers (Dar
Lunn) and Churning (Mark Galea).
Trained at Young by Debbie Prest, Churning was raced by Doug Allen.
Over recent years in conjunction with Col Hodges, Doug has been researching the history of picnic racing in Australia
and planned to eventually publish a book on the subject.
Doug was passionate about the research and travelled from Canberra to Broken Hill gathering information.
Until very shortly before his passing, Doug Allen was still working hard on the project.
-Col Hodges
