In On A Winner, City Tattersalls Club Club lifts the lid for the first time on untold stories of diamonds, handguns and robbery as it celebrates 125 years of history. Australia has never known another club like City Tattersalls. Founded in 1895 by a group of 20 Bookmakers, City Tattersalls Club has grown to be amongst the largest and most prestigious Clubs in Australia. Located in the heart of the CBD, the Club stands today as one of Sydney’s finest entertainment venues. At first dismissed by the racing establishment, it took just weeks for City Tattersalls to win its place on the hectic NSW racing scene. In the 125 years since battler St Leger bookmakers clawed their way into the lucrative paddock, City Tattersalls has proved a true stayer.
Marea Donnelly has worked as a senior journalist and feature writer at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Australian newspapers in Sydney. She also spent a decade writing specialist history features for The Daily Telegraph.
* More than a century of secrets and scandals surrounding one of Sydney’s oldest clubs are set to come to light, as City Tattersalls Club celebrates its 125th anniversary with On A Winner.
* The author Marea Donnelly writes about the Club’s history and how it has been interwoven with Sydney city life for 125 years.
* Includes stories that up until now have never been told, including the safety deposit boxes said to be stashed with cash and diamonds that are supposedly still inside the Club.
* Be captivated by the biggest scandal to rock the Club with the safe robbery in December 1957, when it was suspected thieves working with a club member used duplicate keys to access dozens of boxes belonging to bookmakers, and rumoured to have netted up to £100,000.
* The full colour coffee table book tells the many yarns of the Club’s historic Lower Bar, with its adjoining bookies’ safe, which was the home of secret deals and betting coups which represent a lost era of Sydney’s shady social history.
* On A Winner shares amazing photos from the past 125 years of Australian history including sporting events such as in the 1980s Olympic swimmers who competed man-on-man in the Speedo challenge in the Club’s swimming pool. Learn how the dozens of first grade rugby league players were tortured in the City Tattersalls Club gym under the command of Australia’s first personal trainer, ‘Go Harder’ George Daldry back in the 1960s.
* Short listed for 2021 NSW Premier’s History Award – the NSW community & regional history prize.
