August 5, 2024
The annual Relay For Life fundraising dinner at Kingaroy Town Hall may have been missing some “captains”, but the guest speakers were all genuine champions who kept the diners enthralled.
South Burnett Relay For Life patron Carl Rackemann enlisted the help of rugby league great Steve Renouf, three-times Olympic gold medallist Jodie Henry OAM and racehorse trainer Peter Moody who took champion mare Black Caviar to 25 consecutive victories.
Carl grilled the speakers on stage, taking them through their career highlights – and lowlights – while the 270 or so diners enjoyed a three-course meal prepared by The Saucy Fork.
Renouf, who grew up in Murgon, shared what it was like joining the Broncos as a teenager, recording premiership wins, playing in England and the shock of being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Henry’s brilliant career in the pool, which included collecting Olympic gold medals and breaking world records, was explored as well as her life post-Olympics.
Peter Moody shared his story of going up in the bush, and how he eventually went from horse-breaking to training winners including, of course, Black Caviar.
Moody also spoke frankly about the emotional toll the “cobalt” controversy had on his life, which led to a six-month suspension of his trainer’s licence. Moody, who was cleared of deliberately administering illegal levels of cobalt to a stallion, retired from racing before making a comeback and achieving even more success with gelding Incentivise.
A highlight of the evening was the live auction, under the hammer of John Allery, which raised more than $17,375 including $3100 for a piece of Bradman memorabilia, a boxed cricket bat signed by The Don.
Other auction items included signed jerseys, tickets to NRL games and Test cricket matches and purple Relay For Life cricket balls.
The silent auction raised another $7855.
The 2024 South Burnett Relay For Life will be held from 2:00pm on October 12 at T.J. O’Neill Oval (the Red Ants home ground) in Kingaroy.
Relay For Life teams can be register online
Thanks for the great on-going support for the Dinner – it is greatly appreciated.