A snail race which attracted 40 starters raised money for the Parents Without Partners Association in Sydney's Hyde Park on October 6, 1975. The snails raced over a one metre track described as cold and hard, with a lettuce leaf placed as a lure just past the finish line. The previous year a powder was used as the lure but things went horribly wrong when a puff of wind blew the powder into the snails' faces, killing about 30 of them. Nicole Cowled, 5, of Maroubra, trained the winning 1975 snail, Richard.
The North Shore Australian Rules club raised funds in 1975 by staging a L'Escargot Stakes at the club's premises. Eight garden snails, carefully chosen after trials, lined up after bets had been placed. The winner was Snuffa Boy, a rank outsider, who gave the bookies a big coup by winning from favoured snails named after Sydney breweries.
Jack Pollard, Havesome Book of Nutty Records (Crows Nest, NSW: Jack Pollard Publishing, 1978)
