The Windermere Foyers Pay Tribute to Ascot Racing Legends

The residential foyers at The Windermere, 77 Racecourse Road, Ascot, will be named in honour of two of Queensland racing’s most enduring horse racing figures, Pam O’Neill OAM and Bart Sinclair OAM.

Permanent bronze plaques will be installed in each foyer, celebrating their contribution to the sport and their deep personal connection to the streets surrounding the development.

Pam O’Neill OAM

Pam O’Neill is, quite simply, the woman who changed Australian racing. For fourteen years she campaigned for the right to compete professionally against male jockeys, writing more than 140 letters to administrators across Queensland before the Queensland Turf Club finally granted her a licence on 16 May 1979, making her the first registered female jockey in Australia.

She wasted no time. On debut at Southport she rode three winners in a single afternoon, a world record. Within weeks she had become the first woman to win a Brisbane metropolitan race against male riders, at Doomben. She went on to compete for more than two decades at Eagle Farm, Doomben, and racecourses throughout Queensland, before retiring in 1997 and dedicating herself to the industry as an administrator and advocate.

She is an inductee of the Queensland Racing Hall of Fame and the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia. She also, for a period of her life, called Kent Street, Ascot home, a further connection to the Windermere.

Bart Sinclair OAM

If Pam O’Neill made history on the track, Bart Sinclair spent 43 years making sure it was recorded, understood and celebrated.

Sinclair, the son of prominent jockey and trainer A.B. ‘Barty’ Sinclair, the sport was not something Bart chose so much as something he was born into.

In 1970, a chance conversation at Eagle Farm trackwork led to a cadetship with News Limited. Over the 43 years that followed he became one of Australia’s most respected racing writers, serving as senior racing writer for The Australian, the Courier Mail and the Sunday Mail, and as a broadcaster on 4BC, Radio 4TAB and Channel 7’s long-running Sportscene program. A dedicated custodian of Queensland racing history, he has contributed to the Heritage Unit at Doomben and the Museum at Eagle Farm, and is a life member of the Brisbane Racing Club and the Queensland Turf Club. In 2018, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the sport.

The plaques have been crafted in matte aged bronze etched with archival photography, designed to feel like permanent architectural elements within the building. A lasting acknowledgement of two people whose lives were shaped by this neighbourhood, and who helped shape it in return.

The Windermere is expected to reach completion in August 2026.