If you do not know all roads lead to Warrnambool racetrack for the next three days you must be from overseas or another planet. Back in the mid 1970's to the mid 1980's I made the annual pilgrimage (yes, it was like a religious experience) eleven years straight for all three days. This was a test of a man's stamina to depths I never knew I had until I passed with flying colours the first year. That was the year we stayed in a caravan park in Terang, a few kilometres out of Warrnambool, and on th

If you do not know all roads lead to Warrnambool racetrack for the next three days you must be from overseas or another planet. Back in the mid 1970's to the mid 1980's I made the annual pilgrimage (yes, it was like a religious experience) eleven years straight for all three days. This was a test of a man's stamina to depths I never knew I had until I passed with flying colours the first year. That was the year we stayed in a caravan park in Terang, a few kilometres out of Warrnambool, and on the first night the door of the caravan broke off it's hinges and all we could do was prop the door closed. We were unable to stop the wind whistling in and to say the nights were cold would have been an understatement but with alcoholic fortification, lack of sleep due to excessive card playing and journeys to the betting ring we actually managed quite well. I sort of knew how the Alaskan huskies survived by the end of the week. Over the next ten years any inconveniences like blizzards, pouring rain or mud up to your knees paled in significance to that first year.

To survive on the punt for three days was an art form as well as there were about 26 to 27 races to negotiate over the carnival not counting a few interstate races as well. Another art was to dodge the perennial "you couldn't loan me $20" so called friends who didn't mind spending our money but never had any themselves. In typical Damon Runyon style we liked to give those guys "the backs of our necks".
We soon learnt to back the wily jockey Neville Wilson each race especially on a front runner and there were several trainers we watched for if they made a trip from Melbourne. I met Neville one night at one of the pubs and he was a real gentleman: it was a pleasure to have the honour to meet him.We also had little savers on the local trainers and at times were staggered by the improvement of some of their runners from previous runs. We always backed the winner of the Brierly Steeplechase in the Grand Annual on the Thursday and had several collects though mostly we were backing or saving on the favourite. Another selection strategy was to back any horse backing up from the Tuesday that raced on the Thursday in the flat races.

One year this attack yielded the $70 winner of the Warrnambool Cup, Billingsford, trained by by Jack Baillie, a local trainer. I was not at the meeting that year but my screams of joy in the pub I was in at Caulfield were heard at the actual track! With this method do NOT worry about form as I can assure you Billingsford's run on the Tuesday was fairly ordinary. I will give you one more piece of advice if you are in any hotel on the main night, the Wednesday night. Watch for any jockeys partaking in a little too much of the amber fluid. One year it paid off when we watched one of the jumps jockeys rolling around on the floor at about 3am in quite a state. We were amazed to see him front up on the favourite in the first race at about 11.30 am so we backed the second and third favourite extensively. At every jump his mount ran off at the fences (I wonder why) and eventually one of ours strolled away to an impressive victory and all we did afterwards was praise our keen observation techniques. Never mind we could barely see past our own noses after copious amounts of alcohol had passed through our lips for the previous eight hours but that was Warrnambool when I was younger.