Veteran race caller Colin Hodges is in rarified air to say he has been able to call third-generation industry greats in racing, and also a triple dead-heat.

Hodges called the only triple dead-heat in NSW at Cowra on January 20, 1997 during the Imperial Hotel Class Two Handicap.

There has ever been four triple dead-heats in Australia since the photo finish was introduced in 1948.

The first was at Flemington (Melbourne) in 1956, the second at Townsville in 1985, and then at Stony Creek in Victoria in 1987.

“That was a pretty special moment,” Hodges said.

Sleepers (trainer Garry Lunn, jockey Dar Lunn), Sir Laucrest (trainer Norm Collins, jockey Tracey Bartley) and Churning (trainer Debbie Prest, jockey Mark Galea) were the three horses awarded joint-first-place at the Cowra Jockey Club meeting.

Hodges recalls the day vividly.

“Usually I’ll just say close finish,” he said.

“But it’s the only time in my life I’ve said... this could be a three-way dead-heat. I think it was a fluke. I didn’t say 'triple dead-heat'.”

Shane Cullen was the chief steward at Cowra and didn’t give correct weight for 25 minutes, Hodges recalled.

“They knew how significant it was in the history of horse racing,” Hodges said.

“They double-checked, double-checked, over, over and over, before declaring it.”

Hodges said Cullen took the photo finish to a picture theatre in Orange and blew it up on a huge screen the next day, and you still couldn’t separate the horses.

A long-time career as a caller can means calling granddads, dads and sons.

Being in the game since 1970, Hodges has also called three sets of three generation families within the racing game.

Hodges has called Reg Paine (Cowra), his sons Neil Paine and Rodney Paine, and then Reg’s grandson Adam Hyeronimus as jockeys.

The Forbes race-caller has also bellowed the name of three generations of the Nestor family in the saddle.

John Nestor, his son Michael Nestor, and then Michael’s son Kody Nestor, a current jockey.

Within trainers only, there was Bill Molloy Snr, Bill Molloy Jnr, better known as Brother Molloy, and then Andrew Molloy, Bill Molloy Jnr’s son.

What is required to be a race caller? While Hodges loves racing, it is tough work across the more than 100 race meetings he calls a year.

On a typical race day, he is up at around 4am.

He will search the latest website updates for scratchings and riding changes, before filing a preview story for the national racing service.

Around 8am, dependent on the venue, he will leave for the racecourse.

The afternoon is taken up by race-calling, and then he has to dodge kangaroos to get back to Forbes.

Hodges notes there is sacrifice in this occupation, as you can’t pick and choose which events you attend.

To understand the distance he travels from his Forbes base, here are some return kilometre distances he travels for meetings: Coonamble (624km), Coonabarabran (628km), Cobar (690km), Mudgee (468km), Louth (1012km) and Broken Hill (1700km).

He has faced logistical challenges in the past like calling at Louth one day and then Dubbo the next.

Occasionally he stays overnight when travelling way out west, but most times he will drive back-and-forth from his home.

The drive home from any meeting is often slow, as he is often driving 80 kilometres an hour due to wildlife at night.

For 25 years, he didn’t have a collision with a kangaroo, but then this year hit two in a fortnight. Once, he just missed an emu.

He often doesn’t get home until 10.30pm so you would think it was a case of 'wildlife avoided and it's into bed and good night'. Not so.

He also voluntarily files a story he writes on every race meeting he attends, often meaning bedtime is after midnight.

The writing started when he was 18. He is still going at 75.

“It’s a love job... I discipline myself to give every meeting coverage,” he said.

“Once I start to dodge it, I’ll continue to dodge it. So I discipline myself to do it.

“The reason why I do it, is to try and give some sort of reward or pleasure to those people who have succeeded, or a race club that have put on a hell of a lot of work to run a great meeting.

“If I can write a good story... If I can bring a bit of pleasure to a bush club, bush trainer or bush jockey, that’s my reward.”

Hodges also chats with Dubbo Photo News sports editor Geoff Mann weekly on Mann’s Saturday Central West Sports Show on ABC Western Plains.