PHOTO
A young sportsman who grew-up in the red hills and plains around Cobar, has put down his glasses in the Judge’s Box, for the very last time.
Neville Good has been deciding winners and placings on race tracks including Brewarrina, Goodoga, Collarenibri, Walgett, Nyngan, Parkes, Forbes, Coonamble, Mudgee, Narromine, Wellington, Trangie, and also his home town of Cobar, for a full and rewarding 50 years.
Renowned country race-caller Col Hodges — who also has a near half-century in the industry — said that, when Neville pulled the pin after the last race at Parkes at the end of January, it was like a part of the furniture had been removed.
“Neville and I go way back; we’re often the first at the tracks to check our starters and any changes in gear and jockeys that may affect our call,” Col said.
“When I say ‘photo’, there could be $100,000 riding on the call, so Nev’s got the responsibility of checking the photo and getting it right,” he added.
Neville for his part, has had plenty of close calls he has had to adjudicate over the years.
“I wasn’t at Cowra for the three-way dead-heat Col called in the late 90s, but I’ve had some dead heats, both for winners and placings.
I have watched that race a few times, and Col got it right when he thought it ‘could be a three-way dead heat here’,” Neville said with admiration.
The veteran judge also reports on anything that he sees in the mounting yards that might be different to what is on the final nomination form, such as a change of colours the addition of a breastplate or blinkers on a horse. He explained that this is so that everything must be in order so that he can give the correct call every-time on photo-finishes.
“Punters, owners, and trainers would give me a mouthful, if I ‘semaphored’ the wrong numbers, because I had not checked the animals and their riders pre-race.”
Neville told Photo News, that the racetrack judge’s role is two-fold.
“We’re supposed to do our own impact and give an eyesight judgement on every race,” he revealed.
“The camera is only supposed to be an aid for judges but, in close finishes, we definitely use the camera.”
Technology, he added, has made the role of calling close finishes a little easier.
“Things have changed since that Cowra triple.
“We now use digital equipment and have computers; back then, it was freeze-frame black-and-white,” he smiled.
Neville found his way into the position of judge and photo-finish operator, not because of his love for horses but, ironically, his fascination with photography.
“From when I was a kid I loved to take photos and develop them.
I was fascinated by how they used the technology at road and track cycling races I was at in Cobar.”
It was here that a bit of good luck came his way, he explained.
“The experienced local camera operator, Max Humphries at Cobar Motors, had been a professional photographer at Bourke.
“He had some equipment for sale, so I bought it and took off to the racetrack!” he recalls.
Nev also remembers the wise advice that this old stager offered him when he was starting-off, a philosophy he has lived by ever since.
“Never take shortcuts,” Nev said.
“Better to get it right the first time, then have to try and retrieve something you can never get back!”
Nev says in the early days, it was all chemical film for the photo finishes, with black-and-white images that had to be developed..
“We had some ‘fun’ in those days, because the caller’s box was not always adjacent to the finishing post.
“This meant there were skewed angles for both the man bringing the race through the microphone and those positioned at either pre or post-finish vantage points,” he explained.
This situation occasionally caused some friction with irate punters, he remembers.
“The photo finish camera has always been mounted at a 90-degree angle to the inside fence, but some of the buildings are actually set-away from the post.
“Patrons think that is where the photo is taken, and then trouble brews!”
Neville says Gilgandra was always a difficult course, not for the actual finish, but the perception that onlookers had.
“This was exacerbated, because the television camera was actually 11 metres past the post,” he said.
“There were times when punters disputed the results, because the inside horse they thought had won, was actually beaten by three-quarters of a length!”
Neville then wondered aloud: “how many decisions made before the photo-finish was in place, may have been overturned with modern technology”.
Like decisions on footy fields or cricket pitches made by humans responding to the naked eye and quick judgement, one can only speculate. Who knows, this may have changed the course of racing history!
Col Hodges is philosophical about such “what-ifs”.
“No race-caller gets it totally right; I’ve been wrong in photo finishes; Gilgandra was always hard, because of the angle, but that has now been rectified for the television camera as well as the caller, and it has eliminated a rogue element from our industry.
“It’s definitely a lot better when club officials and local identities were called-on to judge,” Col believes.
Neville has also been trackside with some great jockeys.
“GW ‘The Turtle’ Weate (Walgett), Dennis 'Gooey' Firth (Coonamble), Freddy Walker (The Money Man), Johnny Nestor (Gular), Reg Paine and his grandson Adam Hyeronimus (Cowra),” he runs through the names with affection.
“But my all-time favourite, is the now-retired Greg Ryan; he is an immortal,” Neville said
He also singled-out the likes of current champions, Clayton Gallagher and Jake Pracey-Holmes, and some brilliant youngsters like Anna Roper and Micaela Weir, and then the young lad from Brewarrina, Ronald Simpson, who is developing a promising career.
Neville has also put some famous horse numbers into the frame as favourites: “Tons of Fun, Whiskey Jack, Kisses for Cathy, Star of Universe, and Rafoy, come to mind.”
He also named legendary trainers, Albert Hazlett (Walgett); John Lundholm (Coonamble) and his son Clint; Rodney Robb (Nyngan) and his son Brett; as well as John and Judy Nestor as some of his regular top-liners..
Neville could fill a book with his stories. He recounted a couple of the lighter moments.
“The day the sprinklers came on as the horses rounded the straight in Bathurst; the Country Championship Qualifier in Mudgee when I lost all vision until the final 100 metres; tumbleweeds on the track at Walgett; Jockey Greg Ryan (a mechanic by trade) jumping-off his mount to fix the barrier gates, the ambulance, and even a mower!” he recalls fondly.
He also laments the days when Irish jockey Damien Murphy (Wellington) and Reece Potter (Tottenham) both lost their lives doing what they loved, racing on the track.
“I am still haunted by the vision of one of our former stewards, James Perry, who was struggling to stay above the water in the Qld floods many years ago, and whose body has never been found.
“There was no better man than the great race-caller, Bobby Foran, who called 60 Gilgandra Cups, Nigel Tolhurst, the ‘weights right’ man from Wellington, and former jockey-turned-starter, ‘Icey’ Canham from Coonamble, who all passed in the last few years.”
Col Hodges had a chuckle when he recalled Neville’s tall-tales and true, that had been shared over many long drives to-and-from race meetings.
One that really touched him, was when Nev told him about his exploits on the pushbike. Col told him he’s heard he was pretty good.
“Yes, he said, I was so good they handicapped me — took the chain off the bike.
“That was bad, but I still ran second in a 25-mile race!” Nev laughed.
Has he have any regrets about retiring and would Neville go back?
“I've got no intentions of going back to the track.
“When I left the Post Office after 37 years, I closed the door and never went back and, in my head now, I have the same thoughts.
“I love the horses and what I call ‘the racing family’ — the trainers, strappers, track-riders, jockeys, owners, the race-callers, and the people who make it happen in every town,” he concluded.
Neville, you are a good man, and we thank-you for your service!
