Highly respected Coonamble-based racing identity, Shane Horan, will appear for the final time as a bookmaker next Saturday at the Walgett Cup meeting.

Retirement comes after taking on the punters for 56 years at tracks across NSW, mostly concentrated in the western region.

Travelling about 15,000km a year, he worked at meetings from Tamworth in the north to Tullibigeal and Bedgerabong in the south, Louth in the west, Enngonia and Lightning Ridge up towards the Queensland border, and many other towns and villages in between.

Reared at Combara village on the Warren road between Coonamble and Gulargambone, from where his father Kevin Horan worked as a shearer until 65 years of age, Shane gained initial experience in the bookmaking trade when working as a clerk for Coonamble bookmaker Joe Evans.

At 21, Shane was granted a bookmaker’s licence and, as the majority of race meetings until recently were held on Saturdays and public holidays, he was able to also have a successful career for 42 years at Coonamble Shire Council.

Shane's first meeting as a bookmaker was at Mendooran with 12 bookies fielding on the local races and nearly as many operating on the Sydney and other metropolitan events. Very big crowds attended the country race meetings in those days. To help look after his many punters both big and small, Shane had very good clerks, the longest-serving being champion local golfer, Peter Foody, for 20 years and Reg Horan for 15 years, while granddaughter Annabel Barrett has been a clerk for the past two.

Shane also excelled at sport including cricket, where he was a classy top-order batsman and left-arm spin bowler, winning numerous premierships with the Combara and Coonamble Colts teams. He also played against Wayne “Bronc” Lunn, a shearing contractor from Carinda and prominent racehorse owner.

Impressive figures he returned, included 133 runs not out and six wickets for seven runs, which helped his selection in the Far West and North West team to contest the zone championships held every year.

A talented halfback, Shane also played rugby league for eight years with Coonamble and in 1971 won the Group 14 Grand final against Coonabarabran, played at Coolah.

Maintaining his sporting ability at a good level, Shane played his last game of club cricket at age 48 in the competitive Coonamble competition.

Over his 56 years as a bookmaker, Shane had as clients many of the biggest punters in the region including Allan Lloyd (Narromine), Les Gibson (Narromine), Les Cook (Newcastle), Cec Wallace (Parkes), Emmanuel Samios (Dubbo), Bill Sheridan (Wellington), Garry McCarney (Wellington), Vic Grady (Bogan Gate), Col Sullivan (Coonabarabran), Jacky Barton ( “the Prince of Punters”) from Forbes, and Ian O’Connor (Collie).

According to Shane, the ultimate professional was Garry “Spud” Murphy from Dubbo, who kept meticulous records on every horse and spent countless hours on research every week to beat the bookies and year after year returned a profit on the punt.

Bookmaker-vs-punter is often a tough game,but as astute punter and racing follower Tim Moses recently stated: “I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about Shane Horan”.

Reflecting on his many years in racing, Shane mentioned some of the good gallopers at the western tracks where he worked including ‘Shady Place”, “Native Orchid”, “Commercial Balance”, “Native Dawn”, and “Marlotta”.

Top jockeys included Wayne Weate, Harry Troy, Dennis Firth, Ray Bradley, Robert Bradley, Mathew Cahill , Greg Ryan, and Paul Wearne, while Andrew Banks from Gulargambone was a brilliant apprentice before continuing his career in Sydney.

Appropriately, Shane Horan will finish his bookmaker career at Walgett, once the headquarters of racing in the north-west.

Richard Jackson, now at Dubbo, was the last remaining trainer at Walgett where at one stage there were up to 350 horses in work with outstanding trainers including Albert Hazlett, Harold Hamilton, Billy Rose, and Tiger Bow while numerous leading jockeys served there including Harry Troy, the Lunn brothers, the Bradley brothers, Wayne Weate, Paul Wearne, and Ron Sheargold.

Shane’s retirement, therefore, ends a golden era of bush racing that we’re unlikely to see in the future.