WORLD War two had ended four years earlier and the Great Depression a decade prior (both still etched in his memory) when 22-year-old Mount Gambier resident Col Gilmore went to his first Melbourne cup at Flemington.
That was way back in 1949 and Gilmore has not missed a Melbourne cup since.
And the 92-year-old has no intention of missing out on making it 70 Melbourne cups in a row when he heads to Melbourne on Monday.
What is more remarkable, Gilmore is not a racing fanatic, with the last local race meeting he attended being a Mount Gambier cup meeting some 30 years ago.
He is a died-in-the-wool local harness racing fan and the only meetings he has missed for decades have been because of health issues or he has been out of town.
You will always find Gilmore sitting in the same spot at each local harness meeting, perusing the form and socialising with his mates, Denis Howard and John Spehr.
So how did the Melbourne cup pilgrimage ever eventuate?
“It all began when I first started carting wool for Drew McFarlane over at Ardno,” Gilmore said.
“It just so happened that he would have a load of wool ready to go to Melbourne around cup time each year, so I started going to the Melbourne cup before heading back home.”
When the wool run stopped, that did not stop Gilmore going to Flemington, heading over with former Port MacDonnell publican and Doug Ferguson.
“For a lot of years, we backed the cup winner every time, simply because we backed every horse in the race,” Gilmore said.
“We never made any money out of the exercise, but we got plenty of satisfaction coming home and telling everyone we had backed the winner.
“Then, Doug’s brother (Col Ferguson, former 5SE manager/technician), started coming with us, but he never went to the cup.”
The cup trip in 2003 was particularly memorable because it never cost any of the passengers (Col Ferguson, Clyde Lawrence and Sandy Ellis) a cent from the time they left Maryborough.
The reason they detoured through Maryborough on the way over was for the Maryborough pacing cup, where In The Queue, a pacer Gilmore had a share in, was one of the starters.
Despite reasonable form in lesser races leading up to the Maryborough cup, bookmakers virtually gave In The Queue no show of winning and freely bet 20/1 about the Kevin Brough trained and driven performer.
Gilmore, who has been be prone to a good wager over the years when he so desires, had $500 each way.
“I had great delight in going around and collecting over $13,000 from the bookies when In The Queue got up to win,” he said.
“The crew in my car did not have to put their hands in their pocket for the rest of the trip.”
The story was verified by Sandy Ellis who recalls the trip vividly, recalling “he had money everywhere, so much so he had to put most of it in the safe at the motel.
These days, Gilmore understandably does not drive to Melbourne, leaving it to his mate, the Casterton-based Clyde Lawrence.
Being in his 90’s, he is somewhat restricted in a big crowd, but that does not stop Gilmore loving the social side.
Two acquaintances having a beer at the Nelson hotel over led to Gilmore receiving recognition for his Melbourne cup forays.
Nelson local Ian Kilsby was imbibing with Robert Hunter, a highly-experienced retired racing administrator in Victoria and Kilsby mentioned Gilmore had attended “heaps of Melbourne cups over the years”.
The Hamilton-based Hunter spent 10 years on the Victorian Country Racing Council, five as chairman.
He was also a committeeman with the Victoria Racing Club (Flemington) for four years and his contacts led to Gilmore being invited to Portland last month as part of the Australia wide tour where the Melbourne cup trophy is displayed for local communities.
Gilmore, who shuns publicity, was talked into going to Portland with his son Dale and was interviewed – and congratulated – by retired Racing Victoria head steward Des Gleeson.
“It (the cup) was brought across the harbour in a boat and left on the tourist tram,” Gilmore noted.
So, how much longer does Gilmore intend going to the Melbourne cup?
“I will keep going as long as I can, but at my age, I have to take life one day at a time,” he said.
