Guy always loved horses. Like, really loved horses. In the serenity of a pre-dawn Warwick Farm morning or on the nocturnal rounds changing rugs and topping up feeds, Guy was arguably at his most content. Alone watching, listening, understanding, communicating with, the horses.
His induction into the Racing Hall of Fame on Friday night in Adelaide, is a very appropriate acknowledgment of a lifetime committed to the supreme equine pursuit, racing.
That he managed to excel in the challenging field of training is as much a testimony to an instinctive connection with the horse as it is the capacity to successfully grow a business from an old, tried mare to a 36 time GROUP 1 winning stable of 100 horses.
As passionate as Guy was about the animals in his charge, he relished the opportunity to move in the incredibly diverse orbit of people racing exposed him to.
The irony of many Hall of Fame inductions, is that the personalities have passed. Had he been in the audience on Friday night Guy would have been touched far more than he’d ever reveal. He often cited privately that the desire for respect from his peers, was one of the major incentives to succeed. Achieving the ultimate honour from the industry he served so selflessly would have been as good as it gets.
Guy Walter’s sudden and premature death seven years ago at just 59, robbed us of a practitioner at the peak of his career. And dare I say, at the risking of slipping into a bastardised cliché, a true gentleman of the turf. From a selfish perspective, the legacy of that impeccable reputation still burns brightly, despite the shuddering loss of an irreplaceable brother and trainer.
To have shared in the ownership and syndication of horses that bookended Guy’s career, is a special privilege. When the home bred Irish Eve (the old tried mare), which Guy and I actually leased from the family, was guided to a modest 1900m victory at Canterbury by Peter Cook in 1981, little did we know what lay ahead. That elusive first GROUP 1 triumph of Sharscay’s 1995 Canterbury Guineas, was a lot of sweat and provincial maidens away, the heady days of Tie the Knot 16 years in the distance and that Doncaster trifecta a quarter of a century on, light years in racing time.
On a crisp, Goulburn afternoon in May of 2014, the Proven Thoroughbreds syndicated Dragon Flyer and Blake Shinn strolled clear of BM60 rivals. As we gathered jovially for the mandatory winning photo, little did any of us present that day have the remotest inkling that this would be the last time.