One of my trips from Darwin to Tennant Creek for race calling had me on an early morning flight out of Darwin with an hour and a bit stopover in Katherine. Once there, I made myself comfortable in the small airport terminal building to wait out my time and as I was sitting a plane from Mount Isa landed and the three passengers joined me to wait for the next flight leg to Tennant Creek.

Being a Friday, I had a copy of the Best Bets and when I took the racing guide out of my bag to have a read, a lady from the Mount Isa group asked if I had a winner for her. That kicked off a conversation and during out chat I mentioned that I was heading down to call the Saturday races at Tennant Creek. The lady asked me did I know the bloke sitting across from her and her husband, he had come in with the couple on the Mount Isa flight. 

The gent was Frank O'Brien. For decades Frank had been a race caller at Melbourne tracks and worked in radio through 3UZ, 3AW and the ABC before retiring in 1991. He was a legend of his day, back when radio was king and the punters and racing tragics relied on calls from Frank to be connected to the racing world. He was also the course broadcaster at Melbourne tracks when Joe Brown was the caller and voice for ABC radio race days.

We boarded our flight from Katherine to Tennant Creek; Frank and I sat together for the 90-minute journey. Even though I had never met him, I had always felt a great connection with Frank as a race caller, it was so good to now have the chance to chat with this broadcasting great about all things racing. He mentioned to me that he loved each of the Melbourne tracks but had a special liking for Sandown. He explained that the track and facilities were great, but he really loved his connection with Sandown track manager, Brian Green. How about that, Brian is my uncle; he is a brother to my dad Jim.

When I mentioned this to Frank the conversation became even more personal, now we had a common human connection as well as our love for racing. The chat about Brian Green was enlightening, Frank really did have so much respect and admiration for Brian, it was such a great chat. All too soon the flight landed in Tennant Creek and my journey was done, Frank and his friends were off to Alice Springs and that was the end of our time together. 

That is one flight I have never forgotten, I had always looked at Brian Green as a living gem, a loveable uncle and a great in the racing world. Before his move to Sandown, Brian had a long connection with the Port Lincoln Racing Club on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and had spent many years as track manager at Cheltenham in metropolitan Adelaide. And to have this brief but entertaining time with Frank O'Brien on that Northern Territory flight just added so much to my 50-years of racing memories.