From my book Hey Shorty, this is some extracts from the horse racing chapter. The book was written in 2004 for my 50th birthday and it was not published in any form, it was written as an exercise around me being positive and having purpose and I guess also to get my first 50 years of life recorded in print. Over the last 2 years or so I have re-visited the book when in a decent frame of mind and re-edited things, I have left the book at 50 years and not added anything about my life post 2004. But I have added pics to make the book more presentable. One day I will publish but for now the book remains for me to read and work on.

Anyhow, the first extract below, as lifted from the book is how the racing chapter starts, the first few paragraphs, then I have added an extract about our time calling races and radio work in the Riverland and the third extract is about Uncle Brian, I did send that bit to Cath after her dad died. I thought they would be of interest to you knowing how much you enjoy stories from the past. Enjoy the short reads ... one day you can have the chance to read the finished product with the Hey Shorty book ...

25 - The light is on - ready - racing now

While footy has been my great passion in life, horse racing has always been close to my heart. I love the racing game, in fact I love all three racing codes so across my life they have been a constant.

Despite been known as Shorty Green, sadly I was never small enough to be a jockey. Maybe as a kid I was small and yeah, I certainly dreamed of one day being the next Jim Johnson, but reality was I never fitted the jockey size. Disappointing, what a thrill that would have been, but alas, the darn weight and size gods, well they were clearly not with me on this one. Bummer that.

My attachment to horse racing and the racing game is something I have always had. I was exposed to the racetrack thrill basically from birth, it became a way of life and while I do not have a clear first memory from the gallops, I do know I have vivid memories from a very young age. It was meant to be, this was to be a lifetime connection, and I was indoctrinated early. 

Dad loved the racing game, he enjoyed a punt, he would tell me his racing love comes from the time he trained as a police officer in his young adult days. His first memory of backing a winner is with Port Broughton boyhood mate Neville Sawtell at Cheltenham races when he was only 17. That is a story for another day but with the racing bug in his blood then Dad embraced the sport once he returned to Barmera to live following his RAN time in September 1955.

As a side hustle, in 1956 dad started working at the track as a penciller for Cobdogla bookmaker Gordon Jellet and from then on, the bookie call was one of his great lifetime loves. But that is a story in itself and again it is a story for another day.

So, here I was, this kid just out of nappies and making the race track a fun enjoyable life experience, but I was off and racing. The Riverland was fortunate to have horse racetracks at Berri, Renmark and Kingston-Moorook and the trotting track at Barmera. As a youngster I tagged along with my dad on race day, I just wanted to have fun. I enjoyed the spectacle of the racing but as a kid, it was more about a fun day out, you met up with other kids at the track running and playing all day only pausing to watch the local races, or to eat a pie and have a bottle of cool drink. 

Next extract re: John and Brian race calling and radio

During my time of calling races at Berri I had a great friend and offsider who supported me through race days and would call at least one race each meeting. Brian Featherston was my cousin but also he was a great mate, he attended Berri race meetings and the support he offered was pivotal for me at this time as my race calling career began to grow. Brian was a good race caller in his own right and enjoyed calling at The Riverland Race Club meetings. He had a sharp eye for detail; he knew the racing lingo, how to sum up a race and he was able to match colors and names making him a natural at this race calling game.

Brian was a good critic for me with my own race calls. He listened to what I said during a race, he acknowledged the better parts but would be honest in his assessment of the bits he might see as being open to improvement. There were no grey areas when Brian assessed, he told it as it was and that was something I always appreciated from him. Having Brian in my corner was always an asset particularly in those early days on the callers' stand when I was so new and just a minnow with this race calling caper.

Right throughout life Brian and I had a healthy connection, we had lots to do with each other at different moments in that life journey and somehow, we had a special connection when interreacting making our work in racing come so naturally and easy. We were on the same wavelength and had similar thoughts and understanding about many things and naturally racing was one such area.

As well as the race day calling, we had a racing show on race day mornings at Riverland radio stations 5RM in Berri and the ABC 5MV at Renmark. We just worked so well together, we bounced off each other with healthy chat and somehow had the ability to second guess what we might be thinking and that came through in spades as we worked from behind the microphones on radio.

I reckon we just made it work; we simply tried to entertain. The knowledge and understanding for the racing game was a shared talent meaning we hit the mark with our racing shows. Sometimes our radio banter was rehearsed, or if not rehearsed, we always had an unwritten script to follow, a script we would both have input into, that allowed us to make sure we would stay on track and that gave us the opportunity to keep the show entertaining and flowing.

But even then, it was common for one of to deviate slightly from the script as we added something off-the-cuff making the other one think on their feet and that really did add to our presentation. Sometimes the off-cuff comments would be controversial meaning the show had real content that made it genuine, gave it creditability and I am sure, often made it funny.

I imagine it was great listening; we made sure our radio audience stayed tuned to what we said, how would Brian stir John today or how would John get Brian to add some controversy into the program? We wanted the listener to hang on our every word, and I reckon we were mostly able to achieve that. I know Brian and I loved the work, we loved the banter, it was special, and we got so much satisfaction from presenting racing on Riverland radio to the best of our ability. 

After all, growing up in racing families meant we had both listened to racing radio royalty over many years. Racing royalty who would present similar programs on metro radio on race day mornings and then throughout the race day coverage. So, we both had plenty of grounding when it came to what to say or what not to say, what to present and what not to present. We learned well and I guess we even copied and mimicked our favorite callers and racing radio announcers but that just made the job we did as a duo so much better.

Brian and I did spend some time with the great Vaughan Harvey at his radio DJ school in Adelaide honing our trade. We had approached the manager of 5AA the racing radio station in South Australia at the time about any openings that may exist in studio presenting for race days and he had suggested we work with Vaughan to gain some extra commercial radio experience and guidance. But sadly, as this was happening, the radio racing coverage in SA was changing, so our talk with 5AA never came to anything more than that, and life for us now went in different directions as I moved to Darwin and Brian pursued his teaching career.

Next extract re: Brian Green

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.