Moree horseman John Bourke got the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday when he strode out on his grey gelding A Tissue A Tissue as clerk of the course at Royal Randwick.
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Bourke, who has spent many years clerking in the North West, had never before ventured to the big smoke for his work, but got the ultimate experience when working on Randwick Guineas Day.
"It's something different, that's for sure," Bourke said prior to Saturday's meeting.
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"I'm excited about it. I feel privileged that I can do that.
"It is certainly different to what I've been doing up this way and I'm looking forward to it and to experience the crowd and such a big race day; there will be nothing like it."
Bourke had raced A Tissue A Tissue with Andrew Gray in Moree.
The veteran clerk had educated the beautiful grey gelding before sending him to Sydney to work with the Australian Turf Club team and fellow country boy and clerk of the course Guy Tribe.
"He was always a good horse and when we retired him, I worked him around cattle and taught him how to relax," Bourke said.
"There was a bit of a process there, and for a year or so he would go behind the barriers and the heart was still thumping under him because he thought he was going to race.
"But he worked out nicely and he is a good clerk's horse."
It was Tribe who got Bourke down to Sydney to clerk at the Randwick Guineas meeting.
Before the big day, Bourke joked that A Tissue A Tissue would be more experienced than him this time round and might have to give him "a few tips since he has done it all before".
"It has been on the backburner for a while for me to go down there," Bourke said.
"I went through all the process, and they rostered me on for Guineas Day with Guy and another fella there I haven't met."
Bourke, who was training in Moree until recently - tasting success with the likes of Ringside and Vertical - had to stop training due to an illness in the family.
"I have clerked for most of my life, but I was training recently," he said.
"I still have a trainer's licence, but my daughter (Jody Bourke) is really sick, and I've had to put the training on the backburner."
Tribe, who clerked with Bourke before making the fulltime move to Sydney, said his good friend deserved the opportunity.
"He is as good as they come and has been doing it for years and he can read the play, which is a big thing," Tribe said.
Tribe hoped the experience lifted the spirits of a family doing it tough.
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