Scott's carnival record will be hard to beat | Inside Racing

One such record that falls into the never been broken category is that of veteran Crossley trainer Quinton Scott.

This week marks the 48th consecutive year that Scott has saddled up at least one runner or more at the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival.

"I would pretty confidently bet that no other trainer will ever have runners for 48 consecutive years at the carnival," Scott said. "I've watched the carnival grow over the years. It's gone from a little bit of a carnival to a massive event. There seems to be a lot more hype about it these days. The 48 years have gone really quick. In a lot of ways, it feels like only a few years."

Scott, who had his first runners at the carnival in 1973, won the 1984 Brierly-Grand Annual Steeplechase double with Rocky Affair.

"There's been a lot of water go under the bridge since 1973," he said with a grin. "I've got great memories of Rocky Affair's win back in 1984. Grant Ace rode the horse. My wife Barb and I still have the photo on the wall in our lounge at home. I've been lucky to have trained a lot of winners over the years, but nothing matches the win of Rocky Affair in the Grand Annual. It's just an amazing race to have been involved in. There have been some years I've had one runner and others I've had four or five. It's just wonderful to still be there with a few runners. The late local trainer Jocka Baillie had runners at 20 consecutive carnivals."

Scott has also taken out the May carnival's feature sprint race, the Wangoom Handicap, on two occasions - first with Toroa in 1978 and then Prince Of Brandy in 1984.

Stalwarts of the racing industry Frank Beattie and Leo Dwyer will be presented with honorary life memberships to the Warrnambool Racing Club this Thursday.

Beattie, who is working as a steward at his 55th May Carnival, has indicated this will be his last. It was announced last year that Dwyer, clerk-of-the-course for 58 years, would receive the honour but due to no crowds last year due to COVID the award was not presented.

Beattie and Dwyer will join long-serving stewards Des Gleeson and Ray Murrihy plus former top local jockey Neville Wilson, who have all been bestowed with the honour for their services to racing. Gleeson will make the presentation to Beattie and Dwyer.

Jockeys will be pre-raced breathalysed before they ride at the Warrnambool May Carnival this week. Victoria Jockeys Association CEO Matthew Hyland said his group stands by the policy of stewards to have riders tested for alcohol or drug breaches over the carnival.

For the first time in more than 35 years, there were no steeplechase schools around the famous Warrnambool racecourse on the Sunday prior to the carnival. Normally, trainers with runners in the Grand Annual Steeplechase take the opportunity of schooling their horses over a few fences, including the road doubles. This year, the trainers with Grand Annual Steeplechase prospects reported to Warrnambool Racing Club racecourse manager Daniel Lumsden they would not need to school around the tricky circuit before Thursday's Grand Annual.

Everyone seems to have a story about Warrnambool's May Racing Carnivals. One of my favourites relates to the late, great race-caller Bert Bryant. Bert, who called the Grand Annual on 25 occasions for the old 3UZ network, loved telling this yarn about his first call of the great race in 1950.

He was on the air for over eight minutes and after the race the new technician told Bert it was a wonderful call but in his excitement the technician had forgotten to turn the 3UZ microphone on. Some 365 miles away in Melbourne, 3UZ listeners heard nothing but luckily punters on-course got the call. Story goes there was a scuffle in the broadcasting box after the Annual back in 1950.

High profile trainer Gai Waterhouse, who has been a wonderful supporter of the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival since 2013 has only one runner this year. Waterhouse will saddle up Butter Blonde in a $35,000 two-year-old race on Thursday.

"It's a shame I just didn't have the horses needed for Warrnambool this year," she said. "I've only got the one runner but next year I would love to have runners in the feature jumps and flat races."

Robbie Waterhouse, husband of Gai, will be bookmaking over the three days of the carnival.

Former Warrnambool jockey Jason Lyon rode I Am The Fox to victory in the $110,000 Alice Springs Cup on Sunday.

Lyon, who has had his share of injuries during his career, is no stranger to riding at meetings in various parts of Australia.