Lillye was joined as an associate inductee by Eduardo Cojuangco, while jockeys Glen Boss and Robert Thompson also entered the Hall of Fame, while George Moore was lifted to legend status.

Danehill, Choisir, Dalray and Briseis were the horses added to the Hall of Fame, while Phar Lap's trainer Harry Telford was joined by Brian Mayfield-Smith and Jim Moloney in the trainers category.

Chairman of the Hall of Fame selection panel Bob Charley said the event was an opportunity to recognise the people and the horses that make racing the "unique sport it is". Lillye joins previously elected journalists A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, Bert Wolfe and another former Herald  racing editor, Bill Whittaker, and his presence there is richly deserved.

I met  Lillye while a copy boy at Fairfax's Ultimo offices, which printed the Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun  and The Sun-Herald.

Being a "mad" racing follower, I was fortunate enough to have been befriended by Lillye, along with all the other famous racing writers employed by the Fairfax group.

Lillye, however, was the man who made me want to succeed in the profession and he took me under his wing in more ways than one. Yes, to be a successful racing writer, you had to be a good drinker and that was one thing he succeeded in teaching me.

He was the most prolific wordsmith I ever encountered and was very much a gambler at heart, from the war years when Bernborough was the best horse he had seen. Bert also rated Rising Fast, Dalray, Peter Pan and Tulloch each deserving their own pedestals.

Bert's love of horses saw him heavily involved in the catastrophic floods in the Windsor district, a renowned spelling district for racehorses, in the 1960s.

He approached the then SMH sports editor to supply him with a car and photographer to go to Windsor and get pictures and information for the paper but his request was denied. Lillye never had a driver's license and got in touch with his great friend and racing photographer Ron Bickley and they made their way to Windsor with local publican Jim Walsh arranging for a boat and a skipper to search the area.

What they achieved was somewhat remarkable with one of Australia's favourite racehorses Martello Towers, the winner of the 1959 three-year-old  triple crown, up to his shins in water covered in mud.

The grey galloper was washed five miles downriver from where he had been spelling but thanks to the efforts of his  photographer, Lillye was able to save Martello Towers and the photo's where spread all over the front page.

Bert was instrumental for my close involvement in breeding and was responsible for my first trip  to Scone, which he  painted to me over many a cold ale as one of the great parts of the thoroughbred industry.

Lillye also had a great fondness for Phar Lap and was intrigued how a wreath would appear at Randwick racetrack for two decades by an anonymous person who he later tracked down as Noel Hickey. The headstone from Phar Lap's grave in America was presented to the Australian Jockey Club and placed inside the track where it remains today and Hickey continued to place the wreath each year commemorating his passing in April 1932. Again it was another front page story for the doyen of racing journalists.

He also appeared on a This Is Your Life TV episode with Roger Climpson and spent many years on the administration side of the Kembla Grange Club with Keith Nolan and their efforts saved the club from extinction.

Lillye had several columns  in the Herald – the Backstage of Racing with a book being released in 1985 after his retirement – along with Bloodlines, which is the name of this column  I inherited  15 years ago.

Lillye passed away on February 18, 1996 and had  a career in racing journalism that  had spanned  50years.  There will never be another Bert Lillye.

Johnhollysenior @yahoo.com.au

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