He grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney and worked at Orange, Holbrook, Wagga, Narrandera and Griffith as a clerk of the local court before joining Rod Pogson at the Lavington law firm Pogson Cronin.

He has held a number of roles at the ARC, including the assistant judge for the past 23 years.

So he is probably as qualified as anybody to comment on the Albury Gold Cup fields, horses, jockeys and trainers.

He gave The Border Mail some inside information on the club and the cup, virtually from the horse's mouth you might say.

Q. How did you get into racing?

A. Mum was a keen punter, the $1-each-way-on-a-horse-type every Saturday and Dad had interests in a couple of horses. Coming from Ireland he had a natural affinity with thoroughbreds but I have not followed in his footsteps. All the horses I have owned have been spectacularly unsuccessful.

Q. You've travelled a bit around country NSW. How many clubs were you involved with as a committee man?

A. I was not actually on the board of any of the clubs although I was involved with them through owning and breeding horses with a mate from Wagga.

Q. How did you come to be involved with the ARC?

A. I went to the races one day with a committee member and he suggested I become a member, which I duly did. He then, for reasons known only to him, nominated me to be on the committee. So I became a committee member after only a couple of weeks as a member.

Q. What positions have you held?

A. Committee man, treasurer for six years and vice-president for about 10. The assistant judge's position in those days was always allocated to the youngest person because of the stairs you have to traverse but unfortunately I am still doing it.

Q. The best horse to run in the cup?

A. I think the best field I have seen was in 2011 when Paddy O'Reilly won the cup. In that field there were a number of group and listed race winners and placegetters. There have been some terrific horses run in the cup over the years. I thought Jovial Dancer was a terrific horse and Abstraction also was a very good horse.

Q. How about trainers?

A. Albury trainer Brett Cavanough is the best one I have been involved with locally. I don't think he will ever be able to beat Richard Freyer's record of eight Albury Gold Cups but I am sure he will try.

Q. Steerers?

A. I think so far as jockeys go, Nick Souquet is a very underrated local jockey and I thought Brian Johns was an excellent jockey. So far as non-locals go we've seen the best, such as Glen Boss, Damien Oliver, Michael Rodd, Hugh Bowman, Robert Thompson and, of course, the remarkable Lester Piggott.

Q. Is their an heir apparent to president David Wallace?

A. As he still has 20 to 30 years to go that question has not arisen yet. He is an institution in racing, not only in Albury but also throughout NSW and indeed Australia. The local racing fraternity owes him a huge debt of gratitude for what he has done for the ARC over the decades.

Q. It's not long ago that the ARC was really struggling. What has been the secret to turning it around?

A. Apart from David Wallace, we have been blessed with the talent of the chief executives we have employed. In my time, that is Peter Stubbs, Paul Carroll and John Miller. They have been outstanding managers of the club. Two other factors have been vital: the half-day holiday and the ongoing involvement of our sponsors, and particularly the Albury Commercial Club, in recent years.

Q. Your fondest memory of being involved in the club?

A. Certainly it was when my late son John used to come to the races with me and the chief executive at the time Peter Stubbs employed him to run the numbers from the judges' box to the stewards. This was pre-computers of course. He made more friends in those seven or eight years than I ever did.