After preparing horses to the minute throughout his training career, Honeychurch peacefully entered the pearly gates on Tuesday just in time to pull up a seat and watch the Melbourne Cup.

He was 94.

“It’s extremely appropriate for a man who has dedicated his entire life to horses,” his eldest daughter, Lynne, said on Wednesday.

“He’s making sure we all remember.”

The Berrigan legend trained more than 2000 winners in a career that saw him fit comfortably among Riverina racings’ greats.

Leading Corowa trainer Geoff Duryea said Honeychurch had left an indelible mark on the sport.

“I started as an apprentice with Bert at 15 and I think the biggest thing I noticed was that everything was run like a city stable,” Duryea said.

“Looking back, he was before his time.

“He was doing things that were only just coming in around here.

“Bert always had a good foreman and was always a very regimental trainer.

“We kept good friends and often caught up at the races.”

Duryea rode Red Hope for Honeychurch in the 1973 Melbourne Cup and clearly remembers his pre-race instructions.

“He told me ‘I want you to do this, this and this on Red Hope’,” he said.

“I said ‘no worries Bert’.

“He said ‘I should make the most of it because I’d probably never get another ride in the cup’.

“Being a cocky young bloke I thought I’ll get a couple of rides in it at least.

“But he was right and I’ll never forget him saying it.”

Honeychurch enjoyed a phenomenal strike rate before he retired as one of the Riverina's greatest trainers in 1983.

He averaged a winner a week for 20 years and twice trained the card at Berrigan.

He won the Riverina's biggest races including the Wagga Cup and Albury Cups twice and is believed to have collected 14 successive trainers’ premierships.

Wagga trainer David Heywood started riding work for Honeychurch as an 11-year-old at Berrigan.

“He was like another father to me because I lost mine as a two-year-old,” he said.

“He was a terrific person and great trainer.

“Old Bert could tell a good story as well.

“When he first came to Berrigan he had been under really good trainers at Flemington and Bendigo back in the 40s and I think his big trick was routine.

“He got everything going routinely.

“He would run it like a military and got some bloody good horses along the way as well.

“Bert was unbelievable when you look back at it.”

Honeychurch was survived by his wife Marg (dec) and children Lynne, Butch (dec), Gella, Joanne, Margie, Bernie and John.

His funeral will be held at St Columba’s Church at Berrigan at 1pm on Monday.