PAT Freyer has given a lifetime to racing.
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She first fell in love with the Sport of Kings as a 15-year-old and has been attending race meetings ever since.
"I just love meeting people and the relationships you form," Pat said.
"I don't know why but you meet all sorts of different characters at the races and most of the time they have a story to tell."
Pat said one of the most bewildering characters she ever met was jockey 'Jack.'
'Jack' was a jockey that managed to pull the wool over not only the stewards eyes but everyone else's as well.
"I remember long before female jockeys were ever allowed to get their jockeys licence there was a local jockey who called himself 'Jack'," she said.
"Well, he rode for a long time around the district, quite a number of years as a boy.
"Nobody knew the difference until one day he was involved in a fall and they had to cut his trousers off.
"It was only then they discovered that 'Jack' was a female and she had been riding as a male for yonks.
"I used to talk to 'Jack' at the races all the time and never had an inkling to what was going on."
Pat met her husband Mick at the races. He was a former jockey and part-time trainer who passed away just over three decades ago.
The pair had three children, Rhonda, Cheryl and Wayne, and were married for 48 years.
Pat lives with Cheryl in Thurgoona.
"I went to my first meeting when I was 15 and have been backwards and forwards from there ever since," she said.
"I met Mick there, he was a jockey before the war.
"Then when he returned from the war he was a bit heavy and turned his hand to part-time training as well as having a milk run."
Mick was quite a successful jockey before the war but it didn't end as well as he had hoped.
"Mick was quite a talented jockey," she said.
"The last ride he had at Wodonga was back when there was dirt tracks.
"They mustn't have watered the track that day and it was a really dusty track and he fell off during the race.
"It was that dusty, the ambulance driver didn't see him and he was fuming because he had to walk all the way back to the jockey rooms with a sore backside."
Mick used to have up to a dozen horses in training and had quite a bit of success at country meetings.
Pat said her husband didn't mind socialising at the races, regardless if he trained a winner.
"Mick would go to the races and of course he would head to the bar and get himself full whether he trained a winner or not," she said.
"Then I used to have to drive home with the float on.
"I didn't really mind but there was a small problem in that I didn't have a licence back in those days.
"I never got caught by the cops but you wouldn't be able to get away with doing it today."
Pat finally got her licence when she started working on raceday at the different race clubs, including Albury.
She worked in a variety of jobs including the press room which involved taking details and sending them to AAP.
She would also take down prices and record where each horse finished in a race for the race clubs.
Pat said she was lucky not to lose her licence one day when running late for a meeting at Towong.
"I remember one day I had to work at Towong," she said.
"My daughter had an accident in Wodonga in the morning so I had to wait around for her for a little while.
"Then I took off to Towong and I remember driving along and all of a sudden there was silence in the car.
"I couldn't hear a thing and I looked down and I was doing 150km/h.
"We got there before the first race."
Pat has fond memories of her time in racing and even recalls being taken on a flight by legendary aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
"There used to be a racecourse at Bonegilla and he had his plane there one day," she said.
"It used to be 10 shillings a ride, so dad took me in the plane with him and we flew all over Albury-Wodonga and around the weir."
Despite turning 90 on Tuesday, Pat still works at the Albury Racing Club each meeting.
These days she is in charge of the kitchen on race days and ensures staff and jockeys have something to eat.
The Albury meeting coincides with Pat's 90th with the race club naming a race in her honour.
But it will be business as usual for Pat who doesn't want any fanfare despite reaching the significant milestone birthday.
"I might be turning 90 but it's just like another day for me," she said.
"I suppose turning 90 is an achievement but I'm not having a party though and will be still doing what I do at every race meeting.
"I will get up at 6am and make 11 loaves of different sorts of sandwiches.
"Tomato, onion, salt and pepper and vinegar are a favourite.
"It might seem a lot but I guarantee there will be none left by the end of the day."
Pat was looking forward to spending the day with the jockeys who all affectionately call her 'Aunty Pat.'
"All the jockeys are good kids," she said.
"I know most of them are married and have got their own kids but they are as far as I'm concerned, still kids.
"They are like part of the family and I love them all as long as they don't swear."
Pat has been a vegetarian since she was a kid and wasn't impressed recently when she went to order her favourite meal at the SS&A Club.
"I went to order an omelette and chips and they told me they had taken omelettes off the menu," she said.
"So I asked to see the manager of the club and I can get my omelette now which is nice of them."
So what's Pat's secret to living a long and healthy life?
"You just get up, keep going and keep doing what you have got to do," she said.
"There is no future in just sitting around and looking at four walls all the time."
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