We moved to Terang in 1959 from Lake Bolac.

My dad Fred was a horse trainer and had the chance to set up stables in Terang so my parents decided to make the move.

Fred had 35 horses in work at Terang, which was a huge number of horses for trainers in the Western District to have in their stable.

I started riding trackwork for Fred when I was 10-years-old.

I left school towards the end of form one.

School was doing nothing for me so it was pretty obvious that I was going to join Fred's stable as an apprentice jockey.

The three winners that I rode on my first day as an apprentice jockey at Terang were all trained by Fred.

I was fortunate that I rode about 250 winners in my career from more then 700 rides. I was lucky that a lot of those winners were trained by Fred.

Where did your career in racing go after you finished your apprenticeship as a jockey?

I wanted to learn as much as I could because I wanted to be a trainer so I moved to Melbourne and started working for Bart Cummings at Flemington.

I worked for Bart for two years - 1974 and 1975.

Bart had some outstanding horses in his Flemington stables in those two years.

Think Big, Century and Leilani are a few that spring to mind and I did all the work with Tontonan, a multiple group one winner.

Bart occasionally came to the Flemington stable as he had big stables in Sydney and Adelaide.

The late Ron McDonnell and Leon Corstens were the foremen for the Cummings stable at Flemington in my two years.

I ended up going back home and was fortunate to train our own champion with Fred at Terang.

Who was that champion?

It was a horse called Grey Sapphire. I would have to rate him as the best horse that has come out of the Western District.

We knew he was a smart horse from the first time he came into the stable. He galloped with progressive and open class horses on the training track and he was beating them.

Grey Sapphire was heavily backed for his debut run at Ballarat, but everything went wrong. He threw his jockey on the way to the barrier and did a lap of the track before being caught. The stewards would scratch him today but he was allowed to run. He had drawn barrier 18 and just got beat.

We then took him to Camperdown and he won by eight lengths.

We then fronted up for the two-year-old race at the Warrnambool May Carnival in 1978 and he won that race by six lengths with Stephen Ridler in the saddle.

He went to Geelong and won by four lengths and then won by 10 lengths at Moonee Valley.

He ran some sensational three-year-old races in town before coming back to win Warrnambool's Wangoom Handicap in 1979, as a three-year-old.

He won a Manikato Stakes.

Grey Sapphire ended up winning 16 of his 20 starts. He was a freak horse. He was ordinarily bred but had an amazing will to win.

Last week, former champion Geelong footballer Polly Farmer passed away. What was his link to Grey Sapphire?

Polly Farmer bred Grey Sapphire. He leased the horse out to other people.

Polly followed Grey Sapphire's deeds on the racetrack very closely.

He was at the Warrnambool May Carnival in 1978 when Grey Sapphire won the two-year-old race and was there when he won the Wangoom in 1979.

It's no secret that Polly loved having a bet and one horse he loved backing was Grey Sapphire.

Do you still train horses now?

Yes. I worked for Geoff Daffy and Neville Wilson for 10 years, but I've always managed to have one in work.

I've seen a lot of changes in racing and some of them have not been for the better.

I often laugh to myself listening to trainers saying how good they are.

I've seen owners, trainers and jockeys come and go in more than 60 years in the industry but there's one simple bit of advice I was offered a long time ago: good trainers and good jockeys are made by bloody good horses.

David, what sports have you been involved in away from racing?

I used to play tennis in Terang and was heavily involved with the Terang Cycling Club for a few years, but I loved playing footy.

I started off as an 11-year-old playing under 16s at Terang. I played in four premiership sides with Terang's under 16 side and one in the under 18s. I won the club best and fairest in the under 18s before playing in the seniors. I was best-on-the-ground in four consecutive games for Terang's senior side and picked up a carton of smokes for the four weeks as the award winner. The smokes came in handy.

Blokes like Steve Rowbottom, Clem Meade, David Edwards and Don Stanley were good players for Terang in that era. I got a clearance out to Panmure in 1971.

Was there a big transfer fee for the switch of clubs?

Tim, that's a funny one. Let's just say I was cleared out to Panmure and Terang got Kevin Harney and Charlie Armistead in exchange - believe me Terang won on the deal.

Kevin went on to be a top player at Terang. I was paid $15 a game at Panmure and stayed out there for a couple of seasons before switching back to Terang.

Did you sustain many injuries during your footy career?

I had two broken jaws and had my nose broken seven times.

Let's just say I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time but I also repaid some blokes for the damage they did to me.

I ended up hanging up my boots when I was 30.