Clerk-of-the-course Janet Williams on life in the saddle

I suppose the best way to describe it is to say it'll be strange.

Leo has always been there, offering assistance and advice to Ray Walsh, plus my siblings Anne McGrath and Eddie Dwyer, in our roles.

There's no doubt we're going to miss Leo, but on the other hand the event is going to be so different with no crowds because of the coronavirus.

It's going to have a sort of eerie feeling about the two days of racing.

I've worked at the Warrnambool May Carnival as a clerk-of-the-course for more then 30 years in part-time roles for the Grand Annual Steeplechase.

Now that Leo has retired, I've got my horse Fred back from him.

Leo had ridden Fred for years, so I've got him back to ride.

Apart from working at Warrnambool in the role, I also work at Casterton, Hamilton and Camperdown and had stints working at Coleraine and Terang.

I also help out at different jumps-outs and trials at various tracks across the district. I love my job as a clerk of course.

The old saying 'you don't class your job as work if you enjoy it' is totally true.

Having worked for so many Grand Annual Steeplechases, is there one that sticks in your mind as special?

Yes. I never worked at it, but I was a spectator.

I was 12 in 1979. My mum Maureen, who is a trainer in her own right, had a horse called Follow The Band running in the Grand Annual.

I can still remember screaming my heart out for Follow The Band to win the race.

He was in front down the straight and was just beaten by Thackeray.

It's something I'll never forget.

What's your first memory of being involved with horses?

I can remember as a very young girl riding my little pony over the hill to go to preps at in Woodford.

We lived in Illowa at the time. I would put the pony in the paddock behind the school during class times and then take him out to ride him home after we finished.

We moved out to Orford and we were always riding horses around the farm.

I then competed in one-day events and gymkhanas before I rode in hunt club races at Mount Gambier.

I had a major fall in a point-to-point hunt club race at Mount Gambier in 1988.

Can you take us through that fall and the things that eventuated?

I was just 21. The horse I was riding had a heart attack just before the jump.

I came off and broke my pelvis in five places.

I spent a few weeks in the Mount Gambier Hospital before being transferred back to Warrnambool, where I laid on my back for the next eight weeks.

It was a tough time, and something that I would never want to go through again.

Just laying there for weeks on end looking up at the ceiling in a hospital is not fun.

Have you sustained any other injuries relating to riding horses?

It would have been back in 1995 I broke my right leg working at the Warrnambool races. A horse kicked out and my leg was in its way.

My leg was in plaster for six weeks.

The other major incident was back in 2012. I was riding as a trackwork rider and a horse I was riding coming out of a gate bucked and catapulted me head first into the ground.

I broke my neck in eight places. I was airlifted from Warrnambool to the Alfred Hospital. I had a head-halo on for for three months.

I can still remember the doctors saying my spinal cord was the only thing holding my head in place.

I had the head-halo taken off after three months and then I had my neck in a brace for two months. It was a very traumatic time.

Janet, let's go back to your sporting highlight for a moment. What was it like to work as a clerk of course at Flemington in November last year?

It was a big thrill. It was on Oaks Day.

I was selected from a group of 15 other female clerks-of-the-course from across the state to work at the meeting.

I'm very grateful to Racing Victoria and the Victoria Racing Club to give me the opportunity to work at the meeting.

I felt a bit out of it once I arrived at the course because of the occasion, but that soon all changed around once I saw Liam O'Keeffe.

Liam is the racecourse manager at Flemington and was born and bred in Warrnambool and used to be the racecourse manager at Warrnambool.

The only downside to the day was the weather was terrible.

Oaks Day at Flemington traditionally attracts a massive crowd, but it rained from early in the morning and kept on raining on and off for the day.

The crowd numbers were down but I still loved the day.

I rode trackwork at Flemington as an 18-year-old, so I knew a bit about the history of the place. But to go back so many years later and work on one of the feature days was totally amazing. I couldn't get over all the works that had been done around Flemington.