On that Friday evening Dimarco geared up talented pacer Bills Bingo for the first race at Harold Park. Bills Bingo started favourite in the race but locked wheels and ran last. 

It was more than a decade before Dimarco took a horse to the races again.

After some major health issues that kept Dimarco away from the sport, including a battle with depression, it was fitting that he returned to the sport of harness racing as a trainer on Valentines Day, 2014. 

He loved his horses and, with the support and love of his daughter Marissa, Dimarco was back doing what made him feel good.

Fast forward the clock another 13 months and Dimarco is about to enjoy a thrill that many trainers never get to experience. Dimarco will have two runners in tonight’s Group 1 Bathurst Gold Crown and both of them, Gotta Go Gold and Shadow Runner, are owned by his daughter.

“Marissa is very keen on the horses. She has a few broodmares and breeds a couple every season but has always had a love for the horses since she was a young child,” Dimarco said.

“We went out to Brooklyn Lodge last year and when she picked the two of them out I asked her which trainer she was going to send them to and she told me she wanted me to train them. She wanted to help me and thought the horses would do that.”

Shadow Runner was super impressive in his heat last Saturday night, winning by 11 metres, but Gotta Go Gold had to work a bit harder to record his five metre win, something that the son of Gotta Go Cullect has become accustomed to.

“Rickie Alchin broke them both in and told us they would both make it so we took them home and spelled them at a property at Wyee, but we got a call to say that Gotta Go Gold wasn’t very well and looked to be suffering from colic,” Dimarco said.

“We raced to see him and he looked in a bad way and the vets were treating him for colic, but he wasn’t improving so we took him to an equine hospital in Newcastle and they did some investigations and worked out he had a blockage in his intestine.”

After discussions with a surgeon about the operation, Sam and Marissa contacted Alchin to see whether he thought it was worth spending $10,000 to try and save him.

“We put Rickie on the spot and he suggested we try and save him and I know Marissa would have had him operated on no matter what the cost,” he said.

“He was only 50/50 to survive and after the operation he had to survive two months in a box, then was only allowed in a yard for the next month before going out into a paddock for the following month, but he’s a fighter and he pulled through the other side.”

Gotta Go Gold debuted on February 13 this year and was an impressive winner at Newcastle, winning by more than 25 metres.

“He has only been beaten once in his career and that was when Shadow Runner proved too strong for him at Newcastle. He is very speedy but probably isn’t as strong as Shadow Runner,” Dimarco said.

“Shadow Runner has won all three of his starts but his biggest test is going to be this Saturday night in the final.”

At Monday night’s barrier draw neither horse fared well, with Gotta Go Gold drawing barrier seven while Shadow Runner has drawn gate 10.

“I told Marissa that I had done my job training them, Mick (Formosa) had done his job driving them and now it was up to her to do her job by drawing the barriers. All of the pressure was on her.”

“It’s going to be a great week. Marissa is a partner in a law firm in Newcastle so she is very busy but she has taken the week off work to be in Bathurst with me and I’m really enjoying it.”

The two horses only cost $10,000 and have already banked more than $20,000 combined. Tonight could be their biggest payday yet, but it is not about the money for Dimarco, it is about the enjoyment and purpose the horses have given him and that is worth more than money could buy.