THERE was a time when Colin McDowell longed to be a jockey and while that did not eventuate, driving horses instead of riding them has worked out pretty well.
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So well in fact that Colin McDowell and his wife Cheryl have become known for their star juveniles.
They have won a host of big feature races - the Pink Bonnet, Sires Stakes, Breeders Challenge Finals and Sapling Stakes. The McDowells have also hoisted golden Bathurst trophies.
They have twice taken out the Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival's Gold Tiara final for two-year-old fillies and also enjoyed success in the Gold Chalice.
That sort of success - and their support and passion for the industry as well - has also seen the McDowells named as this year's Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival honourees.
"It was very surprising, we don't really know how deserving we are of it," Cheryl said.
"We are just doing what we are doing, we are very passionate about harness racing so that's what we do. Because we are passionate we don't really expect anything back from it except the joy that we get."
READ MORE: A golden carnival honour for the McDowells
There has been plenty of joy over the years for the McDowells.
It all began one Friday afternoon when Colin arrived home and informed his wife he had a different sort of shopping trip planned for the next morning.
"Colin had aspirations to be a jockey, but then he grew too tall, too big and too heavy," Cheryl said.
"But one day he came home - we lived in a little-two story villa with a tiny little barbecue area backyard - and said 'I'm going to buy a horse'.
"I said 'Ah, okay, what are you going to do with it? Who is going to train it and drive it and where are you going to put it?'.
"He said 'You are always finding problems with what I am trying to do. We are going to buy one tomorrow morning, Saturday morning'. That was it."
Colin had already planned to hire a float, rent a stable and go to the grocery store and "buy $100 worth of assorted horse food".
So off they went and while they had trouble getting the horse on the float, they finally got it loaded, found a stable and took it from there.
That horse, a colt called Rakanui, got the McDowells hooked on the sport.
"I think he won 16 places at Harold Park, he was a prolific placegetter at Harold Park and how exciting was that, our first horse?," Cheryl said.
"You can see Colin's determination and drive for what he wants to do from that and he's never lost that drive. For him there's no mountain too tall to climb.
"Colin is absolutely driven with the driving and his passion for the sport and I'm driven with the breeding. So we just keep breeding young ones, he keeps driving the young ones so we keep coming to Bathurst every year."
The McDowells were there when the first edition of the Bathurst Carnival was staged 34 years ago.
It was an event they look back on fondly as Colin drove Loves A Dance to victory in the inaugural Gold Tiara Final.
Twelve months ago they won the Gold Tiara again, this time with Colin driving $2.90 favourite Michelle Lee Mac.
But it was not before some very nervous moments.
With 500 metres of the final remaining, Michelle Lee Mac was locked away three back on the pegs.
But somehow Colin got her off the rails and peeled three wide into the final bend. Then, after hitting the lead with 100m to go, the favourite had to dig even deeper to hold off a flying Eye Can Run, who Robbie Morris had steered down the sprint lane.
Michelle Lee Mac held on to win by a half neck.
READ MORE: Will it be Mac time again for the McDowells?
"It was absolutely an unreal moment. There was a lot of pressure on him in the weeks leading up to it because it was the Gold Tiara," Cheryl said.
"Not really because he'd won it 33 years ago, but because we put a little bit of pressure on him every year, he's getting older and the horse is named after my daughter.
"There was also the fact she was favourite and everyone was ringing him saying 'You're going to lead and you're going to do this and that'. By the time he got up there we were all shaking in our boots.
"But it came to fruition and it was unbelievable. We thought she would lead, but then when she got locked in back on the fence we thought 'Oh no, another year'.
"Then when she got out and just flew, we were speechless. It really took until we were driving home to realise it had happened because you know, we hope for it and dream of it every year and for 30 years it hadn't come off.
"I think I added up the other night we'd had about 21 finalists over the 30 years over both the crown and tiara, so we hadn't been absent in that time."
While this year's carnival will not have spectators attending race meetings, the honouree dinner on Friday, March 27, is at this stage still going ahead.
So will the racing, which is something the McDowells will again be involved with. Michelle Lee Mac will return to campaign in the Gold Bracelet series for three-year-old fillies, while Prince Of Peace will line up in Friday night's Gold Crown heats.
"I just love the babies. I love their first couple of starts and the fact that they go around and don't fall over and gallop and all the things they might do," Cheryl said.
"I love to see how they improve over the couple of weeks they are up there.
"The animal itself is a beautiful animal, that is what everyone in this game has to remember if they want longevity. The animal loves you, it gives you its all.
"You put the blinders on so they can't see, you lift their head up so they can't see the ground, you put deafeners in so they can't hear and you say 'Go behind that mobile thing that might stop at any moment and you might go into the back of it, but go 100 miles an hour.'
"They just do what you ask don't they? How can you not love that animal?."
It's that sort of passion which will not doubt continue to drive the McDowells into the future.
