Col’s incredible track record

From TAB meetings in inland cities to remote picnics, gallops to yabby races, he’s been there. 

Hodges reckons he’s called 2500 race meetings over the past 47 years, more than 15,000 races – rattled off more than 150,000 racehorse names. 

This long weekend, the west’s favourite race caller has been named in the Queen’s Birthday honours, receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia, for his service to the horse racing industry.

Hodges’ interest in races dates back to the playground at Gunning Gap primary school, where in the late 1950s he would spend the recess and lunch breaks calling harness races.

“There were about 20 kids when I started there,” he remembered. “We’d get the skipping ropes and make harnesses out of them, I had kids driving the other kids and I called the races.”

Growing up on the family farm, his interest in racing held through school at Forbes High and a career in shearing. 

Long-time local race caller Bobby Gunn noticed and encouraged him – the youngster called races into a tape recorder, sitting in the grandstand or the car.

“Bobby Gunn gave me my first gallops call – one race at Gooloogong – and then Bobby had a clash with a meeting so I called my first full meeting at Fifield.”

When Gunn retired, Hodges took on his rounds and his race-calling career began in earnest – every weekend after a week in the shearing sheds.

“It’s a high pressure job, it takes a lot of concentration,” he said.

And that pressure has only increased as technology has enabled racing to be televised live around the world.

“When I started, you were only calling to the people on the ground,” Hodges said. “Now with the TAB and Sky Channel the races are beamed around Australia and you’ve got people betting on them from Las Vegas to Hong Kong.”

The other great change in the game has been the rising prize money in country racing and the way it has drawn the Sydney stables west of the mountains.

“They’re coming to Bathurst and further,” Hodges observed. “You might be racing for $20,000 now, so locals are competing with major stables from Sydney.”

Not all his gigs are so high pressure, Hodges has also given his time to hundreds of charity calls over the years.

“I’ve called yabby races, a draughthorse race, wheelbarrow races at the Forbes Christmas carnival and exhibition rugby league games,” he said.

“I rode in a charity pony race at Parkes once! and drove in a charity harness race at Bathurst, I was beaten by a neck by the great Tony Turnbull.” 

For 14 years, Hodges travelled to Vanuatu for the annual fundraiser Port Vila races.

“It’s a charity meeting, rebuilding schools and so on after cyclones,” he said. “Everything is made of bamboo, the box I stand in, bamboo running rails. They still invite me but I have too many commitments.”

Hodges calls for 32 race clubs from Bathurst in the east to Broken Hill in the west, north to Enngonia and Louth, averaging 100 meetings a year.

Of all those meetings, Hodges “has a soft spot” for Bedgerabong and Forbes. 

He has seen years of boom as well as years of drought and extreme economic hardship.

“The most heartbreaking thing was driving home from some of these outback places in times of terrible drought, hundreds of dead emus and starving kangaroos on the side of the road,” he remembered.

“And everything dead – not a blade of grass as far as the eye could see.” 

Reflecting on those years, he paid tribute to the resilience of the people who kept those remote race meetings going.

They also survived the horse influenza outbreak of 2007, which locked down horses in NSW for about a year.

“I was out of work for a year,” Hodges said. “It was very strange and a very tough time for the whole racing industry.”

There are also memories of highlights and outstanding racing from almost five decades in the game that still come immediately to mind for the veteran caller.

“Rising Prince, owned by Vince and Deidre Stein at Bathurst, won a minor race at Forbes one day, and went on to win the famous Cox Plate,” he said.

“Sniper’s Bullet owned by Roger and Nerida Atkinson from Yeoval won his first race at Dubbo – he went on to win three Group 1 races around Australia, he was a multi million dollar winner.

“Probably the horse with the most amazing record was Tullmax, trained by Trevor Doulman who was the postmaster at Molong and owned by Jack Cantrill at Orange.”

The horse was desperately ill and didn’t actually start its racing career until it was six years old.

“Jack Cantrill owned an orchard at Orange and he had this horse sick with this stomach ailment,” Hodges said. 

“He learned this remedy from an old bushman, clay and apples … so he mixed it up with apples from his orchard.”

The horse, trained on the Molong golf course, won a maiden handicap at Parkes and then 11 of its next 12 starts. It went all the way to Royal Randwick and claimed the George Main Stakes.

While it’s impossible to name all the good riders he has seen in his career, Hodges says he’s now seeing the third generation of some racing families come through.

There’s Kody Nestor on the racing circuit today, Hodges also called his father Michael winning races and his grandfather John winning races.

“I told Kody at a recent race meeting, it makes me feel old,” Hodges said.

Reg Paine of Cowra was among the notable early jockeys Hodges called, his sons Neil and Rodney followed their father onto the track and grandson Adam Hyeronimus is now riding.

Trainers also pass on their skills through the generations - the late Billy Molloy of Forbes was followed by his son Bill “Brother” and grandson Andrew Molloy.

Hodges paid tribute to other callers – they’re a rare breed – including Bob Foran and Tim Moses who are still on the circuit in Gilgandra and the far west, and those no longer such as Don Ryan, “Shiner” Ryan, Bill Palmer and John Kernick in harness racing, Pat Bourke (Wellington) and Harry Hart.

More recently, Craig Easey and Michael Dumesny have stepped up to the call.

It’s a trade that requires a particular dedication, Hodges can attest. You can’t just call in sick because you can’t just be replaced.

“Anyone who takes it up has to be willing to give up everything else,” he said. “Every weekend, every public holiday, you can’t pick and choose.” 

Of course, any long-time reader of the Forbes Advocate knows Hodges is also a devoted scribe and an advocate of regional racing wherever he goes. 

Former editor Ron Tindall commissioned Hodges to write about the races – for $3 a column – before his career as a caller had even taken off. 

He remains the Advocate’s authority on racing and he paid tribute to long-time managing editor Barry Shine.

“Barry was one of my greatest supporters,” Hodges said.

One of the most common questions a race caller is asked, is how they keep the horses straight. Col says his preparation only begins when the jockeys bring the horses into the yard.

“You have a few minutes to get the jockeys’ colours, relating them to the name of the horse,” he said.

“And you don’t look at your race book while you’re calling the race, you’ve lost it, a fraction of a second feels like an eternity in racing.” 

And whether a meeting is TAB, non TAB or one of the picnic race meetings that continue to thrive, he treats all meetings the same. 

Reflecting on the honour of adding the title OAM to his name, he said he felt incredibly fortunate.

“All those trainers and jockeys who get up on frosty mornings or go out in the stinking heat, if they didn’t do what they do I wouldn’t have a job,” he said.

“I love the horses and I see that all the people who have the horses love them too.” 

Editor’s note – Staff present and past of the Forbes Advocate congratulate Col on this well-deserved honour and thank him, we look forward to working with you for years to come.

​Renee Powell