As an apprentice, there was no more backbreaking day for Gray Cocking than working as the on-course farrier at a major race meeting like the Canberra Cup.
Beyond the glitz and glamour of the parade ring, there were farriers hunched over horses' hooves for hours, hammers swinging and anvils ringing.
"At a major race meeting there would be two farriers working flat-out," he said.
"The old saying went that an extra ounce on a horse's foot put a pound of weight on its back.
"So the horses' racing plates, or shoes, were as thin and as light as they could make them in the belief that it would help make the horse run faster.
"So come race day, we would be flat out taking off heavy steel shoes and putting on these thin race plates.
"But there was also a big safety factor to consider; if a horse throws a shoe mid-race and it hits a jockey or another horse, a heavy shoe has the potential to really hurt someone."
That's dozens and dozens of hot-blooded, generally very expensive thoroughbreds, all weighing half a tonne or more, queued up for shoeing. And some didn't take kindly to having their shoes taken on and off.
"That was a really tough day's work," he said. "Hard on your back, hard on your hands, physically hard on everything, really."
Changes in horseshoe design and metallurgy has made race day plating much rarer now so Mr Cocking's Canberra Cup day is a much more relaxed affair.
There's ample time for a chat and a coffee, as long as the apron, anvil and the tools are close at hand.
Shoes still get thrown on race day and it takes a practised hand to be there in minutes, put it right, and have the horse ready for racing. In fact, the entire mega-buck racing business would unwind if the age-old art of the farrier wasn't practised by a leather-handed few.
After nearly three decades of shoeing racehorses and observing the glamorous sport from its hindquarters, so to speak, he still enjoys the company of the people involved and the work, though the task never gets any easier. Racehorses are just as heavy now, and lean on their farriers just as much as they did 20 years.
"Having a hot-tempered racehorse isn't as common now because it creates more problems than it's worth," Mr Cocking said.
"But it depends a lot on the people who own and train the horse, too. Some trainers just seem to have good-tempered, well-mannered horses."
Thousands of people turned up for the family-friendly Canberra Cup day which was the first time the carnival's two major races, the Black Opal and the cup, had been split across consecutive days at Thoroughbred Park.
For one very lucky punter, Liam Mason of Isabella Plains, a small $11 punt became a large and unexpected one, then resulted in a sizeable win.
Under a TAB promotion, losing punters at the racecourse could put their tickets into a draw, with the prizewinner receiving a free $2500 one-off bet.
But the stipulation was: the one-off bet had to be win-only, and "on the nose".
Mr Mason was with his sister, wife and children on his first visit to the racecourse when he dropped his losing ticket in the barrel and won the $2500 bet.
The big punt hadn't paid out on two previous occasions but Mr Mason wisely backed the favourite and it came home first, netting him $4750.
