Deep in farming country, Berrigan was the original one-horse town and the unlikeliest of the places in Australia from which Gerard Bush might one day arrive at the crowded, shining towers of Dubai or Hong Kong - unless that one horse was Campaign King.
In the late 1980s, Campaign King emerged from Berrigan - 257km north of Melbourne, about twice that southwest of Sydney, population 922 - to become a champion sprinter-miler.
First trained by likeable larrikin Les Theodore, whose son Stephen trains nowadays, Campaign King outgrew Berrigan fast and ended up in Bart Cummings' yard, but not before he had sowed a seed.
There's so much emphasis in Dubai on the World Cup and carnival, and I would like to have seen more attention on the grass-roots side, but it was a great experience
Gerard Bush
"I had no racing background. Maybe the odd uncle owned a horse but there was no family connection and really no interest," said Bush, 40, as he reflects on a month as the fresh face on Kim Kelly's stewards panel.
"Campaign King got me interested. When a horse like that comes out of a town of 900 people, it does get the town's attention."
There must have been something in the water at Berrigan as Theodore produced another star soon after, Better Loosen Up, later with Colin and then David Hayes and ultimately Australian's champion and a Japan Cup winner.
Meanwhile, Bush was working his way through university and then the arduous "gap 18 months" that followed.
"After uni, I went to Perth with some mates just having fun and growing up, paying the bills working as a croupier at the casino," Bush says.
"I had a cousin there, a farmer dabbling in property and lived in one of his houses. He asked what I was going to do with myself and I said I liked the idea of working in racing."
As luck would have it, the cousin knew Wilson "Iron Bar" Tuckey, renowned political figure and then chairman of the Western Australian Turf Club. Tuckey said to write in, drop his name and eventually Bush became a cadet steward.
He rose through the ranks in Perth and then his departure in 2003 for Dubai offered a different experience - racing without gambling.
"It was the first year of the international carnival and of broadcasting it overseas where, obviously, people were going to be betting on it," Bush says.
"There were lots of things to educate people about - like notifying gear changes instead of just turning up to run horses in new gear. We had to explain that people overseas wanted that information, although we said it was less about gambling than promoting Dubai."
Dubai does not, technically, have homegrown betting or the integrity issues that might go with it but Bush smiles at the "technical" distinction.
"Every meeting in Dubai, there is always a large crowd of Sudanese people - sitting out on blankets and cheering. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a small bet on there," he says.
"We had Pick 6 competitions, free to enter, with a prize, maybe a car, but even they had to be regulated. Like anything, if there is something to be won, people try to manipulate it and we had issues with syndicates putting in multiple-multiple entries to try to tie up the result."
For one year, he says, the more conservative Muslims in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, even had a tote system at the races. Gambling wasn't totally absent.
As sports like tennis are finding out, distant betting on what are not officially gambling events can bring integrity problems and without the standard tool of a local money trail.
"It was always in the back of your mind. Most betting was in South Africa or the UK, we liaised with the British Horseracing Authority to see what was being turned over, tracked prices on Oddschecker and Betfair," he says.
"It might have been a worry if there was a spike in betting, but it was small and consistently level. You'd hear so and so was working well and then see the odds had dropped - one of the stable staff maybe phoned a friend - but it was insignificant.
"The other thing is that people came from Sweden or Brazil and the first thing they wanted was to get two runs into the horse to get their travel subsidy. They wanted to do well and get the horse's rating up to get into a big money race - everyone was doing their best."
His years in Dubai also gave Bush a "more rounded" career, assisting in areas that are not traditionally the steward's job.
"With a small full-time staff, you'd experience other aspects of racing a steward in Australia never would - you'd be quasi racing development manager, event planner. And maybe that gives a better appreciation of how all the parts fit together," he says.
I missed the expat life, and Hong Kong is the number one place in racing - whatever your role, everyone thinks about coming here
Gerard Bush
"There's so much emphasis in Dubai on the World Cup and carnival, and I would like to have seen more attention on the grass-roots side, but it was a great experience.
"It was a melting pot. Seeing how the English, French or South Africans did things differently opens your eyes. Wherever you're from, you've been taught one way, but you soon realise there are other ways to do things and you must be open-minded to succeed."
Bush went back to Melbourne after a decade in the Middle East but the call was irresistible when Hong Kong rang, and he finds himself in a centre not quite the opposite of Dubai but where gambling is deeply-woven into racing.
"I missed the expat life, and Hong Kong is the number one place in racing - whatever your role, everyone thinks about coming here," Bush says.
"I don't think betting, even as big as Hong Kong's, puts pressure on stewards. If you keep to the principles of stewarding, go through your processes, there's no more pressure.
"All stewards strive for consistency and, if you're fair and consistent, everyone knows the boundaries.
"My wife and I have a two-year-old son and we're here long term. I don't know many people yet but I'm a country boy at heart - I'm pretty easy to get along with."
We'll ask the jockeys about that, in a year or two.
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