Australia's oldest racehorse was foaled just as the Olympic Games rolled out of old Sydney town and will only this week run into a retirement best described as reluctant.
At least that is if you ask the former mayor of Mudgee. He is the bloke, 71 years of age, who has been campaigning – in both the racing and protesting sense – for more than a decade with Star Of Universe, a marvel of Australian racing.
Keeping the hopes of a dispirited farmer up in the midst of a drought and providing bundles of joy to the family of said ex-councillor Percy Thompson and all of his five children, 22 grandchildren and a couple of great grandchildren to boot.
"They brought in a rule to try to stop [Don] Bradman, they brought in a rule to try to stop Walter Lindrum and now they've brought in a rule to stop Star Of Universe," Thompson jokes of a recent saying told to him by a local broadcaster.
And sadly Star Of Universe, due to turn 15 years old on Saturday, the horses' birthday, is going to be stopped by the rule book.
Owing to animal welfare concerns in a sport which has also been grappling with the recent cobalt scandal, powerbrokers have introduced a rule next season forcing the mandatory retirement of all racehorses after their 12-year-old season.
There are only a few still going around that fit the bill, but the Gulgong gelding is the most celebrated.
It meant Star Of Universe would run his last race some time last week, but that proved a challenge. He was balloted from Gilgandra last Saturday, then Warren on Monday was called off. It left only a couple of days and meetings where he could possibly run.
He was entered at Tamworth in a 2100-metre race on Friday but was made fourth emergency, Thompson's back-up of a 1400m at Canberra on Friday shapes as his final appearance at the races, on the final day of the 2014-15 season and the final day he is eligible to compete.
Thompson has trained the horse for all bar his last five starts when Star Of Universe has been under the care of his son and former publican Brett because of a rule prohibiting country race club committee members holding a training licence.
Thompson is also the president of the Gulgong Turf Club – and he can't find anyone else to do the job.
And he just wants to enjoy Star Of Universe, the horse he thought he would lose as a sick foal, one more time.
"We've got to try to give him a run somewhere and I can't see why if they're still competitive and sound enough to race [why they can't keep going?]," said Thompson.
"[Brett's] going to try him out as a lead horse and he's a beautiful horse to ride, like a rocking horse. Otherwise we might bring him out here and I'll look after him, but he likes being in the stable though."
He has been passed fit to race by veterinarians before each of his starts, now totalling an incredible 195, in latter years. But it hasn't been enough to allow him to race on.
Star Of Universe has won races all over the bush – from back-to-back Somerton cups at Gunnedah at odds greater than 40-1 each time and the Louth Cup, where most racegoers chopper in to the track – but has been out of the winners' circle since April last year.
It doesn't matter to his favourite horseman though, a former jockey and bull rider who once rode a 16-year-old horse to two wins at the one race meeting. Thompson has loved proving people wrong with his old mate who has won more than $160,000 after 21 career wins.
"I told mates of mine I reckoned he would win [last year's Somerton Cup]," Thompson recalled. "One bloke told another fella and the reply was, 'he won't win, he's nearly as old as Percy'. He left the pub to go to the service station and by the time he got there he was listening on the wireless and he won."
The last laugh? That went to Star Of Universe's wily old trainer. "I had $300 each-way on him too," he said.
He might do it again for old time's sake.
