When prominent Northern Rivers trainer Charlie Northfield decided to sponsor a new race on Casino Cup day, he wanted it to recognise one of the most important members of his hometown club.
Enter ‘Guy The Barman’.
Guy Stewart, 72, has been pouring cold ones for participants at Casino for five decades, and although he’s never owned or trained a greyhound, Northfield felt he was the perfect club member to honour every year on the club’s biggest race day.
“When I was coming up with the idea, I noticed we have a lot of memorial races in honour of those who have been great supporters but had passed away. I sort of thought “what’s the point of naming a race after someone when they’re dead and can’t appreciate it?” so here we are,” the ever-colourful Northfield said.
“Guy Stewart has been our barman for nearly fifty years and about 10 years ago, I thought we should put on a top grade 400m race on Cup day to honour him. I wanted to make it a best eight greyhounds of any grade, so I put up $1000 to start it and it’s got bigger and bigger as we’ve gone on.”
Guy Stewart (L) celebrating his 72nd birthday at the club earlier this month
Lofty praise for a man who says he’s lost count of exactly how long he’s been in the gig.
“I’ve been arguing with my wife Kerry about this. She reckons I’ve been doing it for 47 years and I think its more like 48 or 49. We had six kids after we got married in seven years and she reckons I started this job when our fourth child came along but who knows,” Stewart said.
“My wife’s brother, also named Guy, started working at the club initially and a few months after he started, they needed a hand. Being a mate, I went over and helped him out and I’ve been there ever since. It’s always been enjoyable and I’ve got to know all these wonderful people as well…and the funniest thing is, I knew their mums and dads as well.”
The jovial Stewart taken aback by the healthy support the annual feature garners every year.
“The ‘Guy The Barman’ gets talked about just as much, if not more than the Casino Cup now and I think it’s fabulous to be honest,” he added.
“Being the barman is just a hobby. I worked fulltime for the local government for years and the bar job has always been on the side. They’ve already said if I try and retire, they’ll just whack me in a wheelchair and put me in a corner.”
And as for the age-old question, who does Stewart think the biggest bar fly is at the Casino track?
“Theres been a lot of people come and go over the years, but I’d have to say Allan Lang is number one,” Stewart laughed.
“He even had a dog called ‘Four More Guy’ which always made me chuckle whenever it went around.”
On Friday, the ‘Guy The Barman’ non-graded event over the 411m distance is worth $4000, with a crack field hopeful of landing the cash as well as a special keepsake.
“The prizemoney has certainly snuck up and I admit I had to double check my sponsorship with the committee when I saw it had increased but they said they’d put a bit more money behind it,” Northfield added.
“The winner also gets a nice pewter mug and most of the trainers who have won it just leave it behind the bar. It’s funny seeing the blokes who have won it all sharing a beer out of their mugs and I think it’s a race everyone up here wants to win now.”
“And some big names have all won the ‘Guy The Barman’. Allan Lang, Brendan Whelan, John Dart and Dessie Winters got it last year. I even won the original race, but I’ll admit, it was a fluke because I had four in it and the slow one took it out.”
Northfield will send Liar Guy (also named after Guy The Barman) around from Box 5 in this year’s edition of the race with several other smart types also engaged.
Smart littermates Masani Girl and Movie Girl will line up for Chris Field, 13-time track and trip winner Edge Gambler will go from Box 6, while the in-form Robell Ted will also go around for Ben Ellis.
