AFTER more than a half a century in horse racing, Allen Browell has saddled up his final runner.
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The veteran trainer of four Group and several Listed race winners will officially relinquish his training licence at the end of the 2018-19 season this Wednesday.
He bows out with his reputation as one of one of Bendigo's and Victoria's finest ever horse trainers firmly intact.
At 78, Browell is hard-pressed to remember a time when he wasn't around horses.
"I spent seven or eight years pre-training horses before I became a trainer and was clerk of the course here in Bendigo for about seven years from when I was 15 or 16," he said.
"I went through the pony clubs and shows first, so you could say it's always been in the blood."
His reason for retiring is simple and as straight-forward as the pre-race instructions he has delivered to the numerous jockeys, who have ridden for him over the journey.
"It was time .... simple as that," he said.
"It had to happen eventually and time was right.
"(Wife) Val and I have spent three years planning it all, it's worked out alright."
Browell had just three horses under his care in his final six months - Star Hills, who provided him with his final winner on June 23, Stylish Pattern and Johnny Handsome.
In his prime he had 34. His ascension to the training ranks was swift.
"I started breaking in horses and within 10 months I was training 11 horses and it all snowballed from there," he said.
Browell's first winner came with Jodie's Gift at Rochester in 1971.
His biggest success were in the 1980s with Group race winners Amarla and Jet Fighter.
Amarla won the 1980 Turnbull Stakes and 1981 Easter Cup and was also sixth in a Caulfield Cup, while Jet Fighter scored back-to-back successes in the 1987 and 88 Victoria Handicaps.
"They'd be on a par as far as the best horses I've trained, but there's been a lot of other good metropolitan winners along the way. I've always had a metropolitan class horse in the stable along the way," he said.
"Jet Fighter's sister Quiet Sensation wasn't quite as good, but was a good horse nevertheless. In fact the days Jet Fighter won back-to-back Victoria handicaps, Quiet Sensation won races on the same card at Caulfield.
"Amarlas's sister Alrama won us our first ever metropolitan race - she was ridden by Peter Bakos, who rode a double that day."
While racing has brought many highs for Browell, nothing has been low as the loss of his son Colin to leukaemia in 2005.
A race continues to be named in his honour each year at the Bendigo Jockey Club and last Sunday it was Allen's turn to lend his name to a race with the running of the Farewell Allen Browell Handicap, won by the Tony Noonan-trained Elite Legacy.
Browell said it was the racetrack deeds of Colin, his other son Darren and their cousin Brad Rawiller, who was formerly apprenticed to Allen, which had provided him with his proudest moments in racing.
"My biggest and best memory from racing is when Darren and Colin and Brad were riding winners - that was the best," he said.
"That was bigger than winning races ourselves. All of them turned out have good careers in Melbourne.
"Darren rode numerous winners in Melbourne until he got too heavy and had to give it away, Colin was second on the apprentices premiership when he broke his leg at Caulfield, rode in two Melbourne Cups and won a Duke of Norfolk, and Brad is still going strong."
My biggest and best memory from racing is when Darren and Colin and Brad were riding winners - that was the best.
After rising at 4am, seven days a week, for the past 50 years, Browell expects retirement will 'take some adjusting'.
"Before the horses, I did a milk round when I was 15 and would be up at 1am then, so I've been getting up early all my life," he said.
"It's going to be different, but I will miss the horses, that's what I'll miss. Not so much the racing but just the horses.
"We've done a lot of miles. Val was driving (Colin and Darren) around when they were apprentices and they didn't have licences, so we've done countless miles."
Browell credited the love and support from Val, Colin and Darren for his longevity in the sport of kings.
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