His horse turned left instead of right, the steel bit that should have been between its teeth was up against its cheek and they still had half a dozen fences to jump.

And at Warrnambool in 1981, the fences were "fair dinkum ones".

"I was in a bit of bother," recalled "Butch" Londregan.

"Thought I'd buggered it up."

Londregan, the best cross-country jockey of his day, rode the dashing steeplechaser Kaimoto in that Grand Annual Steeplechase 32 years ago, and they both excelled themselves.

The "bother" began in the second lap as they reached the top of the hill on the far side of the racecourse 20 lengths clear.

Londregan told this week how Kaimoto hit the second fence of the double on top of Cox's Hill and threw him into the air.

"I went up so far that I pulled the bit through his mouth," Londregan said.

"From that point I had no steering gear, he only had the leather of the rein in his mouth."

Londregan tried to slow Kaimoto to a trot as they went down the hill to the double over the Tozer Road and prepared to turn right.

But the horse wanted to go straight ahead as he had correctly done on the first lap and by the time Londregan turned him around, he'd lost his massive lead and had the favourite Thackeray closing in.

"It was funny. He was a big, awkward going sort of horse but he really started to travel after that," Londregan said.

Kaimoto and his jockey duly re-asserted themselves, winning by three lengths, giving Londregan "a bit of a thrill" and the third of his four wins in the race.

Londregan will be watching on Thursday as the new names who are trying to keep the game going do battle.

People like John Wheeler from New Zealand who trained the wonderful flat runner Rough Habit and who sends a team of jumpers to Victoria every winter and Steve Pateman, the best jumps jockey in Australia.

Patrick Payne who sends out last year's winner Awakening Dream, represents possibly the best-loved racing family in Victoria, and Darren Weir, the archetypal knockabout, runs Via Savoia, an old plodder who shares a stable with the reigning Melbourne Cup favourite Puissance De Lune.

Eric Musgrove, an Olympic equestrian, is back again with End Of Time and Ciaron Maher, a local with the passion, will probably win it with Man Of Class.

This weeks Grand Annual Steeplechase will be the 136th to have been run at Warrnambool.

It will provide another winner and another story, but it will need to be a good one if the race is to survive.