Guy Walter farewelled at Warwick Farm

Friday 30 May 2014, 4:41pm

Flanked by two grey horses and a solitary piper, popular trainer Guy Walter has left his beloved Warwick Farm racetrack for the final time.

Around 2000 friends and colleagues packed the members grandstand and the mounting yard on Friday to join his family in farewelling Walter who died suddenly last week aged 59.

An honour guard of Sydney trainers and jockeys stood as his coffin was brought to the centre of the stage where he had welcomed so many winners.

Walter's brother, racehorse syndicator Jamie, spoke of his brother's unrelenting drive to become the best trainer he could and his love of the horse.

"He drove himself relentlessly," Jamie Walter said.

"He wanted to be a great trainer and you would have needed an axe to stop him.

"He had a great affinity with horses and an instinctive knowledge.

"But he could not have done it without his wife Wendy. They complemented each other and were a formidable union.

"I'm immensely proud as an owner and syndicator that I gave him his first winner Irish Eve and his last, Dragon Flyer."

Guy's brother Jon and sister Jane told of their pride although neither ever ventured into the racing world.

Walter's last Group One winner, Streama, became his 36th at the elite level when she took out the Doomben Cup last Saturday week.

He honed his craft under three legendary horsemen, Bart Cummings, Neville Begg and the late Kevin Robinson who was based on the NSW south coast where Walter began before moving to Warwick Farm in 1989.

Walter trained his first Group One winner when Sharscay won the 1995 Canterbury Guineas and it wasn't long after when Tie The Knot, one of modern-day racing's most popular racehorses, walked into his yard.

Described by his trainer as a life changer, Tie The Knot won 13 Group One races, including a record four Chipping Norton Stakes, the signature race at Warwick Farm.

But Walter was more than a horse trainer and his friends who packed the Tie The Knot room at the track, remembered him as a man of honour, a philosopher and a raconteur who loved nothing more than to talk about, and enjoy, life.

– AAP

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