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Original film shows Phar Lap winning the 1930 Melbourne Cup and is part of an auction of racing memorabilia, believed to be the biggest in Australia's history. (Music added)

IT WAS Norm Cove's most treasured possession, a jockey's whip, tipped in gold and engraved to mark its moment of equine immortality - when Billy Duncan used it to ride Peter Pan to victory in the 1932 Melbourne Cup.

For more than 50 years, Cove, a groundsman at Caulfield racecourse, was a fixture at the finishing line. He died a year ago and now his widow, Lorraine, is placing the whip and much of his extensive collection of racing memorabilia up for auction with Leonard Joel, in what is believed to be Australia's biggest auction of its kind.

The auction would make her husband very proud, she says, "because so many of his cherished possessions will now go to like-minded people with a passion for racing".

Lorraine Cove holds a portrait of her late husband Norm's favourite race horse Ajax. Photo: Ken Irwin

Lorraine says that among the items she will never sell are the hundreds of photographs of Cove at Caulfield. "When the grandchildren were small they'd get out these photographs and play 'Where's Wally' but it was really 'Where's Norm', trying to find him in his suit and hat in the crowd somewhere near the finishing line."

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Lorraine admits she knew nothing about racing when they met, but she quickly grew to love the people - including jockeys and trainers - who filled their lives.

Mention Norm Cove around racing traps and you're deluged with words of praise for a gentle man. Friend and sports valuer Rick Milne describes Cove "as small in stature and large in heart, a dapper, perfectly dressed gentleman who always wore a suit and hat".

Link:
A lifelong passion to fetch more than a whip around