The great Tulloch's colours were to the fore again at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday when Paperclip saluted for the third time in his 18-start career for veteran trainer Pat Donnollan.
The famous red and white stripes, black sleeves and cap of Tulloch's owners - the Haley family - were worn predominately by the master jockeys of the middle 1960s in George Moore and Neville Sellwood.
The 76-year-old Donnollan re-told the tale of how he obtained the colours after Paperclip's win on Sunday.
A former jockey at Townsville and other North Queensland tracks, Donnollan retired from the pigskin 50 years ago and took up training at Cluden Park where he finished up with two sets of stables and up to 15 horses in work at various times.
"I was having a drink in the backyard with a former Townsville Bulletin racing writer David Hamilton who had a share in a horse with me," Donnollan said.
"We were talking about colours for the horse and Hammo said 'why don't we have a go at getting Tulloch's colours?'.
"So I lodged an application and the rest is history."
All Donnollan-trained horses carried the colours during his training career at Cluden and later when he moved to Rockhampton, Mackay and eventually to Caloundra.
His best horse while at Rocky was Sporting Page, with whom he won 16 races, including five straight at Rockhampton, and saluted a few times in metropolitan grade at Caloundra and on city tracks.
"When I came down to the Sunshine Coast I sort of retired; bought a house at Landsborough; and did a bit of voluntary work such as delivering meals on wheels and had a run with between 25 and 30 "customers," the trainer said.
"I got a bit too much travelling in the traffic so I thought I may as well get back into racing on a minor scale.
"I got a box at Corbould Park and met up with Malcolm Schumacher from Ferny Glen Thoroughbreds who bred from a Monashee Mountain-Monica mare named Envelope who he bought for $3000 from the Magic Millions 2010 National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast.
"Envelope won three and was placed seven times from her 29 starts.
"She went to Whittington and produced a colt in 2016 named Stampe and full brother Paperclip in 2017. The mare died soon after she foaled Paperclip.
"Because of her name, it was logical for the colts to be lugged with postal monikers."
Stampe went to Chris Munce at Eagle Farm and he's won seven races, including the Listed $150,000 Lough Neagh at Eagle Farm in December last year and has racked up more than $600,000 in prize money.
"I loaned the Tulloch colours to Chris and we're the only trainers with a set each," he said.
Donnollan has a share in Paperclip with Schumacher and Phillip Gutzke who race Stampe.
What does the future hold?
"I'll just keep pottering along until I can't do it any more," Donnollan said.
"Hopefully Paperclip has a few more wins in store and Stampe showed he's right up with the top gallopers in town.
"When I give the game away eventually I'll pass the colours over the Phillip and hopefully they'll be around for a good few years to come."
