His riding career failed to reach the heights he hoped, retiring after just a dozen or so rides, but his fascination with Australia's most famous trophy continued and last year he got to nurse the three-handled loving cup.
Not through any involvement in last year's winner, Gold Trip, rather as the head of the committee that applied to have the Cup visit Stanhope as part of the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour.
Stanhope was one of 33 towns or cities chosen as destinations for the 2022 tour that was the 20th in its history.
It was the first time the Cup has visited the town located 194km north of Melbourne, which has hundreds more cows than its 450 human residents and is home to the southern hemisphere's largest cheese factory.
Stanhope is also home to a range of sporting or community clubs and Crichton said the basis of his committee's application was to have the Cup visit as many of them as possible.
The Cup arrived on October 14 and after starting off at a dairy farm, it went to the local Men's Shed, visited the bowls and tennis club, popped into the fire brigade before a parade down the main street and barbecue lunch.
The Cup spent the most amount of time at the Senior Citizens Club, where members were regaled by stories from Tour ambassador Sheila Laxon, trainer of 2001 Melbourne Cup winner Ethereal.
The Cup was then the guest of honour at a cocktail party at a Robgill Homestead, which was the home to the Winter-Irving family who 100 years earlier raced a filly called Scarlet, who finished unplaced in the Melbourne Cup but backed up two days later to win the VRC Oaks and won the 1924 Sydney Cup.
It was a hectic schedule, one that Crichton said the VRC had reservations with, but one the community ensured was a success.
"At a lot of places, the Cup just goes to the local pub and everybody goes there, but the town's got a lot of sporting clubs that we wanted to be involved," Crichton said.
"The amount of people who came up to me after and said that they didn't think they were into it at all, but once they got to hold onto it and realise the significance of it, they were really chuffed.
"It was a bit of work to organise it all but well worth it."
Applications are now open for this year's Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour which has taken in amost 600 destinations and travelled almost one million kilometres since its inception in 2003.
The Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour National Sweep will again be part of the tour, presenting 24 of the destinations with the chance to draw a runner in this year's Melbourne Cup with the winner earning a $50,000 cash prize to be donated to a charity of their choice.
Applications can be made via the Melbourne Cup Tour Website until Wednesday, April 12 with the successful submissions announced in June with the Tour commencing the following month.
