Late Cox Plate champion Fields of Omagh celebrated by owner and race caller Bryan Martin

His ears would prick up.

There’d be a glint in his eyes as he scanned the crowd.

The jockeys used to say he’d get stronger between their legs as the noise came when he’d parade in the mounting yard.

He knew all the contours of the track.

“In the lead-up races he’d just limber up, but things changed when he got to Moonee Valley,” Martin says.

“This was his grand final day, this was his MCG. He’d think, ‘I’m back where I belong’.

“That was ‘FOO’. He just knew.”

For the veteran race caller, this year’s Cox Plate - the traditional weight for age classic of Australian racing - will be extra poignant.

It will mark 20 years since the ultra-professional Martin was faced with the wonderful problem of having to call his own horse winning the race that true fans hold most dear.

But it will also mark the first Cox Plate without the great mate that he affectionately calls ‘FOO’.

“We’ll be sad, really sad,” Martin tells CODE Sports.

Fields of Omagh passed away in June. At 26, Martin says ‘he was an old man’ but it doesn’t make it any less devastating for those who loved him most.

A few weeks ago, Martin and the syndicate of disparate owners he wrangled together all those years ago buried their big mate’s ashes at a newly-erected memorial plaque, next to Melbourne Cup winner Rogan Josh at the Living Legends Farm where he lived post-racing. Beforehand, a ceremony saw him take one last lap around that Moonee Valley course.

“He was in great care and he had a wonderful time living there,” Martin says, but the grieving is ongoing.

“This Saturday will be very emotional.”

*****

Winx may hold the records but in modern times, maybe no other horse had a greater feel for the Cox Plate than Fields of Omagh.

He started a record five times in the race, winning in 2003 and becoming the oldest winner as a nine-year-old in 2006.

Martin and the ‘No Big Deal’ syndicate’s first-ever purchase (named because Martin thought a name was no big deal when they couldn’t settle on one) ended up being a Very Big Deal.

But for all the joy Fields of Omagh gave his owners, the time spent post-racing with FOO was just as treasured.

He won the 2006 Cox Plate on the Saturday, and then moved to the Living Legends farm on the Monday morning. Martin was instrumental in establishing the farm for champion horses and his own was one of its first inhabitants.

The bond never broke.

Some people say horses never forget a human’s scent. Martin is a believer.

“You’d call him and he’d recognise your voice,” he says.

“It was a very warm and fuzzy feeling when that happened. They were beautiful times.”

The champion would attend and parade at the Cox Plate and functions during retirement, yet for Martin, the magic was the regular visits to the farm with his grandkids.

“He was such a gentle animal. He loved licorice, so we always bought licorice for him and his mates.”

FOO kept good company. Those ‘mates’ were racing royalty.

On the day he arrived, Might and Power and Doriemus were waiting for him. Later, Paris Lane and Saintly would join them.

But the greatest bond was with his ‘housemate’.

“He and Better Loosen Up become paddock buddies,” Martin remembers.

The two former Cox Plate winners and champions became best mates.

CEO of Living Legends, Dr Andrew Clarke, refers to them collectively as ‘FOO’n’BLU’, but the nature of the horses inspired other nicknames too.

“We called them ‘Federer’ and ‘Sampras’,” Clarke says. “Champions, but absolute gentlemen too.”

It thrilled Martin that his horse got to live alongside one of his favourite horses to call, and that they became so close.

“They’d chat away and when one of them would be taken out of the paddock for a function, the other would get really upset because his buddy was going away,” Martin says.

“You’d have to bribe them with a bit of feed to take their mind off it. They’d be calling out to each other. It was extraordinary.”

*****

Field of Omagh was sired by Rubiton, who won the 1987 Cox Plate. There were wraps that he had something special, though he took time.

“The others were slick and moving, but he was a bit of a doofus,” Martin smiles.

“It took a while for the penny to drop with him.”

Then there were two serious injuries which had to be overcome, so simply running for the first time in a Cox Plate in 2002 seemed an achievement of magnitude. For Martin, who’d watched the greats like Tobin Bronze and Gunsynd win as an impressionable teen, having a horse in the race realised a lifelong goal.

When it finished fifth, it exceeded all expectations.

“I thought, ‘It won’t get any better than this’. That’s everyone’s dream and it won’t happen again.”

When 2003 came around with Fields of Omagh running again, it was a bonus for Martin, who was again calling on television.

The professional in him believed the listener “couldn’t give a rats” that the caller’s horse was in the race, so Martin was determined to uphold his unflappable reputation.

But it soon became very different to all those other Cox Plates he’d called.

At the 1000 metre mark, he had an eerie feeling.

It felt like he’d already watched the race.

It was all unfolding exactly the way he’d discussed with the trainer and jockey the day before.

“I thought, ‘This is just going to script’,” Martin recalls.

“I can’t believe this is where he’s sitting and how he’s travelling. He’s behind the two horses we need to follow and we wanted Lonhro and Defier to be behind us.

“My heart rate was jumping out of my chest. I just kept thinking, ‘Hold it together, hold it together’.”

Martin may have been a nervous wreck with the binoculars, but his horse was unruffled.

Just as they’d planned, he was in front at the turn for home; he drew up short-priced favourite Lonhro and Defier and took them on in a dogfight.

“As he got stronger, I think I got stronger,” Martin says of the call.

As Fields of Omagh crossed the line, Martin finally let a little emotion bleed in.

“I said, ‘You‘ve done it’, and then the emotion just exploded within; ‘My god, we’ve won the Cox Plate with the bravest horse’.”

As he dropped the binoculars, television host Bruce McAvaney filled in the gaps for those at home. “Can you believe it? The bloke who called the race’s horse has won.”

Martin fought his way through the crowd as rain started teeming down, pumped his fist and then burst through to the presentation ceremony to shake Premier Steve Bracks’ hand and accept the famous Plate.

In his speech, he thanked “the best bunch of people you’d ever want to race a horse with” and referred to the call as the hardest two minutes of his life, before finally thanking the crowd for their applause and “treating our horse so well”.

The television cameras caught FOO looking on approvingly.

Luckily, Martin had an able assistant up in the box, because there’s no way he could compose himself to call the remaining races.

“I went AWOL,” he laughs.

*****

Cox Plate day is Martin’s favourite on the racing calendar.

The Melbourne Cup may be the people‘s race, run by the handicapper, but Martin says compared to the weight for age championship “they are chalk and cheese.”

“The Cox Plate is reserved for the champion horses, to be loved by the purists.”

Martin is proud that the horse bought by the humble syndicate sits easily among the champions he has seen and idolised.

“They threw the best at him, so it’s an indicator of his greatness. Northerly and Sunline, then he had to contend with Lonhro. He met Lonhro twice and beat him home both times.”

His Cox Plate tale of the tape was 5th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 1st from 2002-2006. It’s an extraordinary feat given the glut of superstar horses in the era.

“They were the best of the best,” Martin says.

Martin will be there as always, a fan now, having hung up his binoculars for good a few years back. He called the race 28 times, and has witnessed 45 all-up.

This year will be the most emotional outside of the wins.

Moonee Valley Racing Club has quietly renamed its media facilities used for Cox Plate day the Fields of Omagh Media Room, and has cut the mounting yard grass for Saturday in the diamond pattern of FOO’s silks in honour of the anniversary and his passing.

It will be another affecting reminder for Martin, but FOO hasn‘t been far from his mind all week.

On Friday night, the owners and their families will gather again in honour of their mate.

“We’ll raise a glass to him,” Martin says, a tear not far away.

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“I never thought we’d have a horse run in one, let alone what happened. He gave us memories to cherish that we’ll never lose.”

The simple words inscribed on the memorial tell a tale: ‘The unexceptional became exceptional’.

“He’s never forgotten,” Martin says.