IN 1979, John Hawkes and Tony Pistikakis were a couple of bit players in the theatre of racing, but they took centre stage after Railings won Saturday's Caulfield Cup.

One day at Caulfield, Pistikakis was in the interstate betting ring when one of racing's great characters, the late bookmaker Bob Freyer, called him over to his stand.

Hawkes was a perennial runner-up to the late Colin Hayes in the Adelaide training premiership but was making a name for himself in the industry.

Railings was a $300,000 NZ sales yearling that Hawkes said he had no connection with buying. Like many of the Zabeel stock, he gave him plenty of time to mature.

Pistikakis and Hawkes share a love of harness racing and this year paid $220,000 for Advance Attack, a pacer from NZ they race with a group of friends and family.

Pistikakis was wary about Railings having his first start at Caulfield – a graveyard for many Sydney horses – and the fact Hayai was the last horse to win the Metropolitan-Caulfield Cup double, in 1983.

The horses Pistikakis races are a family concern and Railings helped to lift the spirits of his seriously ill nephew Ben, 16, in the Royal Children's Hospital on Saturday.

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