Legendary boxing troupe showman Fred Brophy will marry his long-time sweetheart if the outback icon finally wins the Birdsville Cup he has craved for more than four decades.

Brophy, 73, is staging his famous boxing tent at Birdsville for the last time but there is also another important reason he is back at the remote town on the edge of the Simpson Desert.

He part-owns Birdsville Cup contender Victory Bay, trained by Bevan ‘Billy’ Johnson from Barcaldine who is most renowned for training now retired bush legend Fab’s Cowboy who won more races than any other racehorse in the modern era.

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Brophy has had countless Birdsville Cup runners over the decades, but the race has been the nut he has never been able to crack.

And he has had plenty of motivation to win the iconic race because of a promise his partner Sandi made to him many moons ago.

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“Four decades ago we came out here and I proposed to her,” Brophy says, with a chuckle and a glint in his eye.

“She said ‘I’m not marrying you, because you drink too much’.

“But she said she would marry me if I gave up the drink or won the Birdsville Cup.

“I said ‘well, I will have a go at the Birdsville Cup’.

“I’ve been trying to win it ever since.

“If I win the Cup, she’s got to marry me, that’s what has got to happen.

“There is even a marriage celebrant out here.”

It has often been a case of so close but yet so far for Brophy, one of Australia’s last great showmen, as horses he has owned have finished runner-up and third in Birdsville Cups.

Seven-year-old gelding Victory Bay is a $15 chance to win Saturday’s outback event and have wedding bells ringing in Brophy’s ears.

His love affair with Sandi might have kicked off at the Brisbane Exhibition, but it grew wings in Birdsville.

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“I met her at the Exhibition and I had a House Of Wax there and I used to go the member’s restaurant at night for a bottle of wine to just get away from everything,” Brophy recalls.

“She happened to come out and serve me and I told her I was a showman and I gave her a couple of tickets to the House Of Wax.

“I was very proud of the wax house and I asked her what she thought and she said she thought it was a heap of sh-t.

“The next week, I said I was going to the races and I asked her if she wanted to come.

“I didn’t tell her the races were in Birdsville, but I asked her to pack a little travelling bag.

“We were going up the range in Toowoomba and she said ‘where are we going’?

“I told her we were going to Birdsville and she didn’t believe me.

“When she finally believed me, we had driven so far we couldn’t turn back.

“We have been together ever since.”

So does the fourth-generation showman whose boxing troupe has become part of outback folklore believe that he can crack his Birdsville Cup curse with Victory Bay?

My word he does.

But Brophy knows it will be a competitive race and harder to win than ever.

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“In the old days, you could bring any old horse out here to Birdsville and it would be competitive, but not now,” Brophy said.

“Now you need a good horse and a good trainer, someone who trains their horses on dirt.

“This horse will be up there amongst them (near the lead) and that’s where you need to be.

“I’m not a big punter, but I just love to be involved with horse racing as I reckon it’s a great sport.

“I don’t think there is a better sport to be honest with you.”

Brophy said he will return to Birdsville in future years but “I won’t be working with the boxing tent, I’ll be out here having a good time like everyone else”.

The noted hard man became emotional during the Cup parade, wiping away tears as he started banging his drum and acknowledging the crowd during the Cup parade on Thursday afternoon which finished at the Birdsville Hotel.

Originally published as Tent boxing showman Fred Brophy will marry love of his life if he can win elusive Birdsville Cup