“She was so tough and even rode in rodeos herself when she was young and could ride anything.
“I remember going to her farm and riding horses when I was 12, up hills flat out with only a sack on their back, no saddle.
“She had a huge influence on my career and taught me so much and I’m sad to hear of her passing.”
Belsham has spent the last 12 years living in Victoria to be closer to her daughter Sarah Moody, the wife of training great Peter Moody.
“Mum loved her horses and loved being part of Moody Racing, she would ask me for a list of what horses we had racing for every meeting,” Sarah Moody said. “She also loved country music and playing her guitar.”
Sarah Moody says her mother, who had reverted to her maiden name years earlier, passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.