During a wonderful career as a jockey Reg Paine rode 1,038 winners, including three Bathurst Cups, winning on Grecian Lustre in 1962 and Greg's King in both 1967 and 1968.

His son Neil Paine rode the 1998 Bathurst Cup winner The Reveille.

Honours bestowed on Reg Paine include life membership of Cowra Jockey Club, a special recognition award from Racing NSW Country and induction to the Cowra Sporting Hall Of Fame.

Neil Paine was a very successful jockey, winning the Group 1 Coolmore Classic on Strawberry Fair for trainer David Hayes and over 50 Group 2, Group 3 and Listed Stakes races as he travelled the world to ride in Macau, Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, China and Mauritius.

In 2014 his jockey career came to an end after suffering serious injuries in a horrendous race fall when riding on contract in Noumea.

When riding in Sydney, Neil Paine regularly rode for high profile trainer and reigning Bathurst Cup winner Gai Waterhouse and after his accident, he was appointed to a public relations role with the Waterhouse and Adrian Bott training partnership at Royal Randwick.

After a recent runaway win by Rapido Chaparro at Canterbury when carrying 62 kilograms over 1,900 metres, Bott informed Neil Paine that the stable is likely to nominate Rapido Chaparro and/or Falcon Island for the 1800-metre Ray White Emms Mooney Bathurst Cup, with Adam Hyeronimus to ride the stable choice.

Hyeronimus has ridden several major race winners over the past two years will continue the Paine family association with the Bathurst Cup as he is the grandson of Reg and Rose Paine and the nephew of Neil Paine.

Hyeronimus' parents are former successful jockey Craig Hyeronimus and Narelle Hyeronimus (née Paine), who served respectively as president and secretary at Cowra Jockey Club.

If Waterhouse and Bott can win the Bathurst Cup it would complete a unique double.

After consultation between Bathurst Thoroughbred Racing and Racing NSW it was decided to switch the cup to spring to better suit racing programs.

As a result, in 2019 the Bathurst Cup will be run twice.

When the feature was held earlier this year in March it was won by Chocolatier, trained by Waterhouse and Bott, and ridden by James Innes Jnr.

"This is my first Bathurst Cup. I love the country races and I hope I will be coming back many times in the future," part-owner Noel Patterson said after that win.

Chocolatier was a $1.90 favourite in the win and lived up to that billing, and his name, by producing a sweet treat for his large group of connections on the Tyers Park turf, flying away from the pack to win by three lengths ahead of Chief Kidder.

Nominations for the cup will be released next week.