A dozen Melbourne Cups, over 250 Group 1 wins and countless training premierships, not to mention those lavish eyebrows, the man was a legend.

His racing colours, those green and golds silks, simply iconic.

So much so those green and gold colours have been protected, or retired if you want to put it that way, until 2063, as a mark of respect for the impact Cummings had on the thoroughbred industry.

No jockey will wear those silks. Is anyone really worthy enough too anyway? Bart's dominance was so sheer it's impossible to ignore.

While it's a stretch to compare bush footy with the sport of kings, here goes nothing - we're fresh off our own remarkable run highlighted by those same green and gold colours here in Group 10.

The five premierships won and seven grand final appearances Mick Sullivan's Orange CYMS side made between 2010 and 2017 punctuates one of the most successful eras the Western Rams' eastern competition has seen.

Save for Oberon's unparalleled run throughout the 1960s and early '70s we've not witnessed a side sit on top of the competition for such an extended stretch.

The green and gold colours dominated ... hang in there, the racing references aren't done yet.

Those last two years of the decade though, 2018 and 2019, well they were dark. Black in fact.

And Group 10 might just have to get used to that.

Bathurst Panthers, or the men in black as they're sometimes called, won back-to-back crowns and will next season gun to complete something Sullivan's CYMS fell just shy of doing in 2012 - winning three-in-a-row.

Could we be on the cusp of total Panthers domination? The short answer is without doubt.

Doug Hewitt's outfit has youth on its side, and with their best years ahead of them there's little reason to think Panthers won't again feature in Group 10's top three in 2020.

Even if they don't feature at the pointy end of the ladder at the end of 14 rounds, Panthers have already proven they can win from anywhere, storming from fourth before knocking off the Magpies in Cowra to claim the 2018 title, the club's first in 11 seasons.

They're formidable, as imposing as any team anywhere in the bush. Then, oh dear, they got even better.

As a golden rule for success, teams anywhere in the country will tell you a hard-nosed prop and a general are two key ingredients for success.

You can win games boasting one or the other, but you can't win premierships unless you have both.

In the form of Hewitt and Brent Seager, a now two-time Dave Scott Medal winner after two simply sensational grand final outings with Panthers, the Bathurst club has two of the best in their respective positions in not just Western, but NSW country wide.

Throw in the enigmatic Willie Wright to partner Hewitt in the halves and a terrific, work-a-holic pack led by the Betts boys and Panthers is as well-rounded as Mark O'Meley's deep heat-covered dome.

The club's backline, to stay more on topic, boasts as much speed and acceleration as the grey flash, Chautauqua. Now here's two more names for you - Josh Starling and Jeremy Gordon.

You add one of those boys to any side in the competition and they go from potential finalists to potential premiers, virtually in the blink of an eye.

Starling was an NRL player as recently as 2017 while Gordon has won a premiership and a Group 10 player of the year award, and is widely regarded as one of the top flight's best players this last decade.

Both, in 2020, will play for Panthers, and it's a twin coup that'll take some topping ahead of the new year.

If Panthers weren't already heavy favourites to complete a three-peat, a feat no side has achieved since the late, great Josh Schrader was carving up for the Tigers in 1969-70-71, they most certainly are now.

A pack led by Seager and Starling is the best we've seen in Group 10 since Mahe Hala and Kip Maranda made travelling to Lithgow a nightmare for visiting sides nearly 20 years ago.

The country bookends paved the way for a terrific period for Workies in the middle of the noughties.

Their main adversary those years? Yep, the men in black.

Coe, Latu (and those Meninga-like arm guards), Osborne and company were equally as dominant throughout those years but this Panthers pack has the chance to be better, and potentially pave the way for the likes of Hewitt to help Panthers create history.

I've tipped sides to go unbeaten in this column before.

I probably killed off a crackerjack Oberon side in 2018 before a ball was kicked by saying they'd win the Clayton Cup in a canter that season and, if charged with the task, probably would have put the cleaners through a Group 11 rep side too.

So I'll stop short of doing that ahead of 2020.

But I've already lined Orange CYMS circa 2010-2017 up against the great Bart Cummings so why not continue with that wonderful racing motif and look at Panthers as a Winx-like phenomenon we simply can not miss in 2020?

The mighty mare took a few runs to get going before her remarkable run of 33 straight wins, something Panthers won't achieve but a three-peat of titles would certainly place the club in the 'Group 10 hall of fame' conversation.

With Starling and Gordon on board, Panthers winning seems inevitable.

So is the more pressing question ahead of 2020 who will be the Happy Clapper of Group 10?

Mortimer's CYMS or Heta's Hawks? A new-look, Tiger-laden Bathurst St Pat's side or perhaps one of Mudgee, Lithgow or Blayney aims up?

Yep, those Winx odds on Panthers look pretty decent early on but, then again, to finish where we started, as the great Cup King once famously said, "I think you should seek a second opinion".