He looked after the dam Woodie Wonder, a Newtown Wonder twin who was sold for $100 twice as a yearling at the1960 Scone sale and who, named Woodie Wonder, couldn’t win a bush maiden for McNamara, mating him with his new sire, Sunset Hue, on an alternate service arrangement.

Clift , who died last week in Sydney aged 91, got the use of Woodie Wonder who in 1967 produced a colt he reared on the family’s The Dip, a major producer of wheat, sheep and cattle and breeder and owner of racehorses, that carried the JC brand under the name of Gunsynd to glory on the racetrack.

Sold at the Brisbane yearling sale for $1300 to a Goondiwindi syndicate, he won 29 races, including the Cox Plate, Doncaster, Epsom, Caulfield Stakes and Futurity, and was  placed third in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. 

When he retired from racing he was the highest earner in Australian history and he was subsequently inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

Revered as the Goodiwindi Grey and immortalised in a ballad of that name by singer Tex Morton, Gunsynd was one of three stakes-winning offspring of matings by Sunset Hue and Woodie Wonder produced in the care of  Clift, the others being Sunset Red (who won the STC W.J. McKell Cup, Queensland Cup) and Sunset Sue (winner of QTC C.E. McDougall Stakes).

All inherited the grey colouring of their sire Sunset Hue, a freakish roman-nosed, swaybacked stallion who retired to The Dip in the 1964 in the ownership of  Clift and N.S. Lane after breaking down while attempting to win the Victoria Derby. 

He had contested ten races at two for a win and eight minor places, including a second in the Sires Produce Stakes in Sydney. 

In his other juvenile outing, he finished fourth in the VRC Sires Produce Stakes.

When he finished racing, Gunsynd went to stud at the historic Kia Ora stud near Scone, one then conducted by eminent breeding and racing identity George Ryder but one which in the mid 1970s became the property of  Clift.

It was a move which saw Clift at one stage standing at Kia Ora, a stud he operated for a decade, Sunset Hue, Gunsynd and the latter’s remote relation Baguette. 

Ammo Girl, a daughter of Gunsynd bred by Hall of Fame trainer Tommy Smith, produced Emancipation, a grey Bletchingly mare who was 1983-84 Australian Horse of the Year.

Clift was not only a legacy as the breeder of Gunsynd but for his wise counsel as a long-time director on the Board of the Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association of NSW and seventy years’ very active involvement in country racing.

He was a contributer also as a councillor to north western NSW in local government. 

A member of a family that pioneered the Liverpool Plains between the northern end of the Hunter Valley and Tamworth, Clift was only 20 when he began breeding and racehorse-owning and had a 22-year stint on the Gunnedah Jockey Club committee.

Referred to in one review as the Bart Cummings of racing clubs, he went on to serve on no less than five race club committees: Gunnedah Jockey Club, Gunnedah Picnic Club, West Tamworth Club, Muswellbrook Club and in more recent years, a period in which he owned an agistment farm in the district, the Tamworth Jockey Club. 

He was the Tamworth president from October 1992 to 1999 (did not stand for re-election) and then for eight years from 2002 to 2010.

In racing, he also served on the NSW Country Racing Council and Hunter and North West Racing Association committee and, in addition, on the Liverpool Plains Shire Council and Tamworth Show Society. 

His contributions have been recognised by life memberships of the Tamworth Jockey Club and Tamworth Show Society, the naming after him of the new stand at the Tamworth Racecourse, and the awards of Australian Sports Medal (2000) and Simon Nivison medal for racing service.

A eulogy says of John Clift: He has gone above and beyond in terms of his commitment to the sport and racing and the general community, tirelessly donating his time and efforts for the enjoyment of others and for the betterment of the social fabric of regional towns across northern NSW.

While at Kia Ora, Clift had the tragedy of losing his wife Patricia in a car accident.

They had eight children and he leaves to grieve the loss of their patriarch Kim (Powell), Katie (Walker), Jonathan, Jane (Nash), Belinda (Clift), Samantha (Bartlett) Simon and families and many good friends and admirers.

 John Clift’s funeral is to be held at St Nicholas Catholic Church, White Street, Tamworth at 11am Friday with a wake afterwards in the John Clift Stand at Tamworth Racecourse.