Sheriff rides out of the Valley with lots of fond memories - and a few regrets

In the days of the old Wild West, a town's chief lawman rarely left office without the aid of a wooden box - which at least left him without any decision to make on a future occupation. John 'Sheriff' Schreck will have no such luxury when his career as chief steward meets high noon in the wake of this week's Hong Kong International meeting.

From his high-rise, window-walled office at Jockey Club headquarters, Schreck looks out over the towered delights of Causeway Bay to a glimpse of Hong Kong harbour between the metal and glass. His personal assistant, Maggie Lam Mei-kei, fields calls and keeps him primed on what comes next. He reflects as she goes out.

'Maggie's been fantastic. I don't know what I would have done here without her,' Schreck says, then turns to a time soon at hand when what comes next will be the unknown. 'Like Doris Day said - Que Sera Sera. I don't know what I'll do but I don't think I'll be a chief steward.

'Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges [the Jockey Club's director of racing] has asked me to do some consultancy work here until the end of the season, for which I'm grateful. I started work when I was very young - because I wanted to work. My parents wanted me to go to university and be a veterinarian but I wanted to work, so I'm going to have trouble stopping.'

Chief stipe with a club that serves as the bastion of Hong Kong's rich and famous is a long way from Warialda, New South Wales, Australia, a dry, low-rise little town with many more flies than people.

A place of less than 1,300 souls by the Warialda Creek which runs through drought-razed sheep farming country more than 600 kilometres north west of Sydney, Warialda's most famous tourist site is Cranky Rock, where a Chinese prospector is said to have jumped to his death during the gold rush days of the mid-1800s.

It is a popular area for tourists to poke the red dust in hope of finding their fortune in precious stones, and is more famous for its wool and wheat than the handful of stud farms. Escaped convicts were probably the first Europeans to live there and its most famous local was a bushranger called Captain Thunderbolt, who preyed on the mail coach. A fair canvas on which to find the portrait of a sheriff.