Roy Higgins was a country boy at heart, born at Koondrook on the banks of the great Murray, a small township where the main source of employment was the cutting and supplying of red gum sleepers for the railways.

Within a year after the birth of their youngest son, Roy Henry, the family moved onto Deniliquin to what was called the north side of the township where he grew up and completed his schooling.

The Riverina was a strong racing centre, particularly Deniliquin; numerous good horses were trained there then went on to win in Melbourne 

When the Higgins family moved, their next door neighbour just happened to be Jim Waters, a highly respected racehorse trainer, and above all a great citizen

After school each day Roy would scurry through a hole in the fence to assist Jim with the horses and any other needs around the stable.

It was soon obvious the thoroughfare, via the short cut to the stable wouldn’t be repaired in the short term.

Roy became apprenticed to Jim, their first winner, as a team, was Statutory in a Maiden at Deniliquin in 1953, I had the pleasure of calling that race, she was by Mandamus raced by a patron of the stable, Neville Armytage. 

It was never going to be easy as Roy soon found out he was facing fierce competition from some outstanding jockeys of that era, Frank McIntyre was the best rider by far in New South Wales, outside of Sydney, Paddy Delaney had won a string of races on the crack Sydney colt Magnificent, and the ill fated Morrie Gray, from Wangaratta, was always a tough nut to crack.

Higgins was always a good rider, there is no mistake about that, he was riding a lot of winners but still looking for that lucky break.

Soon after the break arrived when Jack Freyer gave him the ride on Tauri in the Provincial Plate at Flemington, which he won, Roy was up and away, except he had a big setback that rocked him after an unwarranted roasting from a well known race broadcaster of that time, who was talking through his pocket.

Freyer was his backstop, he soon put Roy Higgins back on track, he was the complete jockey long before he ever rode for Bart Cummings.

Roy Higgins never forgot those that supported him all those years ago, he equalled the record of 11 premierships, held by Jim Duncan, in a career that commenced in 1953 and terminated in 1983, he rode over 2300 winners on various racetracks in several countries.