Cast your mind back to 1989. The March long weekend saw Vo Rogue defeat Super Impose and Our Poetic Prince in a stellar Australian Cup while Grandiose upstaged a large field of sprinters to take out the Newmarket Handicap.
It was also the weekend that Shaw began at the Victoria Racing Club (VRC), proving from the beginning that she had the customer at the heart of everything she did.
“I started at the Victoria Racing Club in the 1980s, with a group of cleaning ladies,” Shaw told the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA)* earlier this year.
“I went in to Neville Wilson, who was the boss way back then, and I said to him, The Birdcage is an absolute disgrace. Whoever is up there cleaning, they're not doing their job. I said, put me up there and I guarantee it will be different. That's how I got my first shift at the VRC.”
Shaw's discerning eye came from a life full of experience, having moved from England to Australia as a young girl before working as a nurse, waitress and cleaner as a precursor to working in events.
She is also the mother of eight children - five boys and three girls - and now is a grandmother to 20 (including two sets of twins and a set of triplets!) and a great-grandmother of five.
"Life raising eight kids, as you can imagine, was extremely busy," said one of her sons Ivan. "But no matter what, she was always there for us. School mornings were extremely busy but she always had school lunches made and dinner was on the table every night.
Added another son, Steven: "All of us kids also know every word to Elvis' greatest hits, she absolutely loves him and I think we've heard them a million times!"
In almost 33 years at the VRC, Shaw has held almost every role possible under the functions and events banner and is one of the most familiar faces among Flemington's large customer service crew.
