It's a day that will forever be lodged in David Middleton's memory.

He and wife Jill had spent the morning meeting with a real estate agent to finalise arrangements for the purchase of Tumbarumba Road property "Jandera".

They were to pack up and move down from Harden soon after.

Leaving little time to celebrate the buy, the Middletons rushed to Murrumbidgee Turf Club where they had Chance Affair running in the prestigious Wagga Gold Cup.

David had wanted to give the horse's Wagga owners, the Kelsall family, the thrill of a home-town feature race, which was then worth $100,000.

Starting at 33-1 odds on course, but paying $67 for one dollar on the TAB, punters hardly gave Chance Affair a hope of winning the lucrative event.

"He just got a great run, he didn't leave the rails the entire time," Middleton recalled.

"It was a beautiful ride by (jockey) Grant McCarthy."

McCarthy came from eighth at the 400m mark to steam up the inside rail, slipping past the favourite Shearer Claude, to win by half a length from Star Covet.

Chance Affair managed to produce one of the greatest upsets ever recorded to win the Gold Cup.

No Southern District Racing Association (SDRA) trained horse has won the race since, and just three have achieved the feat in the past 30 years.

When he retired a couple of years later, the horse had returned around 70 starts for 17 career wins for his trainer and connections.

Middleton has replayed the win of that memorable Friday countless times in his head over the past 16 years.

"I remember it well, it was certainly our biggest win ever," Middleton said.

"He was a nice horse.

"We took him to the city for a couple of starts but he didn't do much good.

"After he won the Cup with a light weight he just got outweighted at every race.

"It was hard for him to do much after that because we got smashed in the weights all the time."

Chance Affair remained at "Jandera" as a much-loved pet before he passed away earlier this year.

"He was only put down this year, he was 24, but he was a good horse for us for a long time," Middleton said.

Middleton continued to train horses following his success with Chance Affair but retired seven years ago.

He continues to feed his interest in racing as an owner.

He was involved in the connections of promising gelding Baltra, trained by Wagga's Gary Colvin, which returned four wins from six starts before breaking down last year.

Baltra won the Stan Sadlier Stakes during his short career but is now purely a pet horse.

Middleton hopes he can find another Baltra or Chance Affair before his time is out.

"We're in one horse with a couple of other blokes at the moment," he said.

"He's with Chris Heywood but he won't start racing for a couple of years.

"All our mares are too old to breed so we haven't got any going at the moment."