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As I listened to the smooth guitar music I was surprised by the Australian accent behind the singing. An Australian singing the glory of Sri Lanka, and not just that, his knowledge of Sri Lankan politics, music, sports and history was gathered into fine lines in lyrics.

"Duncan white, Eddie Gray were Olympians,

Susanthika won gold for us too

Our boys won the world cup in cricket

We stood as a nation and cheered..."

I met him because of our common interest in racing and then learned of his passion and love for Sri Lanka. Gary Ellis was born in Melbourne to parents of English background, and grew up in Ararat, the Australian Countryside.

"The names of our heroes are written in gold On pages of history that will never grow old, Senanayake, Bandaranaike, J.R and Vijaya as well Like the Gypsies and Rukmani Devi Dare we mention brave Saradiel..."

His father was a horse lover and a dealer; therefore he loved and grew up with horses. After becoming a horse trainer by the age of eighteen, he developed a liking to write songs.

Songs which mainly depicted his love and tragedies of racing horses. After meeting the famous American country singer Burl Ives in Melbourne, Garry followed country singing and even toured around Australia.

One of his songs about an old and a weak horse with a brave and courageous heart was very touching.

"Gaily in front of the stock whip, the horses came galloping home,

Leaping bucking and playing, with sides all a lather of foam,

But painfully, slowly behind them, with head to the crack of the fall,

And trying so gamely to follow, comes limping the pearl of them all..."

Gary says that the lyrics represents many of the former champion horses he has seen, now old and grey, still trying to keep up with the younger ones in training. Garry has worked with many older horses, and the horses believed to have lost their form.

One of his success stories was a horse called 'Interrogate', whom he bought in 1980 and won many races under his training at a later stage of his career, and even helped his children to learn riding. Also were 'Spoiled Judge' and 'Expert' who were also among his favourite horses.

Later he had given up singing couontry songs and came to Sri Lanka for the first time. He had only heard of the beautiful country from his father who had been here many times associated with the Sri Lankan mounted division.

Gary completed six albums, and the song on Sri Lanka, which he wrote with Norm Burke, and Will Ogilvie written 'Pearl of them all' are on his fifth album called, 'Man in the Hat' and since then, has been a frequent visitor and a singer at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (S.L.B.C).

His song 'Sri Lankan heroes', was on the top of the S.L.B.C originals hit parade for eight weeks, according to Gary Elis. Garry married a Sri Lankan, and had three children, Kerry, Shirani and Waughn. He adds that he loves the Sri Lankan lifestyle, values and traditions and tried his best to bring up his children with a Sri Lankan 'touch'.

Today, Gary is a proud grandfather and lives a happy life with wife, Priyani Anthony in Narre Warren, with his occasional involvement with country music, and watching races.

Chamari Senanayake.

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