That was the day he married Maree Perry, on April 12, 1969.

Maree's family, from Robinvale, 57km away, were not into the races and had no idea how much the race day meant to the large Ryan clan.

Content to let Maree do the organising, by the time Des realised the date clash, it was too late to postpone the wedding.

Mr Ryan's father, Tom, the then "Manang" races chief organiser, was heard to mutter darkly "it should have been another day" but he did choose to miss the Cup, and attend the wedding at St Mary's church in Robinvale.

Happily, the newlyweds went on, themselves, to be long term volunteer organisers of the Manangatang Cup meeting, which celebrated its centenary on Saturday.

The population of the tiny Mallee town, 80 kilometres north-west of Swan Hill, swells from 300 to 3000 for its big day of the year, the Cup.

One of the 2017 favourites, Diamond Duke, took the $16,000 first prize, but for many racegoers, it was a case of, "what horses"?.

Mr Ryan's cousin, missionary nun (in East Timor and the Northern Territory) Helen Nolen???, was loving returning her first Cup in 50 years, since leaving town at 15 for boarding school in Ballarat.

Thirty members of the Caccianiga family returned from as far as Brisbane and Perth to hold a home made banquet in a marquee.

Chloe Lewis, 31, won the women's sprint, to the cheers, of 18 of her friends on a Merbein netball club bus trip.

Des and Maree Ryan recently moved to Mildura and passed their Manangatang wheat farm to son Andrew.

The 2017 Cup was Mr Ryan's last as president of the Manangatang Racing Club, and Mrs Ryan's last as organiser of Fashions on the Field.

But they could no sooner stop attending the Cup (moved in 1996 from April to October) than lose limbs.

Mr Ryan's grandfathers, Talbot Nolen and Jim Ryan, helped found the Cup in April 1917. Jim's brother, Tom, had died fighting in World War I in France in 1916, and many locals had loved ones serving overseas.

The first Manangatang Cup, run on a dirt track, raised ??100 to build a memorial hall.

Today's Cup is run by Racing Victoria, with real starting stalls instead of a dropped piece of elastic. But it still unites the community.

Before the wheat harvest next month, it was a chance enjoy a dazzling (sunny, 23 degrees) day of leisure with loved ones.

Mr Ryan's earliest memory is inserting bamboo pegs in the ground to mark the race track when he was a boy. Since he was 15, Mr Ryan has acted as everything from clerk of course to jockey's supervisor at the Cup.

Manangatang Racing Club vice-president Barry Caccianiga said the Ryans' had made a "terrific contribution" to the community.

Mr Ryan is looking forward to next year's Cup when he won't have to trouble shoot blocked toilets and stable hay levels and can socialise with his legions of friends and relatives.

"It will be a lot easier, being able to enjoy ourselves, instead of having to work," he said.