Jack Denham's legacy went well beyond the racetrack. The Hall of Fame trainer with no interest in entertaining the media died yesterday at 85 with thoroughbred racing's version of the ''grand slam'' on the mantle piece.

''A very private person who would help people but didn't want anyone to know,'' was how Sydney Turf Club chairman Bill Picken described him yesterday.

''I remember one day at Gosford racetrack, he wanted to see me, I walked over, he put it in my pocket and said 'see that bloke over there, go and give it to him'.

''I don't know how much it was, I didn't count it, I went over and gave it to the bloke … He helped a lot of people and charities.''

Denham was born in Campsie on August 24, 1924, and it was at Canterbury's now defunct training track that Denham's reputation for being a betting ring plunger was cemented.

He had started off as a jockey but weight forced him out of the saddle in 1943. He took out a trainer's license in 1948 and went on to train over 3000 winners, 59 at group 1 level.

''He knew when a horse was ready,'' the STC's racetrack manager Lindsay Murphy said yesterday. Murphy has been with the STC for 33 years and one of his first jobs in the racing office was to collect Denham's nominations when the ''silent one'' was the private trainer for Stan Fox at Rosehill.

''A lot of trainers can get a horse right, get them ready,'' Murphy continued.

''But Jack knew exactly when they were right, when they weren't, that's why early in the piece he pulled off so many plunges.''

For long-time owners Geoff and Beryl White it was never about the punt.

''We were with Jack for 35 years, he was par excellence, 19 group 1 winners for us,'' Geoff White said, one of which was Golden Slipper winner Marscay, which went on to be a champion sire, and his daughter Triscay.

''I know he was taciturn with outside people but in all those years we never had hard words with him, he kept us informed, we never knew his business, we trusted him implicitly.

''We weren't bettors and he loved us for that. He had experience with gamblers before, I think we were a relief.''

And White saw the generous Denham, too. ''If someone was needy, down on their luck Jack was there and no one knew it.''

Then there was the freakish Might And Power. In 1997 Might And Power stunned the racing world when leading throughout to win the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. The Nick Moraitis-owned stayer returned a year later to win the Cox Plate.

With a Golden Slipper Denham had completed the prized grand slam of racing.

Denham is survived by wife Joyce, son Allan, daughters Joy and Sandra and a mob of grandchildren.