All Things Bright and Beautiful

Mr Brightside wins the 2023 All Star Mile

When heading off to the races you never really know how the afternoon will play out, the weather, along with the racing action, making the experience unexpected.

Last Saturday the weather was pretty awful, overcast for the main with gusty winds, making it unpleasant for this contact lens wearer.

Anyway, it was All Star Mile Day at Moonee Valley and I had a ticket, so forth I went on the trusty 510 Bus, arriving around 2.00 pm.

Surprisingly it wasn’t all that crowded, so it was easy to get a good position on the fence from which to take photos of the action.

I tested the camera in Race 4 and noticed that the light was not ideal.

Race 4 charge up the straight – winner Bel Air is furthest left

I gave Race 5 a miss, and hung around in the stalls area for awhile before deciding I needed more photo practice before the main event.

Race 6 was the Listed Abell Stakes run over 1200 metres, so I returned to the fence and managed to get better photos of the action. I saw the fall of Florescent Star from a distance, and was dismayed to see the green screen go up, as she was euthanised.

She’s All Class won from In The Boat and Mileva.

Race 6 – She’s All Class is furthest left in olive green silks

As the All Star Mile was up next, I stayed where I was on the fence. The fall in the previous race delayed the start by over half an hour. The sun briefly emerged from the cloud cover, but didn’t hang around for the feature event.

A bit of pomp and circumstance  in the form of girls marching out on to the track with flags signalled that the race was not far off.

Here are photos of some of the contenders as they made their way to the barriers.

Alligator Blood

Alenquer

Keats

Mr Brightside

My Oberon

Pounding

The Inevitable

Sheeza Belter

So Si Bon

As All Star Mile fields go, it wasn’t the most interesting by any means, but the race itself was worth waiting for.

No doubt the Hayes brothers were delighted with Mr Brightside’s victory.  Cascadian finished second and Tassie champ The Inevitable ran third, just ahead of Alligator Blood.

Another photo of Mr Brightside winning the All Star Mile

And so ended another All Star Mile, after which I headed home.

With the delay in proceedings at Moonee Valley, I did manage to see the Sydney races on the Big Screen, where Anamoe won the George Ryder Stakes and Shinzo was victorious in the Golden Slipper,  giving trainer Chris Waller his first Golden Slipper trophy.

Next Saturday is the last Group 1 meeting of the Melbourne Autumn Carnival and is at Flemington, where the Australian Cup is the feature event.