The Wind & the Rain and WINX– Wow Again

Hugh Bowman & Winx celebrate her 2016 Cox Plate victory

The failure of top sprinter Chautauqua to run a place in Friday night’s Manikato Stakes left me feeling deflated; my high expectations for him to win with his usual last to first dash were disappointed.

The Manikato Stakes was taken out by 60/1 shot Rebel Dane, a shock result for everyone, with Fell Swoop running a very close second, and Japonisme a length back stealing into third place. Chautauqua failed to fire and finished seventh. As his jockey remarked he is not the same horse that took out the Chairman’s Sprint back in May.  He will not continue with his spring campaign and has been spelled. I hope there is nothing wrong with him and that we’ll see him again in autumn.

We will not see old trooper Buffering again as his connections have decided to retire him. He was grand old sprinter who competed against the best in the land and overseas, including Black Caviar, and himself won seven Group 1 races. His last win was in Dubai in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint earlier this year. He will join The Cleaner and all the other wonderful old champs at Living Legends.

On to the Cox Plate…

Weather wise, it couldn’t have been a worse day to go to the races.
A cold wind and frequent showers of rain persisted from morning to night. The temperature barely reached 13°C and was probably a lot colder than that with the wind chill factor.

The race meeting at Moonee Valley seemed as if was being held in winter rather than spring and was reported as being the coldest Cox Plate meeting in 46 years.

That was not enough to put me off attending, so I braved the elements and headed for the bus stop around 12.30pm in plenty of time to board the 12.50pm bus.

Sounds simple enough, but all my careful planning was put in disarray when the bus failed to stop for me. The Moonee Ponds Busline curse had struck again! I had to wait for the next one and decided to kill the time by walking to Clifton Hill Station and catching the bus there.

I finally arrived at Moonee Valley shortly after 2.00pm and, after purchasing a race book,  wandered out to the stalls area to see who had arrived.

Happy Clapper – Cox Plate hopeful in his stall

Black Heart Bart posing with strapper & owner (I assume) for photos

Winx was not in her stall, but I discovered her being walked in the parade ring…

Winx in the parade ring

… and Yankee Rose was there as well.

Yankee Rose with her cheerful strapper in the parade ring

The weather was challenging for photography, and when reviewing my photos some were too over exposed (too bright) and others were under exposed (dark) just like the rapid changes in the weather - sunny one minute, then raining the next.

However, I am not going to complain about the weather as the upside was that the crowds were down in number, and fled the public lawn every time it rained, so it was easy to get a good position on the fence if you didn’t mind getting a bit wet.

With forethought I had purchased, for the princely sum of $4.00, an emergency poncho. Certainly not haute couture, it looked like a white garbage bag with holes for your arms and came equipped with a hood. It may have looked ridiculous but it kept me and my camera dry.

You may wonder why I didn’t take an umbrella, but I loathe carrying them around, and like to keep my hands free.

Imagine my surprise when watching SBS News on Saturday night and seeing myself on TV wrestling with my emergency poncho in the wind when trying to put it on. I managed to save the screen print below from the video.

Rebecca (fellow racehorse photographer) & myself at the fence on the public lawn

Shortly after the above footage was shot, race 6, the Fillies Classic was set to run, so I gave the camera a test run when the fillies moved onto the track and snapped them as they came around the corner into the straight.

Fillies Classic down the straight

It was won by the oddly named Nurse Kitchen, who I admit I had never heard of. She’d only had a few starts previously but surprised even Greg Miles the race caller with her flashing run down the outside to pip race favourite Sezanne at the post at the last minute. I Am A Star ran third.

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Nurse Kitchen on her way to the barriers

The Cox Plate was scheduled as race 9 on the program, so there were two other races to watch before the big one.

Remarkably, despite the frequent showers of occasionally horizontal rain, it cleared when the races were on.

Back in the stalls area more Cox Plate contenders had arrived and were either in their stalls or in the parade ring.

Hartnell in the parade ring

Hauraki in his stall

Lucia Valentina in her stall

Also out and about in the stalls area, was two time (2003/2006) Cox Plate winner Fields of Omagh the special guest from Living Legends.

Fields of Omagh in the parade ring

Race 7 was the Crystal Mile, so I returned trackside to watch it.

The Lloyd Williams owned The United States was making a delayed start to his spring campaign in this race and successfully held off Lidari and Ulmann to win by a length.

 
Down the straight in the Crystal Mile – The United States is about to pass race leader Federal

With the penultimate race before the Cox Plate being the Moonee Valley Gold Cup, I decided it was timely to grab a possie on the fence as near to the finishing post as possible and reconnected with Rebecca who I’d lost sight of for the past hour and who had snaffled a good spot on the fence in the meantime.

And there we stayed for the remainder of the afternoon, enduring the wind and the rain, surrounded by a jolly crowd of punters.

The Moonee Valley Gold Cup is run over 2500 metres and resulted in a Chris Waller quinella, when Grand Marshall outstayed stablemate Who Shot Thebarman.

 
Grand Marshall & Who Shot Thebarman fight out the Moonee Valley Cup down the straight

There was then an hour to wait until the Cox Plate. The intervening time was occupied with various ceremonies and the traditional appearance of Darryl Braithwaite singing “The Horses” to the singalong accompaniment of the exuberant crowd.

Darryl Braithwaite sings  The Horses on the balcony of the Grandstand

As the clock ticked down….

…the excitement built and a palpable atmosphere of pent up anticipation infected the pressure cooker ampitheatre that is Moonee Valley Racecourse.

The rain thankfully held off and soon enough the Cox Plate field filed out onto the track.

Black Heart Bart

Hauraki

Lucia Valentina

French horse Vadamos

Yankee Rose

A huge cheer erupted when Winx stepped out onto the track to make her way to the barriers at the top of the straight.

Winx on her way to the barriers

The race was run at a pretty leisurely pace initially with Black Heart Bart uncharacteristically ending up in the lead as they raced past the winning post the first time.

Down the straight the first time – Black Heart Bart leads, Hartnell on his outside. Winx is on the inside behind Awesome Rock (checked red silks)

As they sorted themselves out around the back stretch, the French horse Vadamos took the lead and at one stage was five lengths ahead of the rest of the field, setting a rattling pace.  As they turned into the school side of the track before the final turn into straight, the gap between Vadamos and the rest shortened dramatically. Hugh Bowman had got Winx to the outside, and fastest side of the track, and tackled Hartnell as they turned for home. The two horse battle was short lived as Winx zoomed away at the turn and swept up the straight to win by eight lengths, the crowd uproariously cheering her to the finish line.

Hartnell headed the rest with Yankee Rose only ¾ length behind him running third.

The burst mode on my camera shows Winx, then many frames of daylight.

Winx on her way to winning her second Cox Plate

We had just witnessed something extraordinary, which made the whole afternoon of being harried by wind and rain worthwhile.

Winx eight length win broke the previous record seven length winning margin set by Dulcify in 1979 and Sunline  in her second Cox Plate back in 2000.

Winx returns to scale and a media scrum after parading down the straight

Winx in the winners rug

It had been an amazing afternoon at the races, with the ghastly weather being more than compensated for by witnessing the star mare win her 13th race in succession and second consecutive Cox Plate in such a sensational fashion. 

Luckily I was curse free getting home, managing to catch a bus at Moonee Ponds Junction as soon I got there and arriving home half an hour later.

Next Saturday the racing action is at Flemington for Derby Day and will seem like an anticlimax. It’s a quality day of Group 1 racing, but will have to be pretty good to beat the Cox Plate.

Great Expectations - 2016 Cox Plate

Winx rugged after winning the 2015 Cox Plate

The Cox Plate is my favourite race of the Spring racing season and this year it looks as if it will be a classic competition, awaited with excited anticipation by all fans of the sport of kings.

A cracker field of ten contestants have accepted and include superstar mare Winx who won the race last year by over four lengths, breaking the course record.

In this year’s Cox Plate she faces her toughest opposition from Hartnell who actually ran in the race last year and finished fifth, ten lengths from Winx.  He seems a different horse this year having comprehensively won his last three starts by large margins. His only defeat this season was his first up loss to Winx in the Warwick Stakes back in August, which she won by over three lengths.

Hartnell’s form was franked by Jameka’s Caulfield Cup victory, considering that he beat her by over three lengths in the Turnbull Stakes.

Winx form this spring is faultless. She has won all her starts effortlessly. My heart will be with her on Saturday as she goes for her thirteenth win in succession and second consecutive Cox Plate, a feat achieved by very few – prime examples being So You Think, Sunline, Northerly and Kingston Town, all champions.

Though it’s hard to look beyond Winx and Hartnell, and as we all know anything can happen in racing, others who could steal the show are lightweighted filly Yankee Rose, the highly regarded French horse Vadamos and Lucia Valentina, especially if the track is rain affected.

Black Heart Bart who has won two Group 1 races and run second in two others this season, has been pretty well overlooked, but is likely to be in the finish somewhere, though I doubt he can beat Winx or Hartnell.

Though I will not be attending the Manikato Stakes meeting on Friday night it being run at the late hour of 9.30pm, I’ll certainly watch it at home.

Last year the grey speedster Chautauqua provided, along with Winx in the Cox Plate, one of the wow moments of the Spring racing carnival with his stunning last to first win in the feature race. He’s out to redeem his reputation after his disappointing showing in the Moir Stakes.

The Manikato Stakes is run over 1200 metres, which is more to Chautuaqua’s liking, so one would expect him to win this time.

He’ll certainly be hard to beat, but trying will be old Buffering, the only horse still racing who competed against the great Black Caviar.  He may be past it, but I’ve thought that before and he’s proved me wrong.

Other challengers in the field with a chance to topple the star sprinter are Fell Swoop and The Quarterback and sole mare English. Golden Slipper winner Capitalist is a lightweight chance, but his form this spring has been disappointing where he has failed to beat his own age group.

The weather forecast for the weekend is pretty dismal with heavy rain on Friday, clearing by Saturday afternoon.

God knows what state the Moonee Valley track will be in after 8 races on Friday night and another 8 races on Saturday afternoon before the Cox Plate is run at 5.00pm, but it has coped in previous years remarkably well.

I hope to reach Moonee Valley rather earlier than I did last year, by catching a different bus to the one I would normally use, it being badly affected by Cox Plate traffic conditions on its route. The alternate route to Moonee Ponds Junction appears to avoid the main traffic snarls around Moonee Valley racecourse, so perhaps it will run on time.

The support card is mildly interesting, with the usual mix of Listed and Group 2 or Group 3 class races to watch while waiting for the main event, but I’m not going to consider them here.

The Grey Flash Kicks Off a Super Weekend of Racing

Chautauqua – Australian Cup Day 2016

An exciting feast of first class racing is on the cards this coming weekend with five Group 1 races being run over three days at three different race tracks.

The first of these is the Group 1 Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley on Friday night which sees the return of top sprinters Chautauqua and Buffering taking on a field of younger pretenders that include Blue Diamond Stakes winner Extreme Choice.

Both Chautauqua and Buffering last raced in Hong Kong where Chautauqua was the astonishing winner of the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint and Buffering finished last.

Now 9 year’s old, Buffering has won the Moir Stakes three times in all, though not consecutively, winning in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and running second in 2013.

Challenging the top pair will be the aforementioned Extreme Choice a lightweight chance having his first start in open company and speedy mares Heatherly and Wild Rain.

It looks to be a fantastic race and I’m mightily tempted to attend even though I dislike night racing. I’ll take along the Canon G16 which handles low light situations better than the Nikon.

The AFL Grand Final is being played on Saturday, but Caulfield has a low key race meeting where Miss Vista will be gunning for her third win from as many starts in Race 4, an open handicap race over 1000 metres. I wont be there in person, it but I’ll certainly watch the race from hom, as I will be be doing with the races in Sydney, where three Group 1 races feature at Randwick as well as the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes.

The Flight Stakes is the first of the Group 1 events and is a race for fillies over 1600 metres.  The scratching of hot favourite Omei Sword leaves the race wide open and favours Yankee Rose, already a Group 1 winner and Golden Slipper runner up.  She races against 5 other fillies with Skylight Glow and Awoke being the most likely to be in the finish.

Winx won the Group 1 Epsom Stakes last year, but she is not part of the field this year. Run over 1600 metres a field of 13 will be vying for the prize.  Melbourne star Palentino fresh from winning the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes will be having his first start in Sydney and is up against Hauraki who ran second to Winx in the George Main Stakes.

These two are the top chances, but the lightweight Fabrizio, who won his last race by four lengths has to be a serious challenger to the top weights. Randwick Guineas winner Le Romain also is worthy of consideration along with some of Chris Waller’s runners – Mackintosh and McCreery in particular.

The Metropolitan is a race for stayers over 2400 metres and also has a field of 13 runners of which six are from the Chris Waller stable,  including Who Shot Thebarman, Grand Marshall, Storm The Stars and Antonio Guiseppe a former New Zealand trained horse who has won his last four races, albeit against weaker company.

Golden Rose winner Astern takes on the Golden Slipper winner Capitalist in the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes, a race for three year olds over 1200 metres. Also in the mix is unbeaten colt Russian Revolution who I witnessed winning the Group 3 Vain Stakes back in August.

On Sunday the Group 1 action is at Flemington, which features the Turnbull Stakes and several other interesting Group 2 and Group 3 races at various distances.

I’m looking forward to seeing a number of runners in the flesh for the first time, such as Ele0nora a New Zealand filly trained by Murray Baker who is the granddaughter of 2001 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups winner Ethereal. She is entered in the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes , a race for fillies over 1600 metres. Eleonora won her first start in Australia at Geelong a few weeks ago.

Another of the talented Murray Baker team is the unbeaten (in two starts) colt Highlad having his first start in Australia in the UCI Stakes, a race for three year olds over 1800 metres.

Which brings us to the feature race…

The Chris Waller trained Preferment won the Turnbull Stakes (2000 metres) last year and he’s back again to attempt to win it a second time. He’s top weight, but he loves Flemington having won three Group 1 races on the course.

He will have to beat the formidable Sydney champ Hartnell  who has won his last two starts by big margins. He has however never won in Melbourne; not that he has raced here since last year. He will start as the favourite and will be hard to beat if he handles Flemington and the anti clockwise way of going.

Others with a chance are The United States, Tarzino, Set Square, Jameka and Raw Impulse from the Darren Weir stable.

The weather in Melbourne as I write is iffy. The deluge that knocked out South Australia didn’t affect Melbourne at all, and even though rain is forecast for tonight and Sunday, it will hopefully hold off.

Apache Cat Two? Anzac Day Racing at Flemington

St Leger finish – Cool Chap wins comfortably from Etymology and Bullish Stock

I’ve just bought another camera and it arrived last Friday, so I decided to give it whirl at the races to see how it performed.

It’s a Nikon D3300 with a 55 – 200 mm lens – the first Nikon camera I have owned or even used.  As far as Nikon DSLR cameras go, it is not a hugely expensive model nor too big and heavy to carry around. In fact it’s quite light and comfortable to use.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my other cameras, the Canon G16 and the little Panasonic G3, but I’ve always thought that Nikon photos taken at the races by my racing acquaintance George were superior to those I achieved with the aforementioned cameras.

My first attempt to purchase a Nikon on eBay resulted in the camera failing to arrive. I’d been scammed!  Fortunately, after raising a Buyer’s Protection Case with eBay, my money was refunded in full, so I tried another online outlet called eGlobal, who were amazingly efficient and delivered the camera in three days at a very reasonable price.

I’m still getting to grips with the camera settings, so I’m glad I took it to the races on Monday to ascertain what settings are needed in the circumstances.

On the whole I’m quite pleased with the photos I took, though there were quite a few not worth saving – too dark for some reason- which is puzzling for a bright sunny afternoon. The camera seems to have a mind of its own where exposure is concerned.

I arrived at Flemington early, in time for Race 1, as I was interested in seeing the bizarre looking filly Miss Vista, who has been dubbed Apache Cat two, due to her predominately white face.

Miss Vista in the mounting yard after winning the Euroa VC’s Handicap

She also appears to have ability and shows some potential to be a star of the turf. She recently won her first race at Ballarat by over five lengths and was having her second start in the city, at Flemington no less.  She cruised to victory after leading throughout, to hold out Fleur Fatale by half a length with first starter Saraswati running third.

Miss Vista returns to scale

Miss Vista will now go for a spell and return in the spring, her connections, commendably, not wishing to overtax her so early in her career.

The feature race of the afternoon was the VRC St Leger, for three year old stayers run over 2800 metres and was programmed as Race 5.

As trains returning to the city from Flemington didn’t run until 4.25pm I was obliged to stay at the track for six races. It was a lovely autumn afternoon – warm and sunny –  pleasant to spend in the open air, so I didn’t mind the wait.

Race 2 was the Anzac Day Stakes, a race for two year olds over 1400 metres.

It was won by the appropriately named Throssell (after Hugo Throssell VC, who had Race 4 named in his honour) from Pyx Chamber and Smart As You Think.

Throssell returns to scale

Pyx Chamber returns to scale

Smart As You Think

Anzac Day Stakes finish – Throssell leads

The next race, the William Newton VC Handicap was run over 1610 metres. Hijack Hussy was the favourite, but the result, as it was all afternoon, didn’t favour favourites, and the race was won by 10/1 shot Every Faith from Written and Loveitt.

Race 3 finish down the straight

Every Faith

Written

Loveitt

As previously mentioned, Race 4 was the Hugo Throssell VC Handicap, a race for three year olds over 1400 metres.

It resulted in another long odds winner, Un De Sceaux, who defeated  Sir Sagamore and Shockaholic by a short margin.

Un De Sceaux posing for photos with owners

Sir Sagamore

Shockaholic

The afternoon flitted by quite swiftly and I got plenty of exercise walking back and forth from the mounting yard to just past the winning post.

The roses were still in bloom, though not in such great profusion as they were on Australian Cup Day.

Flemington Roses

Soon enough it was time for the feature race, the VRC St Leger.

Etymology started as favourite, but he was outstayed by Cool Chap, who as his name suggests is a son of High Chaparral, noted sire of stayers. Bullish Stock ran third.

Cool Chap returns to scale after winning the VRC St Leger

Etymology

Bullish Stock

Every jockey riding a horse carrying the number one saddlecloth wore special Anzac Day silks (khaki as seen on Etymology’s jockey above). None of them were winners.

Due to the train timetable I had to stay until after Race 6, which was the Anzac Cup, another staying race, run over 2530 metres.

Big Memory who looked promising in his younger days, but hasn’t won a race for over two years, started as favourite, but was relegated to second by the humourously named Swacadelic, who came in at odds of 10/1. Don Doremo ran third.

Swacadelic (purple & gold siks) beats Big Memory (khaki silks) in the Anzac Cup

The local racing scene is pretty uninteresting from now on and livens up at the end of July, when the build up to the Spring Racing Carnival starts.

However, Adelaide has a mini racing carnival over the next few weeks, then it’s the crazy Queensland winter racing carnival, which is always of some interest.

And this coming Sunday, Australian sprint stars,  Chautauqua and Buffering, will be gunning for Group 1 glory in Hong Kong in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin. 

Black Hearts, Easter Bunnies & Buffering

Black Heart Bart – Caulfield 26/3/16

My Saturday afternoon plans were disrupted, so I arrived much later at Caulfield than I had anticipated. This was due to the unexpected visit from an old friend whom I had not seen for about 15 years. We go back a long way, to when we were both eight or nine at boarding school in Mansfield. We reconnected in 2001, and have mostly kept in touch with Christmas greetings every year.

I really could not, nor did I wish to, curtail her visit, so I got to Caulfield an hour later than planned, totally missing Petits Filous race, which she won fairly easily. She had already left the course when I arrived, so I failed to even get a photo of her.

However, I was compensated by seeing former West Australian Black Heart Bart winning Race 7, the Group 3 Victoria Handicap.

He’s pretty boy with an almost white heart marking on his forehead.

Black Heart Bart in the mounting yard

Caulfield Racecourse was all abuzz with Easter cheer, and very noisy, what with a covers band, and some kind of children’s entertainment competing for attention with the usual racing broadcasts. Kids were everywhere and there was a fair crowd in attendance. There was also an easter egg hunt for the kids and for adults, which I was not in the least interested in contesting.

I only stayed for two races and also took the opportunity to watch the two Group 1 races in Sydney on the big screen.

As Jameka was scratched from the Vinery Stud Stakes, it was a wide open affair and was won by 30/1 shot Side Gaze, with NZ filly Valley Girl running second and Happy Hannah, who only got into the field because Jameka was scratched, running third.

Preferment won the BMW from stablemates Who Shot Thebarman and Grand Marshall, another Group 1 trifecta for the Chris Waller stable.

Anyway, back to Caulfield and race 6, which was the Catanach Jewellers Handicap, a race over 1800 metres.

The amusingly named Ungrateful Ellen started as favourite and beat Mildura Cup winner Gingerboy by a short margin. Himalaya Dream was third.

Ungrateful Ellen in the pre parade ring

Gingerboy in the pre parade ring

Himalaya Dream on his way to the barriers

Race 6 down the straight – Himalaya Dream leads with Gingerboy & Ungrateful Ellen about to overtake him

As previously mentioned, Black Heart Bart won race 7, the Victoria Handicap carrying top weight. He beat home Charmed Harmony who set the pace and Eclair Choice.

Charmed Harmony in the mounting yard

Eclair Choice in the mounting yard

Black Heart Bart in the winners rug posing for photos

Before heading home, I checked out the stalls area to see if Last Typhoon (Typhoon Tracy’s only foal) had arrived. He was there, with a group of women admiring him. I assume one or other of them was his owner. They got the strapper to bring him out for a pat, which of course I took advantage of myself. He’s a friendly young horse, obviously sweet natured. He was then taken off for a walk, which where I snapped the following photo.

Last Typhoon in the walking ring

He had no luck in his race and finished a distant 12th.

On Saturday night, tough old Australian sprinter Buffering won the Al Quoz Sprint from a top class field. He’s now 8 years old, but appears to be getting even better with age. He’s one of the last sprinters still around who raced against Black Caviar in her heyday.

And on Thursday night at Moonee Valley, Peter Moody ended his training career on a high note, when Flamberge won the Group 1 William Reid Stakes, by a nose from Holler, with Japonisme running third closely behind.

It will be strange not seeing Peter Moody at the track as he’s always been there every time I’ve attended. He’s a top bloke and deserves his place in racing history for the way he handled the great Black Caviar’s career.

Racing in Melbourne is pretty uninteresting from now on, so I doubt I’ll attend many races until the spring. I’ll miss my Saturday afternoons at the track, but no doubt will find other things to blog about.

For a start, I have two concerts to attend this week, the first Jason Isbell tomorrow night at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and the lovely Eilen Jewell will be playing at Thornbury Theatre on Wednesday.

I was going to see Frazey Ford at Caravan Music Club on Friday, but the person I was going with cannot attend, so I’m giving it a miss.