More Joyous

There are some horses who are good from the moment they set foot on a track.  So You Think was one.  Sunline absolutely another.  They come out, and we wonder whether they will last, or whether it will be a one-hit wonder, albeit a brilliant one, like Amelia's dream was.  Sometimes they show this brilliance as 2 year olds, and it is rare for a horse to be brilliant at two, and to actually go on with it.  

More Joyous is such a horse.  There was a boom on her from the word go.  Perhaps her breeding had something to do with it.  Perhaps it was because John Singleton owned her, or Gai Waterhouse trained her.  But in the case of this wonderful mare, it was mostly due to the horse herself.  As a raw and slight 2 year old filly, she came out and made us shake our heads.  Perhaps she dodged the curse of the Silver Slipper Stakes when her saddle slipped, and she bucked for the first couple of hundred metres.  Nash Rawiller, her regular partner, stayed on.  How did you do it Nash!  I just fall off when Freelance bucks!  Rearing I can handle, bucking no!  She redeemed herself with a win in the Riesling Stakes, but failed on the heavy track of the Slipper.  

As a 3yo filly, she won the Group 1 Flight Stakes, and the Tea Rose Stakes, but being a lightly framed little thing, they did not head to Melbourne for the Spring Carnival and she was spelled.  She probably failed to come up in the autumn of 2010, but in the spring, she finally filled out and was spell binding.  She won the George Main Stakes and the Toorak Handicap, in the process setting a weight carrying record for a mare with 58kg, and then tried her heart out behind So You Think in the Cox Plate to run 5th behind this great champion.

We didn't know what that effort had taken out of her, but she returned to Royal Randwick, her home track and one that she has had so much success on, and lined up in the Breeders Classic.  She didn't let anyone down, and thankfully the rain just held off.  She made my day, and is now supposed to head for the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield on 26 February and a showdown with that other great mare, Typhoon Tracy.













 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Joyous Family

Image
Another famous and successful thoroughbred family that I have a reasonably complete library of is the family of the champion racemare, More Joyous.  She is a bay mare, foaled in 2005, which makes her a year older than Black Caviar. More Joyous is by the great American black stallion (and one of "my Boys") More Than Ready.  She's out of the Sunday Silence mare Sunday Joy, who was out of the grand broodmare Joie Denise (who died not all that long ago). Sunday Joy won the AJC Oaks in and is a half sister to Tuesday Joy. All 4 mares were/are owned by John Singleton and reside at his gorgeous Strawberry Hills Farm at Mt White, NSW. More Joyous and Nash Rawiller.  Futurity Stakes, on Blue Diamond Day.  26 February 2011.  One of my favourite images of the great mare. More Joyous, like her contemporary Black Caviar, is now closer to the end of her career than the beginning. But it is one I've chronicled in a similar fashion to the way I have documented the
Read more

The Legacy of Eight Carat: From the Vault Volume I

Image
We have been back in lockdown here in Victoria. Lockdown 5.0 to be precise and as a result it made us go back to feeling like sad sacks.  After having seen off Lockdown 4.0 a teeny tiny bit triumphantly, where we saw off both Delta and Kappa variants (evil beasts that they are - curse you stinky COVID - curse you), we had literally only just gotten back to work before being very suddenly plunged back into Lockdown 5.0 after the visit of those very nice removalists.   'Thanks very much!!!!' we all shouted indignantly!!!!  A key difference with Lockdown 5.0 was that half the country also into lockdown at the same time which made us feel slightly less sad.  The Victorian Government doesn't muck about anymore when it comes to outbreaks.  Their reaction is swift and severe and not at all namby pamby.  I just wish the same logic would be applied to Sydney which continues to deteriorate, much to my dismay.  This week we took our first tentative steps out of Lockdown 5.0, hurrah f
Read more

The physical drain of riding horses

Image
Most people agree that the life of a jockey is a difficult one.  There are a handful that rise to the top, and do extremely well out of the Sport of Kings.  The vast majority however struggle with their weights, and do their best to avoid and/or overcome injury.  Anyone who has ever been pelted off a horse would know that it doesn't tickle!  And of course the older you get, the more it hurts!  We used to fang around on our ponies, bareback, in headstalls and leadropes, never wearing a riding hat.  Completely fearless, and I am sure that on the odd occasion I parted company with my horse, I used to bounce.  In fact I rarely used to fall off, unless the horse came down as well, I guess all those years of galloping around bareback meant my balance and ability to swing my body with the horse was pretty good.  I'd like to say that I could still ride the same, but age and the maturing mind catches up, and you start thinking of the consequences of 'what if I come off', which
Read more