What a difference 12 months makes..

April 19, 2013

This morning I drove out to Royal Randwick for the trials, because Black Caviar's half brother All Too Hard was running in Trial 6, an open 3YO trial over 1050m on the inside grass. As I work on the images, because I am now getting more disciplined with my captioning I went into my saved captions, and there in front of me was a saved caption for 19 April 2012.

On this day 12 months ago I'd gotten up at the crack of dawn, in the pouring rain, and headed to the airport. I was breathless with anticipation for more reasons than one. I flew to Melbourne then we drove to Nagambie, where I met properly for the first time the man who is responsible for the legend that is Black Caviar. I speak of course of Rick Jamieson, who'd allowed me to visit his Gilgai Farm.

I drove to the farm in a blue falcon. It wasn't nearly as cool as the Bad Ass car I'd been given by Hertz the weeks before, but I liked it nonetheless. As I drove down the long driveway I gazed in wonder at the property that was unfolding before it, because it's incredibly beautiful. I then spent a lovely 2 hours with Rick and his Famous horses, which included a fascinating tour around the farm. One of his famous horses is of course his now legendary broodmare, Helsinge, who is the dam of Black Caviar. The other was her furry almost weanling colt, who was by one of "My Boys" in Redoute's Choice. Gilgai Farm is so stunningly beautiful there was a part of me that didn't want to leave, but I had other plans, so I drove the blue falcon out the pristine driveways and returned to Nagambie.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since this time. The Famous Pony and her continuing march along the road to immortality. Her journey has been well documented on this Blog. Helsinge has continued to cover herself in glory, with her then 2 year old son All Too Hard having won his first 3 starts, going on to win the G1 Caulfield Guineas, run a head second in the Cox Plate, and then won the CF Orr Stakes and Futurity Stakes. And the colt I photographed as a furry almost weanling grew into a sleek, handsome and much sought after colt who caused a media frenzy on 9 April 2013 when he went through the sales ring and sold for a staggering $5million. Rick and I have become good friends, and talk regularly and I've returned to Gilgai Farm a couple of times since this date.