The More Joyous Saga - Part II.
The More Joyous Saga found itself back in the limelight yesterday. It's not my role, or desire, to weigh into the debate. However the 2nd installment of this saga was because it came to light that More Joyous went into the Group 1 Queen of the Turf Stakes on Golden Slipper day, as a $1.70 favourite, after not being able to gallop all week due to a hoof abscess.
I realise that there are degrees of seriousness to hoof abcesses. My 2nd riding/dressage horse, and ex-racer thoroughbred had one once. Wow... He was as lame as a duck!!! Incidentally, that's a funny saying really, isn't it? Ducks never strike me as looking particularly lame, but they certainly waddle as well as the next overweight person. Waddling looks cute in a duck though.. Anyway, back to my lame horse.. He couldn't put an ounce of weight on it and was pathetically miserable. Once the farrier burst and drained the abcess, he was instantly more conmfortable. However the foot still required significant treatment, poulticing and bandaging, and I'm pretty sure he needed antibiotics. He also had the best part of a week off work, and was confined to a yard. So I kind of feel I know a little bit about the subject.
This was the quote from Gai Waterhouse the day before the race:
I realise that there are degrees of seriousness to hoof abcesses. My 2nd riding/dressage horse, and ex-racer thoroughbred had one once. Wow... He was as lame as a duck!!! Incidentally, that's a funny saying really, isn't it? Ducks never strike me as looking particularly lame, but they certainly waddle as well as the next overweight person. Waddling looks cute in a duck though.. Anyway, back to my lame horse.. He couldn't put an ounce of weight on it and was pathetically miserable. Once the farrier burst and drained the abcess, he was instantly more conmfortable. However the foot still required significant treatment, poulticing and bandaging, and I'm pretty sure he needed antibiotics. He also had the best part of a week off work, and was confined to a yard. So I kind of feel I know a little bit about the subject.
This was the quote from Gai Waterhouse the day before the race:
"Singo's mare More Joyous will be a worthy odds-on chance in the Group One Queen of the Turf. What a perennial star she is. Under the set weight conditions, only bad luck will beat her. She is too good". Gai Waterhouse. 5 April 2013.More Joyous did not win the race, and mostly opinion seemed to be united in that bad luck stopped her from winning after a chequered run in transit. This is a summary of the race:
Of course More Joyous later ran terribly in the G1 All Aged Stakes and was at the centre of the spectacular ending to the long and close friendship between Gai Waterhouse and John Singleton."Nash Rawiller has had many magic moments on More Joyous (NZ) but Saturday was not one of them when he was unable to force a passage through a wall of horses in the Group 1 Inglis Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1500m). Past achievements do not open doors on the racetrack and there was certainly no door to be even opened for Rawiller. He might have been better to have gone outside and around to achieve the aim." Rob Burnett. 7 April 2013.
On the subject of relationships and friendships, last night I watched two clever and funny send ups of
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull on the ABC's Wednesday Night Fever. And I found myself recalling this comment from the current Leader of the Opposition:
"TONY ABBOTT: If we’re honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband. Not withstanding all his or her faults, you find that he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he’s employing someone while he is in fact a boss."
Is Tony Abbott right about this????? Should we keep friends, jobs or relationship that are bad and/or toxic? Surely if we do we inadvertently perpetuating the behaviour, because accepting the behaviour means you're ok with it? That doesn't strike me as good for anyone if you consider below:
"Life requires consequences and it is the only way that we learn from our actions and get to connect the dots with what results... Shady folk don’t experience enough natural consequences. If they did, they’d have to address their issues. Instead, where one person won’t put up with their behaviour, someone else will.... There are no negative consequences".Of course I'm not implying or suggesting Gai Waterhouse is shady. That's not my place. Personally I like Gai. She's always warm and friendly to me. Should the public have been made aware of More Joyous' problems? Given that she started at $1.70, at the risk of taking sides, I think they should have. We'll never know if she'd have won the race anyway because she got cluttered up in traffic and most analysis said this cost her the race. But knowing about the absence and the missed trackwork and lameness, there's a little question mark in my head now that wonders had she gotten a better run in transit, perhaps with the issues she'd experienced she wouldn't have beaten Appearance anyway?
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