Last Sunday about twenty-five hardy souls enjoyed summer in Warrnambool at the Jericho Cup. Thanks to Peter Lynch for organising our wonderful marquee again. It was great to see Dillo’s horse salute the judges. Despite the weather, it was a very enjoyable day.
As with any sporting endeavour, the key to success is preparation before the event.
Bomber was careful not to step foot in our marquee, lest it cost him the $10 entry fee.
The bloke on the big telly looked familiar.
Les’ day started off very well. He went up to a bookie and clearly asked for two dollars each way on number six in the first. Horse number six duly flew home ahead of the field and Les was in celebration mode. This lasted right up until the point when he handed his winning ticket over to the bookie, who informed Les the ticket was for two dollars each way on number seven in the first. The bookie had put Les' money on a rank outsider instead of the favourite he had asked for. Les wasn’t happy, and walked off to check out the engineering on the new grandstand to see if it was about to fall down.
On a parochial note, it was terrific to see our ‘Rotary Horse’ Vassa Blue have an outing in the last. It was particularly pleasing because our other ‘Rotary Horse’, Physicality, is currently taking time off to deal with some mental health/emotional issues. In his last run Physicality managed to get boxed in and have his run checked in a field of five, which is quite hard to do. Who wouldn’t be upset by that?
Fortunately, Vassa Blue has not suffered any anxiety or depression, these symptoms being entirely restricted to the horse’s owners. As mentioned, the horse was entered into the last race. In the past connections have avoided running Vassa Blue in the last race on the card because of concerns that he might not get home before dusk falls. Vassa prepared for the race by running the slowest barrier trial in recorded history. After keeping pace with the ambulance for most of the race, our beloved equine conveyance stormed home to finish a creditable seventh. According to the trainer, he will be ‘better for the run’.
The day after the races your correspondent was listening to children read at the primary school. A girl read to me the ancient Greek story of Pandora. Pandora lived an idyllic life but opened the forbidden box and released all the pain and suffering in the world. Distraught at what she had done, she was told there was one more thing left in the box. She opened the box again and released hope, which landed on everyone and gave them some measure of comfort. The ancient Greeks really understood horse racing.
