More Joyous.  The Mighty Mare.  She came to Caulfield on Saturday 26th February, and took the G1 Futurity Stakes.  Need I say more!!!!

I spent last Saturday at Caulfield Racecourse.  It was Blue Diamond Stakes Day, and it is a race meeting that I photograph each year because of the wonderful fields it usually draws, and the fact that I love being at Caulfield so much.   This year a colt, sired by Elusive Quality (the sire in America of superstar Smarty Jones) and out of the Danehill mare Watchful started a raging favourite.  His name was Sepoy, and he was bred and owned by Darley Australia.  I do a lot of work for Darley.  They are a valued client of mine, and I like the team very much.   It was therefore with great pleasure that I watched Sepoy absolutely run away with the Blue Diamond Stakes.  It is rare to see a 2 year old remain unbeaten, and even rarer to see them dominate their races so completely.  He'd done this in his lead up races, but we've seen this before, and many come with huge reputations to the Group 1 race and fall apart.  Sepoy is the ex...

Put simply, this mare has to be seen to be believed.  It is difficult to put her performance on Saturday into words, although I'm sure that my friend Les Carlyon could do it effortlessly.  The great sprinting mare Black Caviar (Bel Esprit - Helsinge) fronted up to Flemington yesterday afternoon, to contest the G1 Lightning Stakes first up.  She again put her unbeaten record on the line, and with this mare, you always wonder about her soundness, because she's had niggling problems.  There was much written about the mare in the lead up to the race.  She'd won 8 straight, and was poised to join a handful of horses that had won their first 9 starts.  The massive gelding Hay List was again lining up to challenge the mare.  She'd beaten him convincingly in the Patinack, but clearly the horse wasn't right, so most were expecting an improved performance from him.  His trainer was one of the only ones game to give the mare another shake though, because th...