Karuta Queen and the Road to the Slipper.

I will begin the first installment of what I hope will become an interesting photo essay on Karuta Queen's journey to the Golden Slipper with a quote from my good friend Les Carylon.
"The true arena is, has been, and always will be, the racecourse.  At just about every meeting, horses by $1,000 stallions out of $2,000 mares win city races.  So if you are a battler, don't think too deeply about Bart's $1.1 million dollar colt.  Dream of Vo Gogue ($5,000) and Bonecrusher ($3,250)".  Chasing a Dream. 
Les wrote this piece on 11 April 1988, and therefore the figures in today's terms would be slightly inflated, but the message still remains.  And the little filly I visited yesterday, at the humble stables of her trainer Neville Layt, or "Nifty Nev" as he is fondly known.  Neville trains at Queanbeyan racetrack.  It's a small course.  It does, however, lay claim to being the former home of Takeover Target, who was trained out of this region before Joe moved to Coffs Habour, and I cannot recall whether Frank Cleary trained Catbird out of Canberra or Queanbeyan.  

Karuta Queen outside the Queanbeyan Stables of Neville Layt
Karuta Queen is by the Arrowfield born and bred stallion Not a Single Doubt.  It is with pride that I say I photograph John Messara's stallions for him.  It is a successful and wonderful stud farm.  Not a Single Doubt stood on the Arrowfield roster for $12,500 (plus GST) in 2010.  He was the cheapest stallion on the roster.  I am not sure that this will be true come 2011, particularly if his flaxen maned daughter can take the Slipper!  

Not a Single Doubt (Redoute's Choice - Singles Bar) about to go to his paddock on 21 September 2009.
I have been quietly hoping, ever since I photographed  the horse at Arrowfield in 2009 ,that "Singles", as he is known on the farm, will produce a really great horse.  And the reason for this is because he was a joy to photograph in the paddock, and the sequence we produced of him, in glittering morning sunlight on a crisp September morning, was truly beautiful.  He has poise, strength, and he's that little bit arrogant.  He's masculine and he throws the foreleg out in play like his great sire Redoute's Choice does.  He coat gleamed and shone, a testament to the stallion staff at Arrowfield and his body rippled with muscles.  



Like Danzero and Flying Spur before him, "Singles" carries that distinctive Arrowfield brand.
 

Throwing out the foreleg.  It's a trait of his sire, Redoute's Choice.
Karuta Queen is owned by Glenn and Viva Williams.  They bought the filly, who is out of the Final Card mare Card Queen, at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast in 2010 for $30,000.  Karuta Queen came from the draft of Stuart Ramsey's Turangga Farm.  After I'd photographed the filly, I sat on the grass for about an hour talking to Neville.  He spoke in glowing terms of Stuart Ramsey, how frequently the filly's owner phoned just to see how she was doing (several times every day, she phoned while I was there photographing her), and of how much he liked dealing with farms like Arrowfield, Vinery and Darley.  I liked hearing this, because these three farms have been valued clients of mine for a number of years now, and I tend to view the stallions as "my boys" once they go before the view finder of my camera.  As I've said before, with horses, for me, it is very personal, so it's nice to hear stories like this.
Karuta Queen
Karuta Queen has been to the races 4 times, and won them all.  Twice at Rosehill, once at Wyong, and most recently, she blitzed a quality field in the $2 million BMW Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) on the Gold Coast on January 15th.  She won easily, in a time of 1.11.0 on a slow (6) track, during the period that Queensland was suffering such terrible flooding.  Last year Crystal Lily won the Golden Slipper (also on a slow track, but no number in my book to give which slow), in 1.10.78 so the time is up there.
Karuta Queen already knows how to pose for a camera.
She then spent three weeks in the paddock, and has returned in fine order.  She is muscular, and well put together, and her colouring is that of my first horse, a little arab called Rajah, who used to take off me ALL the time.  She has a lovely little habit of wriggling her lips while she's in the box, and likes to do things her way.  Neville is currently laid up with a foot that he's had to have an operation on, so photographs of him and the filly are pending, but we will be back next week, as I have plans to visit on pretty much a weekly basis, as well as get some shots of her working as well.



Her next start is undecided.  She may start in the Black Opal, and apparently all of Canberra and Queanbeyan is desperate for her to do so.  Like any small town, the interest in the local filly with a shot at stardom is immense. Neville said he's inundated with requests to see the filly, to have her appear, and he says he fears no other horse he's seen race so far in this 2yo season.  He was terribly generous with his time, warm and welcoming, and I thank him for that, and look forward to chronically her journey to the richest race for 2 year olds in the world.  With any luck there will be joy at the end of it, and the winning photographs of her come Slipper day will be up for all to enjoy!


Her nickname is Lilly, and she's being strapped her by Izzy (not sure of the spelling, sorry)
No Lilly, the camera is that way!

 
Dancing Pony!


 
Wants to do it HER way!  That's foot stamping if I ever saw it!

Comments

  1. Horses do photograph well - and you've got some beauties here. Nice!

    ReplyDelete

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