"It follows that these pieces are some small celebration of that cliche they call the romance of the turf, this is the fine thread.  This romance, this pursuit of dreams, is what makes the turf special.  If you like gambling, there are poker machines.  If you like speed contests, late-night television is frequently a snarl of Formula One fury. The turf is more than these things.  There must, for instance, be a romance, or at least some strange force, which propels otherwise intelligent people out of bed two hours before dawn to work four horses, all of them fundamentally flawed... The great thing about racing in Australia is that it is rotten with democracy.  This is what distinguishes it most from Europe and North America.  And just when they say this democracy is dead, flattened by big cheque books ... Vic Rail, hefting an old Syd Hill saddle and wearing jeans with air-conditioning vents, steals the Melbourne autumn and is seen heading off for drinks with...

It is officially Slipper Week. I skipped across town this morning, again relentlessly getting my children dressed, fed and ready for school much earlier than usual.  There were pony photographs at stake!  So having done a mafia style drop off to my friend Charo's house, who will take them to school for me (humm, did I actually say goodbye???) I bolted across town heading for Neville Layt's stables and my filly, Karuta Queen, or Lilly as she's known about the stables.   Arriving just before the scheduled time of 8am (hurrah, on time, feel small sense of achievement, however I can usually be on time when there is a pony involved), Karuta Queen was still in her box.  A very lovely journalist, James Buckley, from the Canberra Times was there, along with a photographer from the paper.  James had arranged the reproduction in the Canbera Times of the image I took of the filly after being hosed  in the week before the Black Opal, and he's a nice chap. Kar...

Basil, brave loyal kitty that he is, has made it home to my sister's house.  He was hit by a car yesterday, and has a badly broken pelvis and suffering from shock and hyperthermia.  He woke them at 1.30am, after dragging himself home by his front legs...  Because of the amount of times I visit my sister's house in Preston, and the fact that, despite the fact that I am a cat person at heart but am now relegated to two dog and NO cats, Basil is close to the heart as well.  He's in the Kitty Hospital. Oh kitty.... Basil and the Bunny, 1 November 2010, the day before the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup.  The neighbours bunny came to the yard for a visit.  It was really very funny.   This is Basil, on the day the great So You Think had left Saintly Place.  I'd been out that morning to see the horse depart, and came home, and wandered about my sister's house in a little bit of a daze, with Basil keeping Jessica and me company.