Oh Filly. What went wrong????

This Sunday involved a mad scramble to get from Melbourne back home to Canberra, in time to catch Karuta Queen running in, and hopefully winning, the Black Opal Stakes.  There had been much promotion of the filly and her attempt to keep her unbeaten run intact.  She's trained out of Queanbeyan.  The Canberra Times ran a full page copy of the head shot I took of her after her work on Tuesday, and the Club took out some advertising, done very artfully, using one of the images from Tuesday's sequences, saying "I'll be there...  Will you?  Karuta Queen".  

Flying back in to Canberra, I went down to the baggage collection area to await my bags, and saw Corey Brown. I hadn't realised that he was riding in Canberra today, as I hadn't looked properly over the fields, but had a chat to him while we waited for the luggage to come out.  He asked if I was getting a cab to the track, to which I replied I had my car here and that I was going to drive.  So he asked if he could get a lift with me.  To which I said as long as he didn't mind all the horse feed in the boot and the fact that my children are little grots.  Then my bag didn't show up (not the camera bag which comes with me as checked luggage), and it turned out someone had taken mine by mistake because the bags were the same (though honestly, mine was much fuller, bringing superfluous camera accessories, etc, back from the past month spent photographing in Melbourne, so how on earth did they mix that up!!!), so Corey jumped in to a cab while I gave Qantas a contact number to call me on, and then dashed across to the racecourse.  Thank goodness the Club gave me somewhere nice to park, or I'd have missed the Guineas, which is what Corey was worried about missing.

As it turned out, Corey was riding the Bart Cummings trained Kudakulari in the Guineas, and it was lucky that he made it in time because the horse won.  

The Opal was next.  I photographed the race from down the track, as I'd done for Black Caviar.  I do admit to feelings of niggling doubt just before they jumped.  It was blazingly hot, and it's been so mild.  I told myself she'd won on the Gold Coast, where it's very warm and very humid, but still....

By the 200m mark, it was obvious that the filly was in trouble.  The big colt You're Canny ranged up alongside her and eventually got the better of her.  I was so disappointed, that I admit that it took a little bit of the gloss off what's been a really wonderful weekend.  The report after the race said "Lilly" pulled up a little bit lame (grade 1 lameness, whatever that means).  Troy, her devoted strapper and Izzy were all there, and they all looked so disappointed and concerned after the race, and she looked tired as well.


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