Oh goodness.  They are forecasting between 80-150mm of rain for Canberra tomorrow.  And rain until Sunday.  Raining in Sydney as well, heavy too, up to and including Saturday, which was when I was planning on nipping out to Rosehill Gardens for the Silver Slipper Stakes and Hobartville.  The kids and I will leave for Sydney on Friday afternoon.  I had better pack the wet weather gear for the cameras, and us.  It will be nice to be away, and to see my mum.

My options for the Australian Cup weekend in Melbourne have suddenly narrowed alarmingly..  My flights are booked and paid for.  But what an extraordinary waste of money that now appears to have been, seeing as I will now probably have to cancel them, and in addition to the lost revenue that comes from sitting at home instead of working, wear yet another $80 change fee that Qantas charges whenever you are forced to change your plans.  Thank goodness the Pony is in the paddock and won't be trying to win back to back Newmarket Handicaps, or my despair would be complete. Black Caviar winning the 2010 Newmarket Handicap. Black Caviar's last victory, her 19th, in the G1 Lightning Stakes.  It was taken only 10 days ago, feels much longer than that though.

Every now and again, when I go through photographs, I stumble upon an image I may have taken a number of years ago, and not looked at, or never published.  This is one of those occasions.  I'm on a slow morning today, because little Jessica has been running a fever for the last 24 hours, and it spiked again early this morning, so I will keep her home from school today.  And while I was aimlessly fooling around with photographs, as is my want, I came across these, that I took of one of my all time favourite journalists.  He is the highly esteemed ABC senior reporter, Kerry O'Brien, who has always had a keen interest in horse racing.  You could always rely on Kerry, when he was hosting the 7.30 Report, to throw in at least one feature interview on racing during the Spring Carnival.  I don't watch the show religiously anymore since I had the kids, and began watching it less when Kerry stopped doing it as well, but I always liked these images of him.  I t...

It's official.  This is the terrible, awful, no good, very bad week.  I have been wearing the same Pony Necklace every single day since Caulfield Cup day 2010.  It's my good luck charm.  Apart from other things, I have linked it to my special relationship with the Very Special Pony, Black Caviar, as I have worn it on every single time I have photographed her winning.  The charm is a Flying Pony, or a Pegasus, and with the necklace, cost a whole $17.00, and the little ring attaching the charm to the necklace has just snapped in half.  Is it silliness to be trying to work out how to get another little loopy bit attached to the charm so it can be strung back onto the necklace when the whole thing only cost $17 in the first place??  After wringing my hands in despair I have attached it to my charm bracelet, and thought I can't think about this today, I will think about it tomorrow. I really do hate this week.  So much...... If you look close...

Things seem hard this week.  The heavy rain they have predicted for the Canberra region started around lunchtime today.  It's cool, and grey and gloomy and the rain is falling more heavily to the south, where we live.  It is funny how easily the weather can mirror your moods.  And the coolness and dampness is in stark contrast to the weekend in Melbourne, which was struck by one of the southern capital's killer heatwaves when I was down for the Blue Diamond Stakes. When I was watching the long range weather forecast last week, they originally predicted 34 for Melbourne on Saturday, which was a grim enough reading.  But they revised it, with cruel accuracy, and we were forced to endure 38 degrees at Caulfield for the Blue Diamond Stakes meeting, which was truly evil.   I'm not a fan of the hot weather, in fact, I despise it.  I'm not built for the heat, and the problem with photographing on track is that so much of the exposed areas are ma...

Yesterday must rank as one of the most trying I've spent on a racecourse.  The heat was awful, and by the end of the day I felt physically sick.  The night before, I decided it would be fun to throw my swimmers in the car, and get changed at the track and after the last race, knowing it was going to be a stinker, and drive to Nelly's beach and have a swim.  I went ahead with this plan, despite feeling sick and sorry, because I knew it would make me feel better, even if it did mean I didn't get home until it was dark. I am used to driving to Nelly's beach in the darkness, and everything looked different in the daylight.  Fatigue didn't help, and almost instantly I made a mess and went the wrong way, and had to turn around and go back.  But, as I always say, you're allowed one u-turn before you admit that you stuffed it up utterly.  It seemed to take far longer to get there last night than when I have been driving there in the early hours of the morning ...

I wrote on Friday about two members of what must surely be the highest profile family in the Australian Studbook at present racing at Flemington on Saturday.  On arriving into Melbourne, one of the first things I did was to text a friend, to check whether the elder of the two horses was still in fact running and hadn't been scratched on raceday morning which the trainer had indicated was always a chance.  Good news, the 5 year brown mare was still running in Race 6.  Her name is of course Black Caviar (Bel Esprit - Helsinge) and she was racing in the G1 Lightning Stakes. I got to the track fairly early, and then when watching the 2 year olds in the mounting yard parade before race 1, which was the Listed Talindert Stakes, suddenly recalled 'oh, that's right, the little brother, is he there??', and yes, number 6, in the Patinack Farm colours, was parading around.  The bay colt, now named All Too Hard (Casino Prince - Helsinge), isn't immediately like his famous ...