Back where we started.. Lockdown 5.0

Well, curse it all, here we are again.   Lockdown 5.0 and as with the other Lockdowns, it sucks.  There's a fair bit of déja vu about it and yes, we're getting pretty good at Lockdowns here in Melbourne and Victoria.  This is because we've  done this before, having seen off that awful 2nd Wave.  It seems clear to most that without proper vaccination rates that a swift lockdown is the only option, but gee they are tough!  I just wish the NSW Government would apply the same logic in Greater Sydney because the current settings are pretty Namby Pamby (hands up who’s watched the Rik Mayall movie ‘Drop Dead Fred’?  It’s got a super scene involving Namby Pamby FYI….).  I remain deeply concerned about that outbreak, with my mum who’s almost 80 living on her own there, and all my NSW based stallions waiting to be photographed in August and September.

After originally feeling like we were sailing along happily, we've now been struck down by multiple lockdowns and outbreaks, and they are dreadful.  Again, we're trying to put the down time to good use.  It is a quite time of the year for us as we are still unable to leave the country and travel to Europe but the speed with which we can be stood down from the racetrack remains hideously swift, even though the Victorian Government considers it a permitted activity!!!!  We hope there is more certainty by the time the 2021 Victorian Spring Carnival rolls around and continue to liaise constructively with RVL about access to the racetrack.  It’s really hard seeing industry photographers still working in Greater Sydney (who have WAY higher case numbers than us) while we are unable to work. Racing NSW has a different approach to photographers.

So, what have I been doing with my time in Lockdown 4.0 and now Lockdown 5.0?  Well, I’ve continued to blast along refilling and re-sleeving the precious negative collection which was showing signs of deterioration and quite frankly from 2003 onwards was pretty disorganised!  There were days when my office floor and desk felt knee high in negatives and folders and sleeving! I’ve also been scanning the old negatives as I’ve gone, as I move along the extensive task of digitising the back library, and have discovered plenty of treasures along the way in terms of photographs I had long forgotten taking!  And I’ve also done a big overhaul of my website, which involved changing platforms and migrating the www.bronwenhealy.com.au website across to where my client galleries have resided for several years now.  It’s early days, there are still likely to be loads of errors and areas to be tweaked, but just quietly, I think it is looking ok!  I hope you’ll have a little browse and see what you think.

Lockdown 4.0 wiped out almost all of my photographic work and turned what I thought would be a busy month leading up to the Magic Millions and Inglis weanling sales into a really quiet one. It came at the very end of the personal time I had to take between February and May to undergo Hyperbaric Treatment at the Alfred Hospital so that the surgeon could safely remove my poor sick tooth from my even sicker jawbone which clearly didn’t enjoy the radiation treatment I had to do in 2014.  It should have happened 12 months ago, but the 2nd Wave shut the medical system here in Melbourne down for over 6 months.  After originally bounding immediately back to work at the completion of my treatment for my long term Woodside Park Stud (now rebranding to Morningside) all of a sudden the work stopped.  As soon as we went in to Lockdown 4.0 the flow on effect was that, with the Great Southern Sale pushed back almost a month, farms started worrying about their budgets, which in turn affected me.  

Despite all of our hard work getting back on track under lockdown conditions towards the end of last year’s Victorian Spring Racing Carnival, RVL again advised us that they were refusing to give photographers access to the racetrack. As someone who works 100% in the racing and breeding industry this is constant source of frustration and stress, especially when we watch our colleagues interstate, (and overseas) many of whom live and work Greater Sydney, who able to go about their work unaffected.  

Following the end of Lockdown 4.0 RVL eventually allowed to return to work and thankfully this was just in time for Jamie Kah’s attempt at breaking 100 wins.  It took several meetings for her to reach the 100 and there was great anticipation surrounding it, but this remarkable young woman achieved the historic milestone at Caulfield last Saturday, and is now sitting pretty on 101 metropolitan winners for the 2020-2021 Racing Season.  She’s so composed, is very modest and unassuming and she never makes it all about her - seriously, there’s not a hint of a ‘me me me’ approach to this lovely rider.  She just calmly and quietly goes about her work in a very un-boasty fashion, and I really like that about her.  She sits beautifully on a horse and is just as strong as the boys in a close finish and clearly has lovely balance and hands.  She’s quietly spoken and there’s a great deal to like about her, and I’m so pleased that I was on course to record her moment.

And then thanks to the actions of the infected removalists, Lockdown 5.0 was announced and we were again stood down from the track by RVL.  We are hoping madly it is only for the one Saturday with the early Spring races only a couple of weeks away.  The lockout doesn't just apply to race day and we can’t attend track work, barrier trials, anything, but again, we are trying our best to remain optimistic and suspect at the moment anyway during this crucial 5 day period the best course of action really is to stay at home!  It’s just as well the weather is completely miserable!

The Victorian State Government currently has the entire state of NSW as a Red Zone, and, thanks to the appalling conduct of those wretched Sydney removalists  (‘thanks for NOTHING!!!!!!!!’ we all shouted!) not only are we are back in Lockdown 5.0 but I suspect the Victorian Government will be even jumpier about the risk posed from NSW.  Despite this I remain hopeful that I will be able to get to Regional NSW for my stallion shoots.  Having missed them in 2020 because of the Victorian 2nd Wave, I’m do not want to miss them in 2021, and am prepared to do the 14 days home isolation on my return to Victoria.  This may cause my Hunter Valley dates to need to move forward a week so that my attendance at the Caulfield Guineas meeting isn't compromised.  I hope the outbreak will be more under control by then though and at least Regional NSW (and the ACT where I usually stop off on the way to the Hunter) will be returned to an Orange Zone.  And also by then I will have had my 2nd COVID vaccination so will have that precious ‘fully vaccinated’ status.  My teenage son, who’s a Type 1 Diabetic and therefore was eligible under 1b, has had his first dose of Pfizer (he breezed through without a single side effect too, surely this is reassuring to the vaccine hesitant!!) and he will be fully vaccinated by early August.

Finally, it would be absolutely remiss of me to not mention the sad loss of the legendary stallion GALILEO (Sadler’s Wells x Urban Sea) at 23 years.  It was a day we all knew was coming but I’m sure nobody in the industry ever wanted to face.  This horse was really something, as a racehorse and a stallion.  He did everything.  He won a Classic.  He won against the older horses.  He was bred in the purple.  By a champion and out of a champion.  His dam Urban Sea was an Arc winner and 2 of her foals also won this prestigious race, because she is the dam of not just Galileo but also SEA THE STARS (Cape Cross).  Then as a sire, Galileo continued setting new benchmarks and breaking all records.  He sired countless Epsom Derby winners and many other Classic winners, both fillies and colts.  His record as a Broodmare sire continues to impress and above all, he sired champions on the track and in the breeding barn.  And he did what many stallions fail to do - particularly stallions whose progeny fall into the ‘commercially sexy’ category and are hence rushed off to the stud without proving themselves against older horses - he sired a true All Time Great. Of course I speak of the mighty unbeaten champion racehorse FRANKEL here (a horse who is close to my heart).  Galileo he also a champion sire of sires and the great Frankel looks set to really seal his legacy by being not only a truly great racehorse but a magnificent stallion as well - Frankel of course being in the middle of a record breaking season this year.  

I finally got to meet and work with Galileo in June 2018 and it really was such a thrill.  He was the most beautiful gentle soul and we adored and revered him.  The outpouring of affection, appreciation and grief when his death was announced was a testament to the magnificence of the horse.  He really did deserve the Tolkienesque phrase ‘He is the Lord of All Horses’.  I’m in the process of writing a special Blog post dedicated to this magnificent stallion and will post it when it is complete.