My favourite books growing up?  The first was a series,  The Black Stallion, about a fabulous, fast, huge, headstrong and beautiful black stallion.  " The Black " became the best racehorse and sire in America, and they made the first two books into films.  The first film was visually spectacular.  I am convinced to this day that this book series contributed greatly to my love of horse racing, just because it was all about this one horse, and the love Alec had for the horse. There was Gone With the Wind .  Scarlett was feisty, tough, gorgeous, headstrong. and liked to do things her way.  Ok, she had a stupid obsession over Ashley Wilkes.  Honestly.  What girl in their right mind would chose him over Rhett Butler!!  Then there was Watership Down .  It was about a group of rabbits, lead by the brother duo of Hazel and Fiver, with a feisty companion called Bigwig and some others.  The story involved Fiver, who was little, but co...

As my almost 9 year old son struts around making fun of the song currently playing on my iPod, that being Super Trouper, by ABBA, and in the process SERIOUSLY putting in doubt his new scooter that is set to be unveiled tomorrow morning, comes this admission.  I am an ABBA Girl.  Always have been.  And driving in my darling Dan, listening to ABBA is actually how I often spend the hours on route to another fabulous horse photo shoot!  And what's more, I don't care what anybody thinks about that!  I'm sure my gorgeous boys, who are no doubt currently dozing in their boxes up in Scone, would agree with me! I bet my dear Berni likes ABBA too!!!

My son Heath turns 9 tomorrow.  His school phoned up and said he wasn't feeling well, so I got him at 11 this morning.  Normally I'm pretty tough on this, but he had complained of a headache on route to school, and I thought he seemed a bit out of sorts.  Let's just wind back the clock nine years.  I was a v. pregnant gal by the end of the spring carnival.  37 weeks actually, come Cox Plate weekend, and I was giving all my friends (who admittedly were mostly blokes) kittens that I'd have the baby on the track at the Valley.  In this pregnancy, I insisted on keeping riding until I was 6 months along, which was about when it all a bit too hard and uncomfortable.  I like to say that I did keep cleaning her stable, and stabling her, up until 2 days before Heath was born.  Nice and strong!  Those abdominal muscles were pretty tough!  And photographing right up until the Cox Plate.  I thought Sunline would win her third successive Cox P...

Here is the ageless warrior of the Australia Turf, the great Zipping.  He's 9 years old now, but has just had his best ever season.  It took So You Think to deny him a Cox Plate on his resume.  And that's of course after he finished third to that same horse in 2009 and second in 2008 to Maldivian.  This year he won the Australian Cup and Turnbull Stakes, both at Group 1 level, but his real claim to fame, and the love of the Australian public has been his four straight wins in the Sandown Classic, culminating in his gritty win last weekend, on a heavy track, after a courageous 4th to Americain in the Melbourne Cup.   I'm sad to say that I do not have ANY of the aforementioned wins on file.  I should have been there for the Australian Cup, but it was run a week later than the meeting I attended, which was abandoned due to a freak storm, and the Sandown Classic comes at the end of a long succession of being away on the weekend, so I've typically finishe...

It happens every year.  So you'd think I'd be better at it by now.  And after all, it's not as if I don't have loads to do.  There are so many images to file, hard drives to clear out, backups to be done, invoicing and bookwork.  But goodness me the come down from the Carnival is hard to take. Poor Freelance.  Although really going very well considering it was the first time she's been out of the paddock in 6 months, there was a moment where she found my gentle "come on, please travel in even a sort of straight line, honestly, you can't keep your hindquarters on that sort of angle and expect me not to notice!!!' all too upsetting and wanted to have a little dummy spit.  It's the equine equivalent of a toddler tantrum, where she does a little hop up and down on the spot, and refusing to go forward which again, is equine for lying face down on the floor screaming and beating arms and legs!  My response?  Well you can only laugh under these circ...

It's a nice thing when people trust you with their horses.  Lenny, who straps the wonderful mare Hot Danish, who's been a great favourite of mine for some years now, and I decided we would swap jobs at Flemington the day before the Cup. I'd been at the pool getting some more photos of the horses swimming, and he turned up with the lovely mare again.  We had a bit of a chat while he swam her, and I asked how she'd pulled up from the Myer (sore and sorry was the answer).  The poor baby had tried her heart out in the rain on Saturday, she's just so brave.  It's one of the reasons she's got such a following. Lenny brought another horse, Jersey Lilly, for a swim, and asked if I wanted to drop by and see the mare, saying he'd get a picture of me if I wanted.  'Uh, YYYYEEEESSSSSS!' being my answer!  I stayed long enough to get the delightful sequence of the big horse Shocking in the pool ( see out and about at Flemington ), then headed off to find him...

So You Think returns from trackwork on Monday 1st November. You can tell it is him purely by the forelock. It's a trademark this one. All I can say is that if Ballydoyle dare to even pull one hair out of this glorious forelock, there will be twouble!!!!!!!!!!!