On Saturday evening the news filtered through that legendary jockey Roy "The Professor" Higgins had died after a short illness.  To say short is probably inaccurate, because it would appear he'd battled health issues most of his life.  No doubt almost 100% atrtributable to the unfortunate tendency in the racing industry to have jockeys ride racehorses at what is essentially an unnaturally light weight.  Diabetes (type 2 I believe) had dogged Roy Higgins throughout his later years although of course I've no idea for how long.  One would suspect it would have been undiagnosed for some time.  I know how hard a condition diabetes is to manage.  It is relentless, unpredictable and frequently aggressive and frightening.  I wish the racing world could adopt the lead followed by other equestrian disciplines and establish a more rational and achievable weight scale.  I feel it would achieve much good.  Roy Higgins was of course the rider of many grea...

I am remiss in posting images of the great colt Pierro winning the G1 Canterbury Stakes last Saturday at Rosehill Gardens.  It's actually the first time I've photographed this wonderful colt winning since he won the G1 AJC Sires Produce Stakes.  Since that race the near black colt won the G1 Champagne Stakes on the same day that I was in Adelaide photographing The Famous Pony Black Caviar winning the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes.  It was a distinct disadvantage to have these two important race dates clashing, as More Joyous and Atlantic Jewel also won that day at Royal Randwick.  But those regular readers of this Blog and followers and friends of mine will already know that my heart belongs to the Famous Pony, and where she goes, I go. Pierro also won the Stan Fox and the Bill Stutt Stakes last spring, but I wasn't on track for either of those races.  He then ran a courageous 2nd to the other champion colt All Too Hard (half brother to the Famous Pony) in the...

I'm sitting finishing this post at Canberra Airport, waiting for my flight to board.  I'm flying down late on the Friday night, instead of getting up to catch the first flight out.  My attention tomorrow will be the Australian Cup and Newmarket Handicap meeting.  It's not a meeting I typically do every single year, like Blue Diamond Day.  Young children and operating out of Siberia, err Canberra, have meant that I've tended to juggle it a little bit with other racedays. But as I prepare to photograph the 2013 renewal of this meeting, I pause to reflect on the glory days of 2 former champions.  See, this is how long my Ponies have been able to make me feel better about things.  And today, as I wait to return to Melbourne, is no different. The two horses I write of are father and son.  Both were Horse of the Year.  Together they won a staggering 21 Group 1 races.  The father won 10, the son 11.  And they both won an Australian Cup, ...