Tomorrow morning I head for Royal Randwick for Day 2 of the inaugural The Championships.  While of course the focus will be on the Group 1 races being held, there's another two races tomorrow that for me will hold some interest through the breeding of 2 Darley bred and owned thoroughbreds. The first race is the Royal Randwick Stakes for 2 year olds.  This race will be my first look at a bay filly by Medaglia d'Oro out of the good racemare Preserve who now goes under the name Shaumari.  The following race will be the Royal Sovereign Stakes, and running in this race is a chestnut colt (now a 3 year old) sired by Exceed and Excel and out of the same broodmare Preserve. Why am I interested in these 2 horses?  Well, for a start I photographed the broodmare Preserve winning the Magic Night Stakes in 2000.  I've also photographed the sire of both of the afore mentioned Darley runners at stud, and of course I also photographed Exceed and Excel on the racetrack....

This horse is delirious.  I find myself thinking about his first shoot, when he comes across my camera for the 'first' time at the Farm.  I know that if he doesn't win on Saturday that I will feel impossibly deflated.  Is it possible to fall in love with a horse?  I think I've proved a few times that it is.  Perhaps it's safer for your heart too!!!! "I'm looking for love.  Real love.  Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love" - Carrie Bradshaw. With Emily. With my little Jessica.  My little daughter has a way with horses, and loves being "The Lovely Jessica", which means she's on props.... I saw this on Facebook the other day.  I thought it was good. I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love Read more at http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/suzannah-ramsdale/542963/sex-and-the-c...

The day is drawing to a close and I can feel myself getting tired, having been up since 3.30am.  I arrived at the stables on time, fortunate seeing as I switched into autopilot and found myself driving along the route I usually take to Rosehill Gardens when I should really have been heading along the Hume Highway because my destination was Warwick Farm.  I hadn't been aware that the entire "Team Arrowfield" was going along for his trackwork session.  Whenever John Messara, my most important client, is present, I feel an extra weight of expectation on me.  Luckily I was trialling a new camera, Nikon's brand new D4s, and it produced incredible results for me.   I realise that the camera does not make the photographer.  I've seen certain photographers produce very ordinary results with the same equipment I use, so it's not true to say that the images will be fabulous just by plonking a fancy camera in someone's hands.  I was pretty impressed by this...

Tomorrow morning my alarm is again set for Stupid O'Clock.  Actually, that's not true. It's set for Stupid STUPID O'Clock..  But despite this I'm a little bit excited because mid afternoon I received an email telling me that I will be able to see in the dark, and a swift trip across town at 4pm today delivered the item I've been hoping to trial during this trip. This is of course courtesy of the truly ace Jeremy who's juggled things about to give me a look at a pretty lovely looking bit of gear.  After we got home I had a little play inside with the Bad Ass Maxie.  I thought the images were really impressive.  I'd show you a few, if only the RAW files weren't being held hostage by Adobe as I try to work out how to download and install the latest version of Camera Raw.  Tbhis was a good reminder for me to set the camera to shoot and RAW + JPG image so that the images I take tomorrow won't also be held hostage while I sort out what I need to dow...