While channel surfing and waiting to catch the running of The Everest from Randwick and the Caulfield Cup, we were stopped in our tracks by three hosts on the NOWTV racing channel in Hong Kong and wearing masks...in the studio.
Huh? 0+3? Que?
Then came a segment featuring someone known known only as Dr L.
One supposes that with tomorrow afternoon at Shatin being Bow Tie Day, where many on course-Trainers, owners and racing executives- dress like waiters at Cafe D’Amigo, the quite nauseatingly pretentious Dr L was part of the promotion, and went on at some length about what is style and the Do’s and Don’ts of not only looking the part, but carrying it off. Dear gawd, man.
Dr L picked out Trainers Tony Cruz and Douglas Whyte as examples of sartorial splendour. Tony was dressed in a short sleeved white shirt and looked like a bank clerk. Comparatively, my old friend Douglas looked absolutely fabulous in another of his salmon pink jackets- this one being double breasted.
We soon got tired of Dr L and his clothes horses. Instead, we enjoyed watching winning rides in Sydney by Sam Clpperton, Rachel King, Brenton Avdulla, singing jockey Robbie Dolan, James McDonald and Tyler Schiller.
In the South, there were wins from Michael Dee, Dean Holland, Harry Coffey, doubles for Jye McNeil and Josh Parr, wins for Jamie Kah, Luke Nolan with Blake Shinn taking out the last at Caulfield for another trainer to follow- Andrew Forsman.
Before this, we had watched the first of the two big races from Australia. No competition. Both were winners.
Under brilliant blue skies and tens of thousands of happy people- unmasked happy people- there was the AUS$15m Everest. Credit where credit is due. This race and the race meeting and the idea of Peter V’landys, the head of Racing New South Wales, really has changed the landscape of horse racing and created a new Made In Australia lifestyle brand.
As for this year’s result, it couldn’t have been better scripted and outsider Giga Kick winning with Craig Williams aboard.
With his Ukrainian born wife Larysa, the couple has unselfishly been making low-key trips to deliver food and other supplies needed by those in the Ukraine affected by the Russian invasion.
Karma is a wonderful thing. It repays you when things are done for the right reasons.
Owned by billionaire Jonathan Muntz, who was watching the race from New York, race caller Darren Flindell called it home with much gusto and celebratory pride as Giga Kick, trained by good guy, excellent judge and, until recently, former jumps jockey Clayton Douglas, made it almost look easy.
It was an amazing training performance, and an extraordinary start to Clayton Douglas’s new career- and what an emotional attachment for even non racing people to this Everest story- and the Caulfield Cup.
The latter was won by the first emergency in the race- the Chris Waller trained Durston and ridden by young New Zealander Mickey Dee, a newcomer to Big Race wins.
Emotional attachment is in anything is in its own very special class because it’s real and cannot be bought.
Emotional attachment is not about money and more money, and showing who has the most money as if in some tacky bling blang egotistical Kanye West type competition that ends up being ridiculed.
It is ridiculed because life is about different emotions that should be respected and is never some silly little superficial game played by amateurs.
Two horse races called The Everest and The Caulfield Cup showed us this today by growing up and understanding real from fake.
Well done to everyone involved.
#theeverest #caulfieldcup #winners #gigakick #craigwilliams #claytondouglas #michaeldee #durston #chriswaller #horseracing
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