Run Like The Wind

Monday February 27 2012

That old racehorse can still put the moves on!

That's retired racehorse Stormy, with his best buddy, almost-racehorse Tex (aka Ted), flying down the canyon this morning with the snowy Owyhee mountains giving chase.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Saturday February 25 2012

It's blowing a blue gale through Owyhee.

It's so cold the snowflakes that defy the wind storm are shivering. They blow at least seven miles horizontally from the Owyhee mountains before they ever hit the ground.

It's so cold the hurricane-force winds force tears out of my eyes then freeze them on my face.

It's so cold I get frostbite on my ears, even under my hat.

It's so cold the wind slices right through however many layers you can manage to put on and seizes up your joints.

It's so cold the horses are hunkered back against an old canal bank that deflects some of the wind, with their butts to the gale. The horse tails blow horizontally between their legs. 

They crowd close together, using each other for wind blocks. They are probably thinking twice now about the coat shedding they started this week.

It's so cold, Jose is a bit irritated.

Some old hard-weather hands, like Rushcreek Mac, know to put their heads down to the ground.

Baby, it is COLD outside.  It's a day to be thankful we're not out on an endurance ride!

Black Caviar Update

Herald Sun Photo

February 24 2012

After Australia's rad racehorse Black Caviar's win last Friday in her 19th consecutive race, which came only one week after her previous win, she was possibly going to run again tomorrow, on only 6 days' rest again, in the $1 million Blue Diamond Stakes.

However, it appears owners and trainer Peter Moody have decided her next major goal will be at Royal Ascot in England in June. She will possibly go for her 20th win in a row in Adelaide or Brisbane before she flies to England. Those of us who know racing (and probably most of us who don't) are probably breathing a wee sigh of relief she is not running her third Group I race in 3 weeks tomorrow, although the trainer was confident she would have won again.

Moody said, "There's nothing wrong with her. To the contrary, she's at the top of her game. But it's all geared around having her at her peak when she flies across to England for the 6-furlong Diamond Jubilee Stakes. That's the Royal Ascot race the owners have had their sights on for some time and everything is being tailored like a Savile Row suit to have her cherry-ripe for that race on June 23."

There in England it is possible that Black Caviar, the world's current number 2 racehorse will meet the world's current number 1 racehorse in Frankel, though Moody's not committing to anything other than the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. (Frankel was 9 for 9 at the end of last year as a 3-year-old; his 6 length win in the 1-mile 2000 Guineas is called 'one of the greatest displays on a British racecourse". He has yet to start this year.)

(All this, and really, I'm not that interested in racing anymore after Zenyatta - really!)

Top photo is by the HeraldSun.com.au

Here's a video from last October comparing the two

**CORRECTION: Black Caviar was to run in the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield racetrack on Saturday. Not the Blue Diamond Stakes.
Thanks to Lorrie for pointing that out!

Got to Get Culture

Wednesday February 22 2012

A friend suggested I get out of the backwoods for a while

so I changed out of my riding outfit

brushed off the hay

crawled into my Alter Ego

went into the Big City Far Away with some friends

and hung out with some other friends who happened to be passing through the Big City

and putting on a big concert

Five-time Grammy-winning friends I work with in my Other World

Got some culture 

Got some great music

Got some rejuvenation

Got the spirit

Taking that back home to the tumbleweeds along the crick in the backwoods

while my friends continue on the road

(If you haven't heard the Blind Boys of Alabama, whatareyouwaitingfor!?)

Owyhee Mystery Homestead

Sunday February 19 2012

Far down a dirt back road off a gravel back road at the foot of the Owyhee mountains, hidden back in a fold of hills on a sometimes-dry, sometimes-flowing creek, lie the remains of an old… something. You wouldn't know anything is there back off the road but for the Lombardy poplars, (also known as 'Mormon poplars', as the fast growing species was popular with Mormon settlers) which are almost always markers of old homesteads out here in the Owyhee desert.

I've heard it called a stage stop; but after finding nothing referring to a stage stop in that area, and after a lot of snooping on maps and the internet and in books, I suspect it might have been an old homestead belonging to Tommy Doyle, "an early day horseman who lived in the vicinity," according to Helen Netteton's "Sketches of Owyhee County" book. Doyle Mountain is nearby, which must be named for him.

There's a "Thomas Doyle, rancher," listed in the "1898 Directory of residents and businesses" of Owyhee County. His name is not found in any Owyhee Avalanche newspapers between 1865 and 1905… perhaps that means he was too busy ranching and horsing around (literally) to be involved in any scandals or great deeds or anything in between.

But "early day horseman" sounds intriguing. I've been unable to find anything else so far on this Tommy Doyle. Now I'm on a mission.

Australia's Flying Freak: Black Caviar

Saturday February 18 2012

It's confirmed: Black Caviar is a Freak. Just six days after her 18th straight win in a 1500-meter stakes race, yesterday at Flemington racecourse in Australia, the 5-year-old mare won her 19th straight race in the 1000-meter (about 5-furlongs) Group I Lightning Stakes. (And it was her second straight victory in the Lightning Stakes.) She almost set a new track record in doing so.

She also tied Australia's record of consecutive victories, set between 1915 and 1921 by Desert Gold and Gloaming.

I don't have a TV, so my friend Amanda recorded the race on her cell phone and emailed it to me! That's the video up top.

Below is a link to the race on youtube, though they don't show the break from the gate and the first furlong or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wID6-p68gtc

And, in fact, let's hear it for the Thoroughbred ladies who are taking over horse racing around the world!

The last three Horse of the Year titles in the US have gone to three ladies:

2009: Rachel Alexandra (Zenyatta was second in a hotly contested and contentious vote)

2010: Zenyatta

2011: Havre de Grace

In Australia, the last two Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year titles have gone to mares:

2010-11 - Black Caviar

2009-10 - Typhoon Tracy

Really, after my years on the racetrack, and especially after Zenyatta retired, I'm about done with racing… but when a Freak like this comes along, you have to pay attention and you can't help but love her and root for her.

Next on Black Caviar's schedule, if she comes out of this race good, is Dubai in March, and Royal Ascot in June.

The world will be watching - good luck Black Caviar!

Shades of Zenyatta: Black Caviar

Friday February 17 2012

Lest we forget the magnificence of Zenyatta (which would NEVER happen), and as we await her first foal (due in March), another mare in Australia is following in her illustrious footsteps.

The 6-year-old black mare Black Caviar is sitting on an 18 for 18 record, and goes for her 19th straight win, just like Zenyatta did. Black Caviar has taken her world by storm, just like Zenyatta did here; and just like people did for Zenyatta, they are flying halfway around the world to see Black Caviar. Some of the fever has spread to Europe, where in England her races are shown live.

Like Zenyatta, Black Caviar was bought for $60,000 before the start of her career, and like Zenyatta, who was featured on the mainstream US news like Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, People and 60 Minutes, Black Caviar has been on Australian Story. Unlike Zenyatta, Black Caviar is strictly a sprinter (races under a mile), but like Zenyatta, she has (so far) won 17 stakes races.

One article in the Australian Herald Sun written after her 18th win stated: "Every generation or so, it seems the racing gods deliver a 'Flying Pegasus' - a horse that literally lifts the industry from its humdrum, taking even those who can make no sense of it on a magic carpet ride." Another article called her "freakishly talented." World Thoroughbred Rankings rated her "the world's best racehorse."

Like Zenyatta, Black Caviar gets under the skin the race callers: as she's sweeping to another win, they've called her "the great mare," "the Pride of Australia," "awesome racehorse," "the greatest show on earth," "Australia's pin-up girl," "the invincible one," "this is why she's rated the best in the world," "the indisputed champion of the world," etc. (I think you get the picture!)

Black Caviar runs tomorrow at Flemington in the Group I Lightning Stakes, expected to be a tough race because she's shortening in distance from her last win.

It's said that the whole country of Australia shuts down for the annual 2-mile Melbourne Cup; another win from Black Caviar and she herself might become known as "the mare that stops the nation" when she runs.