Did you know that Brisbane Doomben 10000 winner Blue’s Finito – who at stud produced the top class galloper Tiny’s Finito was named Blue’s Finito because his sire Bluescope died the day a little foal subsequently called Blue’s Finito was born? “Blue” was Bluescope’s stable name and he was “finito” – Italian for dead.
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Horses cannot see the colour red.
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In a recent television interview, horse expert Monty Roberts (AKA “the horse whisperer”) attributed his success to an endorsement from the Queen in 1989. In a tale of “the one that got away”, he told of how he bought a racehorse for US$40,000 then did the work educating him before selling the horse on for US$125,000. At the point of sale he was offered the option of taking a lesser figure and retaining a share in the horse but rejected that proposal as he and his wife “needed the money”. Two years later after an amazing racetrack career the horse named “Alleged” was syndicated by Robert Sangster for US$16 million. Born in 1974, Alleged was twice named “European Horse of the Year” after winning two runnings of the prestigious Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
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If you are buying a broodmare at a sale – and she is either empty or in foal – and you want to know if she will have plenty of milk or not for her foal, her nipple size will tell you with amazing accuracy. If she has big nipples she’ll have plenty of milk – if she has small nipples she will struggle to have enough milk. I found this out many years ago when I had a “Ruling” mare with very small nipples, whose foal was constantly at her mother from birth just to get a drink. I asked one of Australia’s leading authorities on the subject who had been around mares for 60 years and I’ve seen it proven many times since and I’m happy to say it’s a good old fashioned fact.
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The three handled Melbourne Cup is made in Brisbane. It takes about 200 hours to make and weights 1½ kilograms. It leaves for Melbourne about five weeks before the cup is run. And interestingly a spare one exists in the event of a dead heat.
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Even though most people think a horse is fast, it can only reach just over half the speed of nature’s quickest four legged animal – the cheetah – which gets up to a top speed of 115 kph.
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The Caulfield Cup was first run in 1879. In 1885 no fewer than 16 of the 41 starters fell with jockey Donald Nicholson killed in the mayhem. Thirteen years later, in 1898, a 14-year-old jockey named James Flanagan was killed as seven horses fell.
In 1946 a crowd of 108,213 turned out to see champion Bernborough unluckily beaten in the Caulfield Cup.
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When Ajax got beaten at 40-1 ON in Sydney in a three horse race, the Rawson Stakes, many people actually lost their homes. The horse was so short that there were people who turned up at the races with the deeds to their house (from owning it outright) and bookmakers would bet them a house to “x” amounts of pounds. Whilst Sydney real estate back then wouldn’t be worth what it is now, it nevertheless shows you the stupid lengths people will go to just to try to make some profit gambling. So next time you do $20 or $50 on a “chaff bandit” – console yourself by remembing there is always someone worse off than you.
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Legendary American jockey Willie Shoemaker who passed away in 2003 at age 72, was actually lucky to be here in the first place, as he weighed less than one kilogram at birth. After having ridden 8883 winners over 41 years, he retired in 1990 in front of a crowd of 64,000. Considering the dangers in being a jockey, it was an incredible irony that he was to become a quadriplegic from a car accident just one year after retiring. A “Hall of Fame” inductee in 1958, he trained 90 winners from his wheelchair when granted a trainer’s licence. Shoemaker married three times in his lifetime and fathered just one child, a daughter named Amanda – in 1979.
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We take Sunday racing and Sunday retail trading for granted nowadays, but “Sunday trading” was outlawed for most of the 20th century in Australia and businesses were fined for breaking the law. In 1903 a barber was the first Australian business person fined for “Sunday trading” when he was fined seven shillings (70 cents) for shaving a client’s face on aSunday.
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Approximately 60% of all racehorses born never get to start in a race.
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“Tim Tam” a brand of biscuits was named after the 1946 Kentucky Derby winner of the same name.
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If you think it’s dear to advertise on RadioTAB, Sky Channel or TVN – then best think again. A 30 second advertisement when the American Super Bowl final is being televised to a worldwide audience, estimated at 800 million, costs a mere $US4 million.
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Greyhound racing would be unlikely to take off in Korea. It is doubtful whether any dogs would make it to the track - for did you know that the population of Korea consumes 2.8 million dogs of various breeds annually?
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Modern day “champion racehorse barometer” Kingston Town actually ran last at his first start in a race. Gelded and spelled, he eventually won 14 Group 1 races – including three Cox Plates. Foaled in 1976, he did line up in a Melbourne Cup and under a crushing weight was nailed right near the line – his jockey Malcolm Johnston admitting later he “went too early” on the black flash.
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Horses have over 200 joints in their body.
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A child called Bart Cummings was taken to a specialist by his parents who thought he was asthmatic. The parents were advised that young Bart had “an allergy to horse hair, oats, chaff, lucerne and hay” and “as long as he stayed away from horses he’d be right”. Considering that Cummings child grew up and trained eleven Melbourne Cup winners, that’s yet another medical stuff up.
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AND A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY “If you should notice a new grey hair in the mirror simply think of the cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy who wishes he/she had hair to examine.
