Winner Winx

The four year old mare, Winx, won today's W.S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Australia - and she won it in track record time.

Winx

You see, it's not responsible for someone to suggest before the race that a young mare will win a race like this, against older horses, against male horses, and against the best other horses in the world over the particular distance in question. But that was the case that I believed she could win - yesterday I was 'champing at the bit,' as they say, to say she would win, though at the same time I don't like to feel as if I am 'adding to the burden' by 'declaring' a horse before a race such as the Cox.

But let's look at this - as I hinted at yesterday - another way...  Let's look at it in terms of the cultural and ideological approach that marks the difference between European racehorse owners and trainers - and the Australian approach.

Now European racing people will say different, but my strong impression is that they are really only interested in the money factor, and not in the horses as such.

Yesterday, in the pre-race parade, a thirty year-old past champion of the race - Better Loosen Up - took the field in front of the crowd once more. In 'horse-to-human' years this is about 210 years of age in human years... You have to look after a living thing pretty well to get it to this kind of comparative lifespan.

Better Loosen Up and the great trainer,
David Hayes, whose father Colin Hayes, was
also a great racehorse trainer

The American situation is a little different again, in that they have a much broader-minded approach to medical preparations and treatments that will allow a racehorse to fulfill an athletic and competitive racing career - and so I'm not going to make direct comparisons to the American situation.

It is a reality that there is far greater money involved in the thoroughbred racing scene in England and in Europe than there is, generally, in Australia. Of course there is massive investment in racing in Hong Kong and Singapore and Macau too, but overall, England and Europe possess the wealthiest owners and other participants.

Yet there's many a horse expert, not just myself, who opine that Australian horses are faster, more streamlined in their running and galloping action, and much more intelligently and subtly educated to run and to race. 

So which is best - going for the money in a brute force fashion, or doing it with elegance and 'poetry in motion' so to speak?

There's no contest. Making money - or 'winning' if I may use that analogy - has to include some process that satisfies the mind on the intellectual level and not just on the enumerative monetary basis alone.

Hot air balloon over the Yarra Valley

It's late Spring now in Australia, and the horse-racing scene is filled with events and parties and functions. Alongside the Moonee Valley W.S. Cox Plate day on the same day, the country club at Yarra Valley - where a lot of cooler climate wines are produced - also has its carnival race day, which ends with a party and hot air balloons flying in and fireworks and food and wine, of course.

If you're smart, there are no losers in Australian horse racing, and you can enjoy yourself exceedingly well.