Life As I Know It (22 page)

I was genuinely excited about Prince. Not I-hope-he-turns-into-a-good-one excited. Fair dinkum excited. From what I had seen and the way he felt, and given how much improvement he had made, I
really
believed he was the sort of horse that could win a Melbourne Cup. Then the bad news came.

In the days after the race Prince had gone lame. Waiting on any diagnosis is tense. You just never know. When the tests came back, they showed he had a bone chip in his right front fetlock, a common injury for thoroughbreds. The chip needed to be surgically removed.

Brian Anderson did the arthroscopy on the joint—the procedure is the same for horses as it is for humans—and took out a 2 by 2-millimetre piece of bone. Because it was sorted out quickly, the chip had not had an opportunity to cause damage to the fetlock and Prince was given a good chance—about 80 per cent—of recovering fully. That was pretty good odds, but we had to wait and see.

I really took that setback hard. Prince had given me such a lift and things were going well, and now he was out of action. At least
Ian Fulton and his colleagues at the Ballarat Veterinary Practice were happy with the surgery. I got the impression it was routine and that he'd be fine. Or was that just me being hopeful? They thought he'd be back at work in three months.

Margie and her husband Nick live in Geelong, so whenever I'm riding down there I try to pop in and say hello. Often they talk me into having dinner and that means I can relax and stay the night. Relax means have a couple of glasses of red, maybe a game of Pictionary and then another glass of shiraz. Not long at all after Prince's Flemington win, we'd settled in and the conversation turned to my plans for the future.

‘It's just so dangerous, Michelle,' Margie said. ‘You just cannot risk having another fall.'

‘I still want to ride,' I explained to them.

‘There's life outside of racing,' she said. ‘More falls, and more fractures, and more injuries: what are you going to be like when you're older?'

I wasn't dwelling on that side of things. I was on a high. All I wanted to talk about was Prince. Prince this. Prince that. And then he did this. And then he did that. And he's so athletic. And he's so powerful.

‘He just does things which horses don't usually do,' I explained. ‘I really think this horse is good enough to win the Melbourne Cup.'

‘Wow!' Margie said. ‘And then what?'

‘I'll retire,' I replied.

Well, Margie nearly jumped out of her chair with relief.

‘Really!' She went and got her phone. ‘I'm going to film this,' she said. ‘Say it again.'

I didn't say anything.

‘Okay, I'll say it,' she said. ‘If you win the Cup on Prince of Penzance, you have to retire. All right?'

‘All right,' I agreed.

She's still got that video on her old phone.

We were all waiting for Prince to return to the track. I was getting lots of rides. Yosei did enough in the Goodwood, without threatening, for Stuey to push on to Brisbane to the big winter races. She was competitive in the Doomben 10000 and the Stradbroke Handicap at long odds, but didn't run into the prize money. Patrick also took some horses up there for the winter. I rode Turner Bayou in the Queensland Cup over the Melbourne Cup distance, and he won well. You don't get too many chances to ride the 3200-metre, so it was a good opportunity and I seemed to time things well.

Prince was recovering but he wasn't going to be back for the Spring. True to form, Darren was being patient, and was putting Prince's welfare first. This was one of the many reasons I liked riding for Darren, as well as the fact that it made Stevie and I work colleagues! He was doing very well with Darren and after six years was a real fixture around the stables. One night when I was at Home he was sitting at the table with pens and pencils and sheets of paper. He was looking very serious.

‘What ya doing, Stevie?' I asked.

‘Map.'

‘Oh.'

‘Yeah, I'm making a map. Of Darren's.'

‘Oh, yeah,' I said.

‘I've been putting the horses in the wrong yards, so this'll fix it.'

‘Oh, good.'

‘For tomorrow.' He wanted to get it right. Stevie always gave his best.

On Turnbull Stakes Day that Spring of 2013, I rode Platelet
in the Gilgai Stakes, a Group 2 down the straight at Flemington. Stevie was Platelet's strapper and being in the mounting yard with him before such a big race was very special. When they jumped she settled in behind the leader and travelled nicely. Coming to the 400 she was really motoring; she found the front and then sprinted powerfully to hold off the challengers.

Bringing her in was just fantastic. Stevie was really celebrating. He was absolutely stoked, and so was I. Everyone around the mounting yard was happy for Stevie. And it was one of those moments where you have to be grateful for people like Darren who have such a sense of perspective about things. Stevie felt like he was part of the stable, because he was.

Yosei also had a spring campaign but she was coming to the end of her career. When she finished last in the Toorak I think we all knew her time had come. After an outstanding career, where she won three Group 1 races and was placed in three, she retired. She was always under-rated. She was incredibly brave, and she got the best out of herself. And that's all you could ask. We went well together. Coming back in that day and unsaddling her for the last time, I was so proud of her. She was off to stud.

Prince had taken a while to get back to the track but he finally had a run in December. It put me in a quandary as he was nominated for the same race as Sistine Demon, which I had ridden for two wins in his previous two starts. I didn't think Prince could win first up but he was my preference. In the end, Brad Rawiller rode Sistine Demon and won. Prince finished five lengths off the winner and his action was fine. I knew he would improve. I wasn't invited back onto Sistine Demon after that and he went on to win three of his next four. But I already believed in Prince and I wasn't giving him up for any other horse.

The family gathered for Christmas as always. The punch was excellent, if I do say so myself, and the soccer game full of
magnificent highlights. A few days later I was riding Prince, who started favourite at Moonee Valley over 1600. He settled at the tail in the race and the pace was hot up front. They weren't the strongest horses in the world, so I was riding confidently—I knew he was better than this lot. I started to let him stride forward from the 800. Despite being seven-wide on the turn he sustained his long run and picked them up, streaking away comfortably.

It was an impressive win but I was keeping a lid on things. The lid was well and truly off for the Men In Hats and a few of the other owners. I was reminded numerous times by text message that the Cox Plate was also run at The Valley.

Prince won the Mornington Cup Prelude at Caulfield and that made him favourite for the Mornington Cup itself. He drew near the inside and we pushed forward out of the barrier getting the run of the race one back on the inside. I got him out at the 300 and we hit the front, but he couldn't sustain the run. He got swamped on the line, which was unusual. It was a big ask to have an inexperienced horse racing so forward in a high-pressured race, so it wasn't the worst run. I wouldn't hear a bad word about him.

He went to Flemington in early March, and raced forward again. He ran second but it was clear he wasn't quite right. The vets checked him out and, sure enough, after they did some scans, they found he had bone chips again. This was pretty concerning, and the odds were increasingly against us. How would he cope a second time?

Ian Fulton operated at the Ballarat Veterinary Practice and removed the chips without complications. Again, a full recovery was more likely than not. But there were still questions. Again, we just had to wait.

Prince recovered pretty well and Darren prepared him to return that Spring. His work felt okay and we were keen again. I drove to St Arnaud for a jump out. I was getting excited and so were some
of the owners. Some even made the trip to watch. Darren Lonsdale, on the days when he wasn't working as a hospital theatre technician, was there. After Prince's run they were all standing around in a circle as I reported in. It was a sunny winter's morning and Prince had gone really well. I told them he was ready for his return to Caulfield. Everyone was feeling up. Darren asked me the question.

‘He's gunna win the Melbourne Cup,' I responded.

They laughed, thinking I was just mucking around.

‘That's two races you want to win,' Darren said. ‘The Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup.'

‘Bit greedy,' I said. ‘But, you know …'

They laughed again.

I was half-joking (at the most). I had such faith in him.

The whole stable was pretty excited. Two horses were being set for the Melbourne Cup—Prince and Signoff—and there was a healthy rivalry between the two camps. Sandy had a share in both horses but I reckon Signoff was his favourite, and not just because that's where he had the bigger share. Signoff is an absolute Rolls-Royce of a horse—and he is a joy to ride—so the general feeling was that Signoff was the better Cup chance.

Not for me, though. I wouldn't have it. My Prince was the one and I kept telling anyone who would listen. The comparison was a real talking point and it was fantastic for the stable to have two quality horses starting their Spring campaigns. If things went to plan, both were a chance to line up on the first Tuesday of November.

One day Jeremy Rogers, Darren's racing manager and a very old friend of his, and I were discussing the relative merits of the two horses.

‘You blokes have got it wrong. I'm telling you,
Prince of Penzance will win the Melbourne Cup before Signoff does
,' I said.

‘No way.'

‘He will,' I insisted.

‘No he won't.'

‘I bet you $20 I have the Melbourne Cup in my hands before Signoff wins it,' I said.

‘You're on.'

Prince and Signoff came back through the same races early in the Spring and while they were not expected to be competitive they still needed to run well. Prince especially, having returned from injury.

He didn't show much for his first three runs, so there was some doubt about whether he was as good as he'd been before the second operation. The conditions weren't helping. He was running on really firm ground and I didn't think he was trying. As soon as he felt the hard ground he would back off. I was getting really angry with the track managers. I wrote an article with Matt Stewart for the
Herald Sun
about hard tracks and the damage they do to horses, especially horses back from injury. I was very protective of Prince.

When VRC handicapper Greg Carpenter released the weights for the horses nominated for the Melbourne Cup, Prince had 50.5 kilograms. Signoff had been given 50 kilograms. I liked that. Greg obviously thought Prince was the better horse but when I mentioned that round the stables I didn't get much of a bite. At those weights both would have to perform well to make the field.

Prince's fourth start back was in the Moe Cup. He was a good chance, despite his mediocre form, and was expected to run really well. Unfortunately, on the day he had an abscess that, because of the bit, burst in his mouth. I could tell there was something wrong because he threw his head around like that day at Flemington. He still tried and when he got clear he finished strongly, but Count of Limonade was a neck in front.

If he couldn't win the Moe Cup, what chance was he against the rest of the world? But there were excuses. We continued to aim for
the Melbourne Cup but we were a very long way off qualifying. We needed to win the Moonee Valley Cup to improve our position on the order of entry.

We drew the outside barrier and, with no obvious leader in the race, I convinced Darren we should lead. I just didn't want Prince to over-race behind a slow pace. Darren heard my argument and agreed. But when we jumped, the jockeys on my inside went forward and quickly I realised I was going to have to work very hard to get to the front. So I elected to go back. Going around the first corner he was throwing his head around everywhere and I was thinking, this is a disaster.

Soon after, he put his head down and switched off, and was perfectly relaxed. Instead of being first, I was running last! But you have to deal with circumstances as they unfold. The good thing about it was he'd never been so relaxed and I thought, If you finish as well as you do when you race ungenerously, Prince, what will you be able to do now? Going down the back straight, I had to decide whether to thread my way through or go to the outside. When I was at about the 800, I could tell the field was going to bunch and I thought they were all going to fan to get a run. So I took my chance and rode for luck. I knew Prince would take any gap that opened. Past the 600, I was following Precedence and jockey Glen Boss. Coming to the turn there were only three lengths first to last and I had Prince ready. The gap opened and I was in there. It was my run to take. I burst through, got around the leaders and shot away. Well done, Prince. We were a step closer to the Cup.