Such a cliché, but still true to this day. Royal Ascot is famous for having Queen Elizabeth II attend with various members of her family. It is a sight to behold when she comes down the course in her carriage. Horse racing would not be the same without it. She also owns a string of race horses , and I would love to visit her for a cup of tea and a bit of horse related chat. I think we'd get on.
For myself, my love affair with horse racing started when I was probably around eight or nine. I saw the movie “The Black Stallion”, in which a desert bred arab ends up in America and wins a match race against the best horses in the country. My mum later bought me a copy of the book 'The Black Stallion And Satan” by Walter Farley, which we found at a flea market for peanuts. I read it over and over again, collecting the rest of the series in the years to come.
In 1990 I saw my first horse race on TV. It was the Belmont Stakes of that year. In wonder I stared at the telly, so excited to watch my first live horse race. And the horse I fell in love with at that time was Thirty Six Red, a red streak that led the pack through the turns. That he lost to Go And Go did not matter, he was a horse I would always remember.
My second memory is seeing the Party Politics winning the Grand National in 1992. I watch the pre-race coverage and saw this giant of a horse and I was rooting for him through the race.
It took a few years for me to really start following racing. When I did I was drawn in and I have been a fervent racing enthusiast ever since. Unfortunately, by the time I started following racing again, I discovered that Thirty Six Red had died in 1996. He has however left various offspring and I do try to follow some of them.
I soon found a another hero. One Godolphin horse by the name of Dubai Millennium caught my imagination. By the time he ran in the Dubai World Cup I was deeply in love. And that night, in the desert oasis called Nad Al Sheba in Dubai, magic happened. A dark bay horse ran before the rest of the field, gleaming under the flood lights, so easily, not willing to let Dettori stop him. Thoughts of The Black Stallion inevitably came to mind. I knew I was watching true greatness. He followed up in the Prince of Wales' Stakes at Ascot, but unfortunately injury ruled out a race against the other superstar, Montjeu. To this day, I believe that over 10 furlongs, Dubai Millennium would have beaten him and would have forced his name into the record books as being the best race horse in a long long time...
Now I follow racing by picking around 100 race horses each year (mainly USA and Europe-based) that I follow throughout their careers. This way I have followed some amazing horses, such as G1 winners Lost In The Fog, Dubawi, Premium Tap, Friendly Michelle and Thor's Echo. I am sure I will put the spotlight on some of these horses and some of my other favourites in the future.
This blog will be documenting the current highlights from my crops in search of another superstar, but also some of my old top moments.
I hope you will enjoy!
K.
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