Once upon a time a
wee horse called Mikie was born here at Gerolstein. A lovely baby, but with a race-horsey
handicap. His father was the soon to be vilified stallion Island Glow. But we
didn’t know about the vilification, at that time ….
Mikie is now six.
And trying, this year, to be a race-horse.
Everyone who has
stayed at Gerolstein -- from Germany, Slovakia, Ameirca or Alaska -- knows Mikie. No matter that there are a host of beautiful mares and geldings here,
multi-winning horses whereas Mikie has never as much as run a place on raceday .. who
is it (put your hands up) whom our guests love best? Yep. Mikie. Hands down.
His form line
would shrivel you. 00X00. It’s a while since he finished in the first ten. But
that formline doesn’t show that he’s run a couple of nice workouts recently
... even won one, beating a horse called
Limitation which performed creditably on the Coast circuit this week.
But, basically,
Mikie is seen by the pundits and the public as a maiden makeweight. When he
goes racing, he goes out at 100-1.
He was entitled to
today. We entered him for a dopes’ race with a $5000 stake at Banks Peninsula.
And the club (who are allowed to) put him instead into the grass-track
graduation final worth $12,000! Mikie in
a final??! Of anything? Against horses
three years younger who had mostly run 1, 2 and 3 in their last starts.
Thirteen of them. Another zero in prospect?
He went out rank
outsider. 100-1. It might as well have been 1000. Any sane tipster looking at
the field must have thought ‘what the hell’s he doing in this field. 00X00 ?’.
We kind of did, too. But we love Mikie.
Well, to slice the
story thinly, and come quickly to our muttons, Mikie ran this evening like a
hero. He got out well, but not quite quickly enough to make the front. Then a
striving pony galloped outside him and came back on him. And he went off
stride. That’s it, I thought. Last. But Mikie pulled himself together and
tucked in in the running line.
I could see him at
the back of the bunch until they came into the straight .. please just run on
Mikie! Don’t drop away!
No, its not a
fairystory. Mikie didn’t win or even get a place. But he got in the call. In
spite of being – again! – backed into by an exhausted and fading runner near
the line, he punched bravely on to finish 6th, and we had the pleasure of
hearing his name in the final call…
So Cinderfella
didn’t win the Princess, but don’t anyone again try to tell me again that Mikie
isn’t a racehorse. A C0 racing mostly C1 horses (non-winners and winners) and
he beats half the field home?
I’m proud of you
Mikie! You are a dear, dear boy. Have some hay!
