EMILY: Heat Three ...

 

The field for Heat 3 of the Silk Road series was small, but decidedly classy. 

Six horses, including the winners of the first two heats, AROHA KENNY and SAMANTHA'S MOON, plus little EMILY, who had finished second on each occasion. However, the boilingly hot-pot was a newcomer to the series. One of the very best New Zealand three year-old fillies of last season; PRINCESS SADIE. Two starts back, in the NZ Oaks, she had gone down only to the Australian champ KEAYANG ZAHARA. 

Barring accidents, the rest of us would be battling for minor money!

Alas, there was an accident, but not to SADIE. And not on the track. The lovely AROHA KENNY had a paddock accident and had, along with its stablemate, to be scratched. The field was down to four!  Well, who says you can't have a grand race with four horses ...

Wendy, Sarah, Jen and I made our way to the Pacific Hotel, on the hill ... and sat down with a drink to await the race, broadcast on the banks of TV screens ...

Sadie was, of course, odds-on favourite. Samantha and Emily were equallish second -- at a distance. Each of them at a little worse than 4-1. 

Now, Samantha is a noted fast-beginner and front-runner. Would she do her thing again this week? Or would Sadie run them all ragged, in her first run for five months? 

Samantha set off at a great rate, gobbled up her handicap and made sure there was no hoof-dragging on her watch. Emily followed, just like last week ... Sadie sat in 4th until 500 metres from home, and then moved up...  

But, surprise, Emily moved too! As they came round the last bend, she hit the front. Samantha had had enough .. and Sadie? She put in a queer step or two....

We were all on our feet yelling ...!  Hurry up, finish line!!

But the young Hayden Douglas, in Sadie's sulky, knew what he was doing. Inexorably he nibbled away Emily's advantage, and two strides from the post - while Mark and Emily were throwing everything into the battle, - Sadie (with Hayden doing just enough) hit the front. Our girl was beaten by a neck.

The time for the race was impressive. 2400m from a standing start ... 2 min 02.8 mile rate ... I think that is just about Emily's fastest race to date ...

So her record now reads 70 starts, 6 wins, 11 seconds, 9 thirds...

So, on to the Final. Who is qualified? The HRNZ website doesn't seem to say ... I guess we will find out on Monday. 

Go, little girl!

EMILY: The second semester of a six-year-old

 

 Yesterday, our little girl was back to the track. Autumn holidays over!

 

Term one had gone quite well. Although she had not actually won a race, she had notched up multiple second and thirds and given us a tremendous amount of fun.

 

So, roll on term two! First up was to be a fillies and mares race -- nice, I wish there were more of those --- what was not quite so nice, for Emily, was that it was over 2700 metres, a touch further than her best distance. What was definitely not so nice was the race rating. 35 upwards. So it was, basically, a free-for-all. From the glummest maiden to multiple race-winners. So much for Harness Racing New Zealand's profession to have like-racing-like! 

 

When the field came out, it certainly wasn't like-against-like. Handicapping made it more reasonable, but ... 

Actually, Emily came out of it rather well. The front line was definitely not of the level of the rest. The back lines, with Emily's stablemate SAMANTHA'S MOON (20 metres), and the decidedly classy AROHA KENNY (30 metres) were another world altogether! Emily shared the 10 metres line with two recent lower-grade winners and another fine trotter in MIXED FAITH. How that girl ever got so low in the ratings, I know not. 

Hmmm. I thought. We ought to have a chance for a cheque .. oughtn't we?  Then the local tipsters' picks came out. Oh.

Fair enough. AROHA KENNY had all suffrages. But one measly fourth pick? Was I being too hopeful? 

What WAS I hoping for? Well, second place would be good. A couple of thousand dollars, and you don't get any added rating points. Just like the old days of C1, C2, C3.  A win? Well, you never say no to a win! That's what you are there for. Aroha Kenny COULD gallop!

Well, she certainly didn't begin well. And two of the 10-metre horses blew themaelves out of the race. EMILY began well, but not brilliantly. She still does that funny little dance step when the tapes fly. But, nowadays, it's not much more than half-a-step. But SAMANTHA simply flew the start, made up her handicap in no time and zoomed, as is her wont, to the front, at a great rate. The front markers glued themselves grimly to her back wheel and EMILY slotted in to fourth, as they ate up the first kilometres ..

Mark wisely nipped EMILY off the fence, as the trailing horse imploded outrageously with a whole lap left to go, then nipped back in again, once she was out of the road, following Samantha, as MIXED FAITH loomed up on the outside of her ... it looked as if it would be a three-horse finish ... AROHA KENNY was still half-a-dozen lengths back!

Into the straight, EMILY took inside lane. Past MIXED FAITH she went, past SAMANTHA (who had a puncture!).. and she hit the front!  But half-a-dozen lengths deficit was nothing to AROHA KENNY who flew down the outside, past all three of them ...

Second. Open the bottle!  Exactly the hoped-for result!

Wonderful start to the new term!

Onwards and upwards! Invercargill has a second round of this series next week. I guess most of these same mares will be out again ... well, it seems EMILY can cope ...

PS. These four finished 8 lengths ahead of the 5th horse (which was hampered by the imploding one). And FIFTY lengths ahead of the remainder. Steeplechase distances ...   Are free-for-alls really fair-for-all ...?

PS I see the imploded one has been stood down. Rightly so.

Addendum:  The second heat.  No Aroha Kenny, this time. She has done her stuff and qualified for the final. So SAMANTHA (20 metres) is, this time, the back-marker. And it's 2200m. EMILY is off 10 metres.

So, it's the same race again, without the winner, and with one addition. Why should the result be any different? Well, the southern "tipsters" (often a feeble lot, especially number two)  thought not. 

The TAB was a little more dignified

Well .. here's what happened ..

https://www.youtube.com/wach?v=fyOPWouBc90&t=113s

On to heat three ...  the stiffest one yet!  Both the so-far heat-winners plus a couple of classy young 'uns!  

Go, little girl!

An Art-filled adventure day, or 'the best Pies in Australia'!

 

Wednesday.  Market day. And Robert and Louis are off on a jaunt to the Blue Mountains. Which meant shanks's pony for me ... but today was my lucky day :-). 

As I set out on my dawntime plod, a car stopped and a glamorous young lady, who was heading the same way, said 'hop in'!  I didn't need asking twice! Because I knew what awaited me at the market: $144-worth of glorious Dorper Lamb fillets, ordered from Warren Wiggins at the Boorabee Dorper Sheep Stud. Lamb mightn't weigh quite as much an bananas, but I wasn't looking forward to trudging that parcel up the hill! 

Well, I pulled in my horns, didn't buy (this week) any more orchids, only five punnets of blackberries and raspberries and a huge bunch of basil, and then ... the wonderful Bonnie drove me back up the hill!  

So I had two hours in which to do the day's paperwork, before ... yes, the next part of the day's adventure. Dear friend James was taking me to Ulmarra for a snack. Now, Ulmarra is my favourite village hereabouts. Especially because it has a big second-hand bookshop ... and nice riverside pub ... 

https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2024/08/out-and-about-in-new-south-wales-or.html

but now it also has a café which I was to 'discover'!

But first, we had culture. James is VP of the Friends of the Grafton Regional Art Gallery. I had never visited. Alas, these days I cannot walk around a big art gallery. Nor stand, looking ...  But this Gallery is of a sensible size, beautifully laid-out, and housing, at the moment, two delightful exhibitions of which Maggie McDade, head honcho, gave us a tour.

The first was a collection of works by the senior art pupils of the area. Amazing work. Sure, some of the paintings showed the 'influence' of childish trends, but some ...!

I had no difficulty in sorting out my gold and silver-medallists.  GOLD for Miss Olivia MacDonald with her wonderful rural pictures

These were the first items I saw, when I walked in, and my immediate reaction was, 'are these for sale?'  Of course, they ar'n't. Not yet, anyway. I predict Miss MacDonald will make a career.

The other exhibit which grabbed me was a group of exquisitely imaginative small pieces by Thomas Mc Farlane

When I bought my apartments, here, there was a piscatorial print on the wall. Not one-tenth as good as these!

I had to sit down, so I went and sat with the cows, till Maggie was ready to take us to the second exhibition.  No amateurs here. Michele Beevors is an artist whose 'sculptures' are widely known. Models of animal skeletons, the bones covered in knitted-wool. You can read all about her and them on the www. Remarkable stuff!

From tiny frogs to a life-sized giraffe, a horse ..

and I forget what this was!

I also forgot it was raining outside!  But we bundled into James's car, and headed for Ulmarra.

A small disappoinment. The bonzer bookshop is still there. More bonzer than ever. But I and my walking-stick cannot, any longer, manage the narrow aisles, not having to bend down to boxes on the floor. I investigated a box of tattered sheet-music -- some sweet if well-loved items from my period -- but I couldn't make it to the bottom. I had to give up.

Out into the rain. Now, for the café. The Ulmarra Food Co. Seen its ads on face-book. Goodness, what an array of home-made pies. Big and bulgy ... every combination of meat and veg you could think of! I, wilfully off-centre, chose 'cheese and cauliflower'. 

Well, I am here to tell you that was the best pie I've eaten in memory. Light, bright, tasty ... 10/10 for the  pasty, 11/10 for the filling!  Before we left, I bought some 'takeaway' frozen pies. I have had my Winter Palace for nine years, and I have never yet used the oven. Here goes ....

Ulmarra, if I can't manage your bookshop any more, I sure as hell can manage your Food Co!  And I will!  Preferably on a non-rainy day, so I can sit in the pretty courtyard and stuff myself with 'the best pies in Australia'.

But the day wasn't over. When James delivered me back to The Cove, there was the contract for my new book ...

And now it's Thursday. The rain is gone, the sun is out, the refrigerator is full to bursting ...  and .. I guess I had better get down to writing that book!

PS. Friday. I have just devoured my take-away Reuben pie.  Sen-sa-tion-al!!!!!

Angourie: a little adventure

 

When you live, so to speak, somewhere, you don't necessarily go out to visit the 'sights' in your 'home' vicinity. I remember, I had lived in London for many years before I visited the Tower of London and its crown jewels, and then, solely, because a visiting friend wanted to see them.

Well, on a lesser scale, that's been the case for me, here in Yamba. The villages of Wooleweyah and Angourie (where do they get these names?) are not far away. I've been driven through them, appreciatively, over the last decade, on a number of occasions, but I've never done much more than pass through.

Angourie was my most frequent visit, because it used to be the home of a rather nice, if expensive, named Barbaresco. 

The main attraction at Angourie in recent years has been, for me, Spooky Beach and its adorable avian inhabitants

But they are not supposed the be the 'main attraction'.  The signs all arrow you towards  'the Blue and Green Pools'. 

I had never ventured. But, today, Robert and Louis thought we should go 'for coffee' ... lovely! ... and ....

Somebody entrepreneurial must have built the Angourie 'commercial centre'. Commercial? In my time its 4-5 'shops' have simply been occupied, apart from during its heyday with Barbaresco, by nowt but the eternal 'coffee bars'.  And Barbaresco is now gone. So, does Angourie have that many coffee-drinkers ...?

There are just two, at the moment. We chose the one now named 'Bay St Local', in spite of its name. It is the old grocery shop cum newsagent cum, obligatorily, coffee shop. But coffee clearly has a higher profit margin than groceries and newspapers, and reigns supreme. 

They delivered the goods capably. The coffee was strong, the $14 cheese-and-tomato toasted sandwich fine ... and the company was glamorous ..

Will I go back? Yes, if passing ...

And, then, to the crux of the outing. We were going to visit the Pools. On foot? OK, I've brought my stick .... DEVASTATION!  It's a crumbly descending path ... part has a handrail, but only part. Can I DO this? Robert seemed to have more confidence in my abilities than I did!

Well, I did. I even managed the few metres where the path had been swept away, and I had to cling to the overhanging foliage to stay upright. 

But it was worth it. The 'Pools' are man-made. Made where the stone was quarried for the local breakwater. They ar'n't particularly green and blue when the sun isn't out, and they are mirroring the sky, but they are still pretty. I'm glad I made the effort.

Yes, I'm glad I dared it. Because I sha'n't make it again. I shall just have these photos to remind me of a sweet little 'adventure'.

A bonzer Australian Road Trip!

 

A fortnight, I have been at my beloved Winter Palace, slowly getting settled in, and my latest opus, the revised edition of Andrew Lamb's A Life on the Ocean Wave, the story of Henry Russell, having winged its way from Yamba to New York, I've had a few days being 'busy doing nothing'.

Actually, there has been little choice. The climate here is what may be termed 'sub tropical'. Warm, even muggy, but occasionally decidedly damp. And occasionally violently wet. And just occasionally blindingly violently wet. So I, with my wobblyman walk and unsteady stance cannot venture outdoors, on wet footpaths, grass, and over the metre-wide flooding gutters ...

But yesterday, that changed. My dear friends Robert and Louis took me on an adventure.

'I'm going to Lismore ...', said Robert, 'come along'. Well, I'd never been to Lismore. ('Why would you?' says one who will remained unnamed). All I knew of it was that it had got drowned a few years back. Well, why not? Get out of the house for a few hours, in the comfy safety of Robert's Peugeot ...

So, at 8.45 (when Louis had finished his breakfast!) we set off. The first part of the trip was familiar. We have voyaged through Tabbimobile on other occasions. But it is pleasant, green scenery. And then it rained. A grade one power rainstorm. How the cars (not us!) managed to continue their 110kph cavalcade, I know not! Fortunately, the rafales of rain are inclined to be of short duration, so, my first bit of 'adventure' was not spoiled.

We pulled into something named 'Tucki Tucki'. The 'Bora Ring'. Perched on a hill above the plains below. A cemetery!  Well, I am fond of cemeteries: the older the better. This one isn't very old. The area was apparently settled by the colonists as late as 1880. The gravestones seemed to begin at the start of the 20th century ..

However, the star exhibit was intended to be the 'Bora Ring': a pre-colonist aboriginal stomping ground. There was, alas, nothing to see, except a weathered plaque. The 'Ring' itself is merely a fenced-off mass of weeds

Gingerly over the soggy, slippery grass .. back on to the road .. and more nice scenery, until we arrived in Lismore. Well, I've been now. It's an Australian country town which has seen -- from a picturesque point of view -- better days. It has clearly been inundated (as Christchurch has been quaked) horribly. There was a nice view up a hill (ergo: less inundated!) from the waiting room at Robert's specialist, so I sat there until ..

A surprise!  This was more than a trip to Lismore! Louis, too, had an appointment. In Byron Bay! Well, I hadn't been to Byron Bay for twenty plus years. Jamie Thane drove Ian and I through there when we were thinking of taking a place in Australia ... I remember we hurried on to Bangalow ..

But we were going by the 'picturesque' route. And it was! Bexhill, home of my favourite Boorabee Dorper Lamb Stud, Clunes, Eureka ... this is the Australia I love! Then Federal ... where the hungry young folk stopped for a bite ...

So what was the menu? Sushi. I have only eaten sushi once. A quarter of a century ago, when it became à la mode in London, and a posh place opened in upper St Martin's Lane. I hadn't seen any reason to repeat the experience, since. But ... in the Australian country side? It seemed grotesque enough to be a necessity!  Did I like it? The filling was delicious, but I don't care for the nori seaweed wrap. Reminded me of fish-skin. Ohimé, I, who have always been such an adventurous eater. Alas, with my withered hand, I can no longer wield chopsticks, either ..

On, down the hill, with some grand scenery and views, and finally ..

Byron Bay. Well. I gather it's a popular resort town. While Louis was seeing his optometrist, Robert drove me round town a bit. The chief 'attraction' is apparently the lighthouse. Its speciality is that it is the easternmost point of Australia. 

It also costs $10 to park, and is attached to some sort of eatery. We didn't stop. We descended briskly and went to have a look at the fabled beach. 

Well, Main Beach is fair enough. But it wouldn't rate in the top hundred of Beaches I Have Visited. Once again, we didn't park. But Robert stopped the car long enough for me to take a snap or two.

The lighthouse looks nicer from a distance. But there was a distraction in the foreground!

While Louis was choosing spectacle frames, I sat comfortably in the car (the sun had come out) and watched the world go by ... Where were the beautiful people? Skinny twenty or thirty-something girls with lank hair and little clothing, displaying full dorsal buttocks and the occasional 'other eye'. The men ... well, I was reminded of my visit to 'glamorous' Sitges. No smiles. No one seemingly having a good time. I was rather thankful when we rolled out of town ... and headed for home.

And another surprise. 

The boys need their regular coffees. So we made a little side trip to a spot named Lennox Head. Lennox Head is everything Byron Bay isn't. A delightful freshwater lake, with smiling mothers and children picnicking ...

A splendid beachfront, a 'head' without a lighthouse ..

And the coffee? Well, we lucked in!  The first place we stopped at was closing -- in mid-afternoon -- the second was not up to our standards, and the third ... was QUATTRO.

So, instead of coffee, we had a truly delicious pizza marinara, washed down by a couple of excellent margaritas ..

from the fair hands of Tara ...

All I can say is, I shall definitely -- we all will! -- be returning to Lennox Head.

The discovery of the day!

And, so, we headed into the last hour and a bit of our 300-kilometre road trip. No side roads, now, straight down the motorway towards the double rainbow ..

A quiet gin on the dusk-shrouded terrace at The Cove ... and the end of a huge day!

Thanks, my friends ...