Between two Melbourne Cup winner’s Efficient & Might and Power. They still get put under saddle every now and again and love it. Great too see them both so happy & healthy
Czech out 'Living Legends', host to Australian favourite retired champion race horses. Meet the horses, watch kangaroos in their natural environment, and enjoy devonshire afternoon tea. Living Legends, located just outside Melbourne, has been established to bring retired champion horses back to the public
Coda:
Legend has it that the fabric manufacturer hadn't supplied enough material to complete the original design, so it was Shrimpton herself who suggested the shorter version.
Living Legend: TJ'S Time Capsule: Jean Shrimpton and the dress that stopped a nation
After their glory days, great horses, and the not-so-outstanding Melbourne Cup winners, are left to a boring paddock life with only the flies for company. But they never lose character nor the ability to provoke wonderful memories.
Take, for instance, Rogan Josh, successful in the 1999 Melbourne Cup.
"I made a deal with myself that if the horse won the Cup I would name my baby boy after Rogan Josh," one lady told Professor Andrew Clarke, who related this as one of many anecdotes surrounding Living Legends.
Like hundred of others she wanted to get up close and personal with her favourite horse at Woodlands, the historic Victorian property that now provides a retirement home named Living Legends for many of Australia's best.
"Only in Australia would a mother name a baby after a horse," Clarke said. "Only in Australia would the horse have to win before the boy was given the name. Only in Australia would the mother bring the boy to have a photo taken and explain, 'Here is the horse you were named after'."
They are called stubborn, smart, cunning, obstinate, brave, bloody-minded, big-hearted – all terms that can be applied to people.
There are more riddles about racehorses than answers. The part-owner of a Cox Plate winner sighs and says: “You really can’t explain so many things about horses.” In her book Life With Rosie: The Highs and Lows of Raising a Racehorse, Helen Thomas concludes: “Horses, I have come to understand, are a dream unto themselves. Like life itself.” She quotes racing analyst Deane Lester as saying that if you try to work out why some horses do some things, “it will just do your head in”. Carlyon again: “Racehorses are splendidly unscientific … proof that two plus two can come up nine.”
“I love it! Admire Chautauqua even more. What a character.” And simply this: “Smart horse.”
That’s what you hear when you ask around about this horse that outfoxed the humans. He’s intelligent. A thinker. A clever boy. It’s why that course commentator likened him to Einstein. Between 2014 and 2017 he was a mobile ATM for his connections, winning big races in Australia and overseas. People loved him, and not only punters. “He’s not my horse, he’s the public’s horse,” Legh says. He had the mystique of being a grey, like the 1970s champion, Gunsynd. And just like Kiwi in the 1983 Melbourne Cup, or Bernborough in the 1940s, he would let other horses lead and then reel them in. Unlike Kiwi, however, he did this in sprints rather than a marathon. He was described as “eating up the ground” when he won his first T.J. Smith (1200 metres) in 2015.
Coda:
Legend has it that the fabric manufacturer hadn't supplied enough material to complete the original design, so it was Shrimpton herself who suggested the shorter version.
Living Legend: TJ'S Time Capsule: Jean Shrimpton and the dress that stopped a nation
