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Personal Favourites

This page contains imagery of both horses that have been special to me, as well as a selection of some of the best images I have taken. If one of my main goals is to capture and portray all that is great about horses racing, then I can feel satisfied, although there is always more to achieve and to aspire to.

Northerly - 2002 Caulfield Cup If I never take another photograph of Northerly winning, I need not worry, because this to me is the perfect shot of a true champion. Regular visitors to my site will know about my love for Sunline, so it was somewhat of an emotional conflict of interests with Northerly, because, although they never met when Sunline was truly at her peak, everytime they did meet, Northerly had the measure of this great mare. During the spring of 2002, Northerly earned his place amongst the greats of the Australian turf with 2 performances, the greatest I believed was his effort to win the Caulfield Cup, the following year after winning a Cox Plate, under topweight of 58kg. He became the first horse to win the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate in the same year since Tobin Bronze.	Sunline - 2000 Cox Plate This remains my favourite and my best photograph of one of my all time favourite racehorses, and probably one of the best horses to race in Australia in recent years, the mighty Kiwi mare Sunline. I was an ABSOLUTE bundle of nerves leading up the race, in a classic case of my getting too emotionally involved in my racing photography! Luckily a stern talking to the day before the race settled me down. I was further assisted by the loan of an absolutely BEAUTIFUL Nikon lens from a friend. The result, as you can see, is fabulous, as was the result of the race. It lifted her to the best horse I've ever photographed, and no horse would have beaten her that day. Sunline as usual made her own luck and broke the hearts of her rivals that day. Hail the Queen, indeed!
Sunline - 2001 Apollo Stakes Probably some of the nicest cantering shots I have of Sunline, I took these before she won the Apollo Stakes in Sydney before journeying to Dubai.	Sunline - 2001 Apollo Stakes Probably some of the nicest cantering shots I have of Sunline, I took these when she won the Apollo Stakes in Sydney before journeying to Dubai.
Sunline - 2001 Apollo Stakes Go Baby! Sunline in full flight!	Sunline - 2001 Feehan Stakes She was great even in defeat! Here is the mighty mare Sunline, in full flight again, desperately trying to hold off the emerging champion Northerly in their first encounter, the 2001 Feehan Stakes, when Northerly stunned us by running down Sunline over a mile at Moonee Valley.
Sunline - 2001 Apollo Stakes Wow!	Sunline - 2001 Apollo Stakes Wow!
2002 Melbourne Cup (G1) A special moment in racing history, with Damien Oliver winning the 2002 Melbourne Cup aboard the Dermot Weld trained Media Puzzle. The week before the Cup Damien's older brother Jason had been fatally injured riding a 2yo horse in a barrier trial, and all our hearts went out to Damien on what was a memorable day in Australian racing.	2002 Melbourne Cup (G1) A special moment in racing history, with Damien Oliver winning the 2002 Melbourne Cup aboard the Dermot Weld trained Media Puzzle. The week before the Cup Damien's older brother Jason had been fatally injured riding a 2yo horse in a barrier trial, and all our hearts went out to Damien on what was a memorable day in Australian racing.
Sunline - 2002 Doncaster Handicap They said she was finished after the spring of 2001! But Sunline had other ideas! She came back victorious in the autumn of 2002, and took 4 successive Group 1 races, and a record third successive Horse of the Year title, an award that I was present for. She won the Coolmore Classic, her second Doncaster Handicap under 58kg, and a record breaking 6 lengths victory in the All Aged Stakes. She didn't ever win another race in Australia, as she was winless in the spring of 2002 apart from her first up win in NZ, but hail the Queen, yet again! I cried when her number went up after a photo finish in the Doncaster, as she had tried valiantly to hold out the evergreen bridesmaid of G1 racing, Shogun Lodge.	Sunline - 2002 Doncaster Handicap They said she was finished after the spring of 2001! But Sunline had other ideas! She came back victorious in the autumn of 2002, and took 4 successive Group 1 races, and a record third successive Horse of the Year title, an award that I was present for. She won the Coolmore Classic, her second Doncaster Handicap under 58kg, and a record breaking 6 lengths victory in the All Aged Stakes. She didn't ever win another race in Australia, as she was winless in the spring of 2002 apart from her first up win in NZ, but hail the Queen, yet again! I cried when her number went up after a photo finish in the Doncaster, as she had tried valiantly to hold out the evergreen bridesmaid of G1 racing, Shogun Lodge.
Northerly - 2002 Caulfield Cup Good closeups are not always easy to do, and are often in very different circumstances. The picture above of Northerly fighting all the way to win his Caulfield Cup is very different to the picture directly to the right, of the mighty Sunline gliding to a 7 length victory in the Cox Plate. Interestingly, Greg Childs rode both horses in what were probably their greatest moments. If you look to the far left of this photograph, you can just see the nose of the runner up Fields of Omagh, who failed by a neck to run the WA Tiger down. Had he won, this would have been all I had of the Caulfield Cup winner, but particularly when shooting with a larger lens, you have to make a judgement and then stay true to it, and hope like mad you got it right! Luckily for me, Northerly's courage and tenacity meant I got it right!	Sunline - 2000 Cox Plate Another photo with that wonderful lens on that wonderful day (see script above). Oh what you can do with such beautiful equipment. I like these shots when they are cropped right in, because they are different to the usual shots I can get with the 80-200mm lens, and because you can see quite a lot of detail in the horse and rider. A flourish over the line would have been wonderful, although Greg Childs is not usually given to such flamboyant displays! At least the mare pricked her ears though! My new (riding-dressage) horse is a mare. It is therefore lovely that one of my all time favourite racehorses was also a mare.
Lonhro - 2003 Chipping Norton Stakes As above, good closeups can be tricky. This was the first good closeup I got of the very good horse Lonhro, when he won the Chipping Norton Stakes. They are very similar, taken nearly 2 years later to the day, to the ones above of Sunline winning at the 'Farm', taken in just about the same spot on the track, at nearly the 100m mark, with the same 300mm lens.	Lonhro - 2003 Queen Elizabeth Stakes Well, while the shot on the left is good, the fact that it was very dark due to an approaching storm means Lonhro doesn't have the same gleam as he does in this sequence of shots I took. This is my favourite, of Lonhro bouncing back after a somewhat disappointing effort behind Grand Armee in the 2003 Doncaster Handicap, in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. I was using a 400mm lens, borrowed from Maxwells, and goodness me it was lovely!
Lonhro - 2002 Chelmsford Stakes This is lovely! Full horse, full sun, lovely stride, lovely win! LOVELY DAY!	Lonhro - 2002 Caulfield Yalumba Stakes It's a real conflict when one of your all time favourites is beaten, by another horse that you like. But my heart belonged to Sunline and this was a tragedy, but it was a fantastic race, with two fantastic horses, one climbing to the apex of his abilities, and the other gracefully coming to the end of a fabulous career. We cheered and screamed for Sunline as she turned for home in front and put 4 lengths on them, and kept screaming for her as Lonhro gradually reeled her in. This was her second last racetrack appearance, as she was retired after finishing 4th in the Cox Plate 2 weeks after this race. What an emotional couple of weeks it was.
Fairway and Sunline - 2000 Turnbull Stakes Although Sunline was defeated in this race, I have enormous satisfaction from these shots. Again with a friends lens (this time a 400mm one, it is bigger than me!), the rail was 9 metres out, and the outside rail was 3 metres in, and with the big lens, these images are quite head-on, and superb! While I would have preferred that the result was reversed, the mare lost no caste in my eyes, and they are wonderful shots. I love the way the two horses, and jockeys, are almost perfectly synchronised.	Fairway and Sunline - 2000 Turnbull Stakes Another shot from this sequence. They've fabulous! And popular. In fact, they are so good, I can almost convince myself that the mare actually won the race! Note again how the horses are really going stride for stride - try to pick much of a difference between their strides (and the motion of the jockeys)! It was difficult to choose just two images from a sequence of 8 or 9, there's probably one more that I really like, which you can see on either the Sunline or Fairway pages.
Sky Heights - 2000 Caulfield Stakes A good horse, I like this shot of Sky Heights, as it shows the momentum with which he powered away with this very good horse's race. He was no match for the mighty mare Sunline a fortnight later though! Fair credit though, as the horse was diagnosed with stomach ulcers after the MacKinnon Stakes. This was a great win though, and another highlight of a very successful spring for me photographically.	Diatribe - 2000 Caulfield Cup My sister and I actually won $317 on this race, by my picking the winner and the trifecta, which was ace. In addition, this is a wonderful shot, and Cassidy is always good theatre! Being there for when George Hanlon finally won the Caulfield Cup was another very special moment, even if it does create a media scrum!
Octagonal - 1996 Rosehill Guineas This images really represents to me when I felt truly independent as a photographer. It was when I first had both my Victorian and NSW badges, and I had made a special point of photographing this race. The race was a promoter's and photographer's dream, as was this shot. I couldn't go to photograph the Derby, so this race was sort of a consolation prize. They were such a good crop of 3yos, and it has been a very popular seller amongst the public too.	Saintly - 1996 Melbourne Cup This photo, as was the horse, is very special to me. It is still probably one of the best race/action photographs I've ever taken (with the old camera too!), and the images from that day were just superb. Bart Cummings wrote me a lovely letter commenting on how nice they were, and the horse always had a special place in my heart. It was my biggest disappointment when he broke down, and one of the biggest thrills I've experienced photographing the day he won the Cup. I still believe on potential he is the best horse I've photographed to date (perhaps Sunline excepted, my present favourite!). My negative is showing the signs of just how popular this photograph has been with Saintly's fans too, and is now reserved for special care and treatment.
Testa Rossa I took this after I'd been down hanging out one afternoon at Flemington with Sunline and her strapper Claire Bird. I was just about to leave and in fact putting the camera away, when I looked up and saw a bay horse walking towards the swimming pool. I instantly thought "That looks like Testa Rossa", then thought, no couldn't be, I'd better go, then "bugger it, I'll have to have a look", and that's exactly who it was. I have over a roll of film of him in the pool, which are special images to me. I love the way the water ripples around his head, and I chatted with his trainer Dean Lawson afterwards, who's lovely, and patted Testa, who's just a lovely horse too!	Might and Power - 1998 Cox Plate I took this, by chance really. His Cox Plate win, from a crowd and media experience, was memorable, and a real media "scrum" ensued, which I didn't enjoy terribly much at the time, and it also resulted in some fairly severe (and almost dangerous, being forced to run backwards behind security guards and a chain) conditions the next year when Sunline was victorious (hence I really only got one useable shot that year). I couldn't face going into the birdcage area they have for the winner (too crowded), so I waited behind the horse, and was presented with these shots when Cassidy saluted the crowd, and turned back towards the photographers behind him. It was real homage stuff to the horse, a la Kingston Town, which I just love!
Frankie Dettori - 1999 Melb Cup Day I hadn't actually realised that it was Frankie who'd ridden the winner, of I think a race or two before they ran the Cup. When I did, I (along with a few others!) sprinted back to the mounting yard, because I had a fair feeling that he'd do the famous star jump. He actually paused, and asked if those waiting were ready, after the horse was positioned on the ground. I had ensured I was dead in front of him, and although he surprised me with how high he went, I was so pleased with the final result, with the clock tower (a Flemington icon) and the city in the background. I also have shots of him spraying champagne!	Pharein and Brett Prebble 1999 Salinger Stakes (G1 Sprint) I took this from on top of the stewards tower on Derby Day. Nobody really knew much about the filly, but when she cleared out to win, Prebble stood up in his irons and waved at us all. He appeared to be looking right up at me when he swept by me, and I was all excited at the time. My friend Gary also got a brilliant shot, and it was an exciting occasion. I love this shot, partly because it's so different, and because it's always so satisfying when a shot you think is fabulous at the time you take it actually is!
Saintly - 1996 Cox Plate I fondly call this "The Kiss" shot. It will always be one of my classic photographs. I had to work VERY hard to get it as there were a lot of photographers (all MUCH bigger than me!) who were trying to shove me out of the way (competition gets pretty hot at times), in fact, I was activiely using my elbows to hold my ground! It is one of a series of about 10 or so frames, and the rest are ok, and then there was this one, which was fabulous! It has been published quite a lot too.	Tie the Knot - 1998 Rosehill Guineas This was the first (of later many) occasion I actually photographed Tie the Knot winning. I have a couple of beautiful head shots of the horse (the other is further below), but this stands out, because he was just looking back at me, saying "well, what did you think?". I think it's a lovely, personal shot of the horse, that shows his nature beautifully.
Sunline - 1999 Cox Plate The light was just terrible when we were doing these shots, the clouds suddenly closed in, and I didn't expect to get much of Sunline at all. But going through my negatives, there was this shot, which captures the mare beautifully. Susan Archer liked it too!	Octagonal - after his last race This image eased the pain of Octagonal not winning his last race. It's actually been published quite a lot, and hangs on my wall as well. It is just a beautiful head study, of a very beautiful and special horse.
Tie the Knot - 1998 Mercedes Classic This is another of what I call my "classic" head shots. Photographically I think it is superb, and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, plus a bit of horse sense I think! It was amusing because a group of photographers were in one area, and bossing the strapper around, and the horse just turned and looked at me and a friend photographer from Melbourne, with this beautiful light, and that's when I took this shot. The other photographers of course got very cranky and bossed the strapper some more to reposition the horse. I knew I had my shot though!	Champagne - 1997 Angus Armanasco Stakes This was the first occasion that I photographed Champagne, when she beat Kensington Palace first up from New Zealand. She was a most attractive mare, and this was just a stunning head shot, one of my best in fact.
Might and Power - 1997 Caulfield Cup This horse proved particularly difficult to get a good head shot of, mainly because he just used to refuse to stand still! I always liked this particular shot, one of the rare head shots I managed in his Cup Double, because it shows that "wild eye" he possessed in the early days, and typified the energy that he won the race with, and the way he carried on afterwards. Dancing around everywhere!	Might and Power - 1997 Melbourne Cup A slightly calmer looking moment, after he won the Melbourne Cup. I still don't know how I managed to get this, and it is actually a lovely study of the horse. The light was beautiful, and it just strikes me as such a different pose from the shot on the left!
Vintage Crop - 1993 Melbourne Cup This was my first Melbourne Cup, and while I am still disheartened to say I completely buggered the race finish, which still smarts, due to being totally overcome by the occasion, I did get the most wonderful sequence from the roof of the clock tower of the horse returning to scale. The colours are just wonderful, and the combination of factors makes this a very special shot indeed.	Might and Power - 1997 Caulfield Cup This shot, after he'd won the Caulfield Cup, is just a superb return to scale, epitomizing the jubilation of winning a big race. It featured on the back cover of Practical Punting once, when they used to run full colour shots, and I was very proud of it. It was also used in a big Thoroughbred Trade Fair in Kentucky, by an organisation promoting Australian Racing, on a huge 3 x 8 foot poster that hung from the roof. It must have looked awesome!
Testa Rossa - 2000 Futurity Stakes What a great little horse this chap is! As detailed above! I have been unfortunate to have not been there for many of his wins (particular last spring - 1999 - when trying to be diligent and finish my degree in style), so was desperate for him to win this. He didn't let me down. I was most disappointed that the virus hit him so badly. It was so wonderful to see him bounce back with two Group 1 wins as a 4yo. His connections showed a great deal of courage and faith to resist the temptation of bundling him off to stud. He's such a genuine and brilliant horse, and this race was when he really stepped out of the shadow of the high profile Redoute's Choice. I always thought Testa was the better racehorse, and it was nice to see him get the acknowledgement.	Might and Power - 1997 Caulfield Cup This was the first time most of us really sat up and took notice of Might and Power. It was also the first time I really photographed him winning - and what a win! He had pranced around the mounting enclosure before the race and was covered in the most amazing set of dapples of ever seen, he looked just fantastic. He led all the way, and was 4 lengths in front on the home turn, and just exploded away. I was absolutely stunned afterwards, it was one of the most amazing wins I'd seen whilst photographing, and I always liked this shot. It was one of the first major races I took with my now trusty Nikon F5 camera, I'd had it all of 10 days on the day, and was still marveling at the camera's abilities and motordrive!
Intergaze - 2000 Australian Cup I really like this horse, and this made up for my disappointment when he'd been so narrowly defeated by Istidaad the year before. I was just screaming for him to keep going, in a classic example of how emotionally involved I get in photographing some of these horses. He just floored them! He was so popular, and so beautiful, and so game! He has a beautiful long forelock too, which always look fabulous.	Sunline - 1999 Doncaster Handicap My favourite horse racing at the moment, and the best mare I've photographed or seen. She was bred by my friend Susan Archer, giving a personal attachment, and I love her. This, and the Cox Plate shots (above and below) are my favourite shots of the mare. She's just beautiful, and has such presence and energy. Her size is quite remarkable for a mare.
Sunline - 1999 Cox Plate Before the race everyone was writing Sunline off. I think the late rain brought her back in favour, but I believe regardless she'd have won. I still have my Sunline badge from the race, and it was a big thrill when she won, and an accolade she deserved to hold. I was overjoyed when this great mare became the first horse since the MIGHTY Kingston Town to win the Cox Plate in successive years. What a wonderful day that was.	Saintly - 1997 CF Orr Stakes This was Saintly's final race, and final victory, because he broke down shortly thereafter, breaking my heart as well! It was an awesome performance, he was miles back, and suddenly thundered down the outside to win with ridiculous ease. It was his first race since the Cup and his trip to Japan where he was scratched on the morning of the Japan Cup with severe travel sickness. I had ummed and ahh'ed about going for the race, finally decided "yes, Saintly's running, first up, I gotta go", and booked my plane ticket. On race morning I slept in and almost missed my plane (v. early flight). The plane ended up being delayed by 2 hours anyway (although nobody bothered to ring the night before), so my panic attack was all in vain. But then Saintly won, and made everything ok!