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Chapter Two

To Town

The next step for Prince Of Penzance was a tougher one. Not only did he have to run another 200 metres, but he was taking on city-class performers, heading to town for the first time in a $100,000 1800-metre contest at Caulfield.

While his country form was impressive, this was a much more difficult task and he was double-figure odds. Owner Andrew Broadfoot remembers having a nice bet, thinking ‘he might never be this sort of price again’.

And it was the day that the stable decided to add some arsenal: Prince Of Penzance was to wear blinkers for the first time.

With his peripheral vision, the horse is bombarded with a multitude of sights as he races, a blur of light and colour. It is bound to detract from their concentration, especially if the horse is inexperienced.

Part of a hood fitted over the horse’s head, blinkers curve around the back of the eye and forward, restricting the wearer’s view so that he can see only straight ahead. Which is where the finishing line is.

Prince Of Penzance’s first metropolitan run was not a winning one, but it was one that earned him plenty of fans. A little slowly away from an inside gate, he sat midfield around nine lengths from the leaders.

Into the clear straightening he gathered momentum, running on strongly to be beaten by the barest of margins. He went into many a punter’s black book that day, with a Best Bets commentator noting ‘nice horse, follow!’

‘What a run,’ Darren Weir said to owner Pam Wilson, who had watched the race with him.

The Men In Hats Syndicate’s Sam Brown remembers the day well. He had just completed the twenty-four-hour Oxfam Trailwalker challenge and was tired — well, exhausted. He had not slept more than an hour, but there was ‘no way’ he was missing his horse’s first city race.

Popping a couple of No-Doz tablets to ensure he was alert enough to enjoy the race he headed out to Caulfield, glad he made the effort.

‘He absolutely flew home to just miss out in a photo finish. Wow, how good was that, what an experience! We knew we had a horse worthy of city class.’

And it was a pretty exciting day to have a runner, that day chosen by the Melbourne Racing Club to farewell the unbeaten champion, Black Caviar.

‘It was a special day,’ Andrew Wilson recalled, ‘one I will never forget. People were standing four and five deep while she paraded. She stopped for pats and photos, I couldn’t believe how calm she was.’

Everyone’s focus was, of course, on Black Caviar. The bay gelding at one stage walking in front of her in the pre-parade ring was barely noticed. Except by his proud owners, who observed how calmly he walked among the throng. ‘He took everything in his stride,’ said Andrew.

Not surprisingly, years later one of Andrew’s prized possessions is a photograph he took that day, a sprinting star in the background and a future Melbourne Cup winner ahead of her.

Two weeks later, Prince Of Penzance experienced the wide open spaces of Flemington for the first time. And he liked them, though he was rather a naughty boy during the running of the Flemington Green Fields Handicap.

Again a little tardy out of the gates, Prince Of Penzance refused to settle. Horses usually respond well to Michelle Payne’s gentle hands, but on this day she was given a difficult ride. He pulled, both hard and long. For most of the race.

A horse expends a lot of extra energy pulling — their mouth opens, their head goes up. This is energy required to fight out the race. Usually after racing in such a way, a horse will be under pressure a fair way from home, they will drop out of contention early and finish at the tail of the field.

But Prince Of Penzance was having none of that. Instead of going backwards as could be expected, he was charging forward. Reeling in the leader, putting his nose out on the line. A Flemington winner in his very first racing campaign at just his fifth start.

‘That just shows what a serious horse he is,’ Michelle Payne told the press, those left to report on the final race of the day. ‘Not many horses can pull like that, and throw their head in the air, and still attack the line the way he did.’

‘I think he has got a really bright future,’ she added. ‘I hope I can stick with him.’

Darren Weir could not quite believe what he saw that day, noting that ‘he looked to do a lot wrong … he got into a terrible rhythm. But once Michelle was able to get him clear he stretched out well.’

So why is this horse so inclined to pull? ‘That’s just him,’ said Darren, ‘he is a bit of a dag, still young in the head.’

A big group of joyous owners welcomed Prince Of Penzance back to scale. It was, said Sam Brown, ‘a dream come true, a city winner’.

‘And it was not just us guys who were excited; our wives and girlfriends had jumped on board too. They were hooked! We celebrated long and hard, and it was great meeting a lot of the other owners, most of whom were also celebrating their first city winner.’

This was including Darren Lonsdale, who was grateful to his co-owners for letting him, as a first-time owner, accept the trophy.

‘Just accepting that was like winning the Melbourne Cup,’ he joked.

Sam Brown well remembers something Michelle Payne said that day, something so stunning he thought he had misheard her: ‘This is probably the best horse I have ridden.’

It was not so long ago that the congratulations to owners came pretty much to an end once they’d left the racetrack. But now social media keeps the excitement going, and Andrew Wilson enjoyed watching the ongoing discussions of his horse’s big win.

‘Well done Michelle! I listened from Hong Kong, excited and happy. Go The Prince!’ Michael Wilson said on Twitter.

‘Massive win, good job Michelle Payne, tough horse,’ said former jockey Sam Hyland.

And Michelle replied, ‘He’s pretty good, horses just don’t do that … Melbourne Cup horse.’

At the time the Group One Queensland Derby, contested over 2400 metres at sunny Eagle Farm in June, was on the radar, but Darren was expressing concerns.

‘He couldn’t race like that in a Queensland Derby and expect to run well,’ he said. ‘He has got the ability, but I am not sure he has got the mental attitude yet.’

A decision of whether or not Prince Of Penzance would head north was, however, made for them, the horse pulling up sore after the Flemington run. Surgery was required, Prince Of Penzance having to make what would be the first of four trips to the Ballarat Veterinary Practice’s Equine Clinic.

‘After the excitement of his first city win we were brought back to earth pretty quickly,’ Sam Brown said. ‘The rollercoaster emotions of horse racing … we knew we had a talented horse, but we were worried that he may not come back the same.’

On 14 May, Prince Of Penzance went under the knife of Dr Brian Anderson, who removed from his off fore fetlock an osteochondral fragment, better known as a bone chip. It was arthroscopic surgery, often referred to as keyhole surgery.

Typically, a rest period of three to four months is recommended. While Prince Of Penzance was recuperating plans were being made for him to undertake his future training at Warrnambool, where access to sand and water would help him in his comeback.

In the meantime his owners had watched as his form was tested at stakes level for the first time, when Wowee, who had finished tenth behind Prince Of Penzance at Flemington, at her next start won the Group Three South Australian Oaks at Morphettville.