Shocking – Melbourne Cup 2009 Winner

G1 VRC Melbourne Cup 3200m 2009 Results

SHOCKING (b h 4y Street Cry (IRE) – Maria Di Castiglia (GB). Trainer: M A Kavanagh) 51 (C W Brown)

CRIME SCENE 53 (K Mc Evoy)

MOURILYAN 54.5 (G Schofield)

Master O’Reilly 55 (V Duric)

Harris Tweed 52.5 (C Newitt)

Alcopop 52.5 (D Tourneur)

Viewed 58 (B Rawiller)

C’est La Guerre (Nicholas Hall)

Kibbutz 52.5 (Chris Symons)

Newport 52.5 (Peter Wells)

Daffodil 51.5 (C Munce)

Munsef 53 (Z Purton)

Gallions Reach 52 (D Dunn)

Leica Ding 50.5 (Craig Williams)

Ista Kareem 53.5 (L Nolen)

Allez Wonder 50.5 (Ms Michelle Payne)

Capecover 51.5 (N G Harris)

Basaltico 51.5 (D Nikolic)

Zavite 53 (M Zahra)

Spin Around 52 (M R Du Plessis)

Roman Emperor 54 (J Bowman)

Fiumicino 55.5 (S R King)

Warringah 52.5 carr 53 (D Oliver) last.

Scr: Changingoftheguard.

3/4 len, 1-1/2 len. Time: 3:23.87. (Last 600m 36.60).

Most years I sit down and do a little study into the pedigrees of the horses running in the major Australian horseraces. I am not remotely interested in betting, but I do appreciate a good horse and get a lot of enjoyment linking history and horses. Thoroughbreds are of particular interest to me – and if you ever get a chance to see it, I do have a bookshelf devoted to tests the history of Thoroughbred, Arabian and Standardbred horses in Australia!

Unfortunately, this year I did not get a chance. Otherwise I might have taken more notice of the eventual winner, Australian-born Shocking (b h 2005 Street Cry (IRE) from Maria Di Castiglia (GB), by Danehill (USA)).

As I have to run out the door to do some errands, I cannot ponder too much longer on this; but I pose this question: what kind of impact have descendants of Danehill (USA 1986) had on the major Australian horseraces?

In restrospect it does not seem a huge surprise that a horse of Shocking’s calibre would take out Australia’s major horserace. A grandson of Danehill on his dam’s side, and a direct male line descendant of Native Dancer (USA gr h 1950), he carries some high quality bloodlines!

One thing that fascinates me is that every name in a horse’s pedigree is a tie to the history. Every one of those horses has been bred for a purpose, linked to people who perhaps tied their hopes and dreams into their animals, and many of these Thoroughbreds carry an impressive genealogy of major race winners with them. If only I had more time to explore these ideas, but more pressing priorities await!

References:

http://melbournecup.racingandsports.com.au/

http://www.studbook.org.au/Horse.aspx?hid=895792

http://www.studbook.org.au/Horse.aspx?hid=616135

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/horseracing/2009/11/04/1257247659785.html

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/native+dancer

391. Horse With Sunglasses

Sharpie marker on yellow cloth-textured paper, August 2008.

390. Horse On Yellow Paper

Sharpie marker on yellow ‘cloth-textured’ paper, August 2008.

381. Foal Portrait

Colour pencil on paper, 2009.

378. Meditations On Genesis 1

Ink fineliner pen on paper, July 2009.

The idea for this drawing came from reading Genesis, Chapter 1 in the Bible. It is one of my favourite Scriptures. I personally believe that Genesis, Chapters 1 through to 11, lay the foundation for the Gospel message. All of Christ’s work of incarnation, atoning sacrifice, mercy, grace, resurrection, and all that, is given its explanation through the events of the first Chapters of the Bible.

I have made this image available as an art print and greeting card. Information can be found at my RedBubble.Com Bubblesite.

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Genesis, Chapter 1 – New Century Version from http://www.biblestudytools.com/

1 In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. 2 The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the first day.

6 Then God said, “Let there be something to divide the water in two.” 7 So God made the air and placed some of the water above the air and some below it. 8 God named the air “sky.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear.” And it happened. 10 God named the dry land “earth” and the water that was gathered together “seas.” God saw that this was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce plants — some to make grain for seeds and others to make fruits with seeds in them. Every seed will produce more of its own kind of plant.” And it happened. 12 The earth produced plants with grain for seeds and trees that made fruits with seeds in them. Each seed grew its own kind of plant. God saw that all this was good. 13 Evening passed, and morning came. This was the third day.

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years. 15 They will be in the sky to give light to the earth.” And it happened. 16 So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good. 19 Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fourth day.

20 Then God said, “Let the water be filled with living things, and let birds fly in the air above the earth.” 21 So God created the large sea animals and every living thing that moves in the sea. The sea is filled with these living things, with each one producing more of its own kind. He also made every bird that flies, and each bird produced more of its own kind. God saw that this was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Have many young ones so that you may grow in number. Fill the water of the seas, and let the birds grow in number on the earth.” 23 Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fifth day.

24 Then God said, “Let the earth be filled with animals, each producing more of its own kind. Let there be tame animals and small crawling animals and wild animals, and let each produce more of its kind.” And it happened. 25 So God made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. God saw that this was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.” 27 So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 God said, “Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you. 30 I have given all the green plants as food for every wild animal, every bird of the air, and every small crawling animal.” And it happened.

31 God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day.

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Further information on Genesis and its relevance to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can be found at:

http://creation.com/genesis-questions-and-answers

New Defender’s Study Bible Genesis 1

Christian Answers Network – Genesis 1

376. Collage: horses and birds

Mixed media, July 2009.

This is a collage of my various horse sketches and bird sketches, all glued together! The birds are mostly inspired by southern Australian native species. The horses are mostly inspired by Arabian horses.

It’s available as a card or laminated print at my Bubblesite at RedBubble.Com.

372. Another day, another horse

Pencil on paper, July 2009.

369. Trotter

Graphite pencil on paper, March 2009.

367. Horse and Cupcakes

Pen, watercolour pastel and watercolour pencil on paper, Septemeber 2008.

This drawing was inspired by the desert-style horse. I guess I got its general body shape from Akhal-Teke style horses. The cupcakes are inspired by… umm… cupcakes.

365. Horsey

Digital art, July 2009.

364. Horsey!

Graphite pencil on paper, June 2008.

362. Pixelated Stuff

Digital art, Paint, April 2009.

This is too much fun…

346. Trotting

Felt tip marker on orange tinted paper, December 2008.

345. Cutesy Horse Yellow Paper

Pencil on yellow tinted paper, December 2008.

343. Purple And Green Star Horse

 

Watercolour pencil and fine liner ink pen on medium tooth paper, 2007.

This is just a little thumbnail sketch. I was looking at different ways to represent cutesy horses – without turning it into a My Little Pony!

Nicaraguan Stamp

I’m not entirely sure what is happening here… it’s a little morbid… It probably made it into my collection due to the fact there’s a horse on it.

Asiatic Wild Horse, Poland

This is a Polish stamp featuring a fairly rare species of equid (horse family), the Przewalski Horse.

329. Tersk

Pencil on paper, February 2009.

More Russians. This is a concept sketch developing ideas about drawing the Tersk breed of horse. In the photos I’ve seen of this breed, I thought they had beautiful Arabian-like profiles.

More information:

Flickr Photos Tagged “Tersk Horse”

“Breeds of Livestock – Tersk Horse”

“The Tersk”

“Troika – Gateway to Russian Horses”

All links accessed 5 March 2009.

328. Don

Graphite pencil on paper, February 2009.

Another Russian-style horse. This one is based on the Don breed.

More information:

“Don Horse“

“Horse2Buy – Don Horse“

Art for sale:

This illustration is available for sale in various printed formats, including greeting cards, canvas prints and laminated prints. See http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/46856/works/2652453-2-russian-inspired-horses-2 for more information..

All links accessed 5 March 2009.

Bulgarian Tarpan 1980

Tarpans are technically extinct equids but have been “re-created” by breeding particular domestic horse breeds together… This is one of the stamps I realised that I could read thanks to my random decision to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Handy…

327. Budenny

Graphite pencil on paper, February 2009.

It must be all the Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky books on my bedside table, or the interest in Eastern European culture I”ve developed since marrying a part-Ukrainian… but I thought I’d have a go drawing Russian types of horses. As most of the time I draw Arabians or Thoroughbreds, it was kind of nice taking a break and drawing the Russian breeds. This one is inspired by the Budenny breed of horse.

More information:

“Budenny”

“The Budenny Horse”

Art For Sale:

I’ve got this for sale as an art print, available in various formats including matted and framed prints and greeting cards.

Go to http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/46856/works/2652444-2-russian-inspired-horses-1 for more information and to view in larger size.

All links accessed 5 March 2009.

Romanian Horse

I suspect this is a Lipizzaner. Wow, 1984. I was 2 years old then… How I ended  up with this stamp, I’m not 100% sure.

323. Trotting Horse… Yes, another one

Felt tip marker on cream tinted paper, December 2008.

Horsey

321. Horse And Rider

Felt tip marker on cream tinted paper, 2008.

Another sketch experimenting with felt tip markers. This was inspired by a warmblood dressage horse photo. I’ve tried to avoid too much detail and try to cnocentrate on the general flow and shapes. I hope that I managed to capture the movements.

319. Trotting Horse On Red Paper

Felt tip marker on paper, 2008.

I was spending an evening just practising quick sketching and – as usual – the horse theme happened. I was trying to do something different from my usual attempts at remotely reaslistic Arabian Horse faces… I like the freedom and simplicity of line sketches made using humble children’s felt tip markers.