A tribute to my beloved Pinker Pinker

It was the morning of 22 October 2011, 8.30 to be exact.  I was sitting in front of the TV and the human was looking at me strangely.  "No, surely not," she thought to herself.

It was Cox Plate day - the one day on the racing calendar that my household looks forward to the most.  The Melbourne Cup may be the race that stops a nation, but the Cox Plate is the event that racing purists hold most dear.  Only the very best horses descend upon Moonee Valley to contest the weight-for-age championship of Australasia.  Phar Lap, Tulloch, Tobin Bronze, Gunsynd, Kingston Town, Saintly, Might And Power - all of these champions have etched their names into Cox Plate history.  The human's favourite horses So You Think and Sunline each won the race twice.  And my favourite horse was about to join that prestigious honour roll.

There has been a long history in my house of the human picking a horse for me to cheer for.  Usually it is the horse with the most girlie name in the field.  So when Pinker Pinker came along, the human decided for me that she would be my favourite horse.  If I happened to walk into the room before one of her races I would be met with a barrage of laughs and comments.  "Come to watch Pinker Pinker?" the human would say.  I would just glare back at her.

After a while the human noticed a very curious coincidence - I would only turn up if Pinker Pinker was going to win.  I was there to cheer when she took out the Let's Elope Stakes, but  I was missing in action when she was beaten in the Epsom.  I was glued to the TV when she won the Angus Armanasco Stakes, while I couldn't bear to watch when she failed in AJC Oaks.

So when I was sitting in my favourite chair in front of the TV on Cox Plate morning, the human would not let herself believe that my power of prediction could possibly be right again.  Pinker Pinker was one of the outsiders and there was talk in some quarters that she didn't even deserve to be in the race.  But I knew better, and I wasn't moving for anything!

I waited there for eight hours and finally it was starting time.  Pinker Pinker was taken back in the field after barrier rise  and there she stayed until making the turn for home.  Then the miraculous happened.  The field fanned approaching the straight and the most beautiful gap appeared.  It was just like Moses and the parting of the Red Sea!  Saving valuable ground, Pinker Pinker dashed through and grabbed the lead.  With the human (the armchair jockey) slapping her formguide like a fool, nothing got near Pinker Pinker in the run to the line and she ran in an easy winner.

Amidst the tears, cheers and accolades from the human, I calmly left the room.  I momentarily looked back over my shoulder.  "See, I told you she would win."