Coolmore !

The trip to Coolmore was a first for Women in Racing, and it was a great success.

Coolmore is a horse stud in the upper Hunter Valley in NSW, about 6 hours from Canberra.  We left early on Saturday morning,  despite Naomi making us late and complaining the whole trip about forgetting to bring her handbag.  After a few stops and morning tea, we arrived at the small town of Denman where we were going to stay the night.  Arriving in the early afternoon, we headed off to the Pukara Estate olive grove where we sampled their olives and their many varieties of olive oil and balsamic vinegars.

After filling up on afternoon tea, we headed off to visit some nearby vineyards where we got to try their latest offerings.  We stayed overnight in Denman on Saturday night, spread out over a few motels because the trip had been more popular than any single motel in a small town could accommodate.

Sunday morning started with a visit to Golden Grove farm, just west of Denman. Golden Grove is a boutique broodmare and spelling agistment farm, were we got to see several newly-born foals and their mothers.  One of the foals had been born only the previous evening.  To most of us from the city this was the first time we'd ever seen mares and their foals so close up and personal.  It was touching to see the mothers staying beside their foals and seemingly guard them from the frightening hoards of Women in Racing.

After Golden Grove, we travelled a short distance to Coolmore which is a very impressive, and obviously exclusive horse stud.  We could tell this immediately by the locked gates and security guards.  But of course, recognising us as being Women in Racing, we were immediately granted access.  Coolmore covers about 9,000 acres of well manicured grounds and has about 170 staff; a large number of whom are probably gardeners.

We were escorted around by Sebastian who is one of the Coolmore marketing team.  He guided us through the stables and sheds where the stud work gets done and then showed us the stallions that are the reason that Coolmore is so successful.  We saw Encosta De Lago, Haradasun, and Musir.  He gave a great explanation of the horse breeding business, especially from the international perspective as Coolmore Australia is part of a much larger international organisation.  He spoke about the daily routine in the stud and the upcoming busy season that is about to start in September.

We finished the tour with coffee and a snack on the terrace of the office building overlooking a small picturesque lake.

Regretfully we left Coolmore and headed back to Canberra, stopping for a late barbeque lunch at Mooney Mooney getting home around 9pm.

We all agreed that it was a fabulous trip and one that most will want to do again.

A slideshow of the weekend is below.  As usual, if you have any problems seeing it, click here and then click on the Slideshow button.

Lightning Ridge 2012

Once again Women in Racing trekked north to visit our friends at Lightning Ridge.

We started off at the crack of dawn and after a few comfort stops, we reached Coonamble where we had lunch.  In keeping with the Bollywood theme, lunch consisted of curry, rice and pappadams.  A few hours later we were in Lightning Ridge.  The trip never seems to be as long as we expect when we start.

We had a great BBQ dinner at John and Neroli Bevan's place just outside the town.  There we met up with a few of the past Opal Queens and it was good to see what good ambassadors for Lightning Ridge they had become.  We've certainly had picked well in the past and we expect to do the same again this year.  You see, it was explained that Women in Racing play an important part in Lightning Ridge because we provide the neutral judges who aren't friends or relatives of contestants and we can leave town after the judging.

Saturday morning started off with a dip at the Bore Baths which is a large public swimming pool filled with hot artesian water at about 40 degrees C.  It's a great experience to get into the hot pool from the cold morning air and gaze around through the steam raising off the water.

After breakfast we went on a tour of Lightning Ridge, touring through the mining camps and the flood water that remains after last year's Queensland floods.  Following this we had morning tea at the Bevan's place where we visited their cactus nursery and practiced a Bollywood dance routine that had been choreographed by Sue.  We planned to dance this number at the Opal Queen awards night safe in the knowledge that no-one we knew back home would see it.

In the afternoon most of us visited the Chambers of the Black Hand which is an old opal mine that has been converted to a fascinating tourist attraction.  The owner of the mine got bored with mining all day, so started carving out the sandstone about half way down in to a series of caverns that he decorated with carvings.  These caverns have themes that include African animals, superheros, and an Egyptian tomb.

In the evening we went to the Opal Queen awards night, with three of us being the official judges of the Opal Queen herself.  The judges spent two hours interviewing all the contestants before coming out to join us. It was a great night and most exhausted themselves on the dance floor.

Sunday started with another trip to the Bore Baths before heading back to Canberra.

Once again it was a wonderful trip and I'm sure most look forward to doing it again.  But next time I'll be steering Karyn away from the opal jewellery.

Below are some photos from the trip.   If it doesn't show correctly on your browser, click here and then click on the slideshow button.