Celebrating kings of the turf

These are heady times in the world of racing. In six short months, the sport of kings has gone from a state of national crisis into a sport of national celebration and we have been treated with a quality vintage of horses we haven't experienced for a decade.

When news broke that equine influenza had taken hold in Sydney in late August last year, the entire industry was braced for a crisis which could bring horseracing to its knees. In its previous incarnations in South Africa and elsewhere it had ripped a hole which took years to repair.

On the cusp of the spring carnival, racing's annual windfall which generates enough money to keep the industry alive 12 months a year, an invisible enemy had infiltrated several stables and while it was unlikely to take a massive toll in terms of equine deaths, its contagiousness was such that racing needed to be brought to an immediate halt.

It was the famous 'tyranny of distance' which saved Australia from a more devastating encounter with EI. While racing in New South Wales and Queensland remained in shutdown, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania were able to continue. The substantial distances between capital cities had prevented the nasty little bug from finding its way across the nation. The Melbourne carnival was saved and racing was able to celebrate its survival, albeit in muted style out of respect for those in the industry north of the Murray who had lost their livelihoods for three months.

Business only returned to some semblance of normalcy nationally when Sydney and Brisbane resumed racing in early December. Even so, there was a sense that the industry had had the wind knocked out of it, and it needed time to get its breath back.

The sport of racing is built on characters. Many of those are human and they amaze with their bravery, resilience and horsemanship. But the biggest characters of all walk on four legs. Carbine, Phar Lap, Tulloch, Kingston Town, Manikato and Makybe Diva all acted as inspirations, and all became loved as if they were human. At the moment, in Australia we have three outstanding horses who have achieved that level of recognition from the public. They have done more than just win races, they have lifted the industry out of the post EI haze.

Amazingly, Weekend Hussler, Takeover Target and Apache Cat have all achieved these deeds in the same field - sprinting. While the boom three-year-old Weekend Hussler may end up stretching out over longer distances, all of the six Group Ones he has won this year have been under a mile.

It the same story with Apache Cat, who on Saturday became the first Australian horse since Tulloch to win five straight Group One races.

Takeover Target has been winning Group One sprints since 2004 and while he has only won one top class race this season, his effort to win in Singapore as a rising nine-year-old hammers home what a truly courageous animal he is.

We have three horses at different stages of the career, but each of them creates a buzz every time they set foot on the track. Weekend Hussler creates the biggest boom having won nine of his 11 starts, including six at the top level. While he did benefit from a lack of interstate horses at