Forget about The Voice, not just the increasingly bland TV show, or more so that looming troublesome referendum question, but you know when the pollies are latching on to a horse, it is game on. And that is a good thing.
And not just any horse, I am talking Amelia’s Jewel, labelled here last year as the “sexiest” horse in racing, and still standing by that, as she makes her main stage debut at Flemington in a supposed subplot to the feature Group I Makybe Diva Stakes, via the Group 2 Let’s Elope Stakes, but ready to upstage all this spring.
So, when Simon and Walshy – get used to that familiarity of them when Amelia’s Jewel is mentioned - (that’s trainer Miller and owner Peter ok?) – and a thoroughly engaged army of family, friends, pollies and some freeloaders to be sure, but they say bring it on.
“I’ve got a freak and he’s a legend of a bloke,” says Miller.
After all, who opens a $600 bottle of French (Louis Roederer) champagne after a trial win at Lark Hill?
(That’s Walshy and on a Monday lunchtime after a habitual 5km swim at 5am in the Indian Ocean and morning coffee with mates – August 21.)
And who says they cry watching her run (even in another trial) – that’s wife Annie –and that second trial, Belmont September 5 – but it was just a St Henri Shiraz over lunch with some South African mates associated with Perth Glory– sure it was a 2014 vintage – so still keeping up appearances.
You sense these are fun people, in for a fun ride, for the right reasons. And you’d be right. Expect to hear their voices this spring - they have the right horse and more with exuberant enthusiasm, than arrogant expectation, they believe Amelia’s Jewel can be one of racing’s equine stars of spring.
I agree.
Which is perhaps a little why the West Australian Liberal leader Libby Mettam, member for Vasse, is coming to Flemington on Saturday as part of Team Amelia.
Mettam has a background in media (Today Tonight, A Current Affair, researching) and obviously knows a good story and a pollie can sniff out extra opportunities as well as any.
That her husband Jonathan, also on board this Saturday, is a winemaker, something that also fits well into the Walsh orbit.
Her seat of Vasse encompasses much of Walsh’s vast WA Empire, the Amelia Park winery, and restaurant at Wilyabrup, Margaret River country, and Amelia Lodge at nearby Abbey, the family home base for a proud Busselton lad who grew up a butcher’s son, dad Vern and mum Violet, leasing their first shop off local pioneer Amelia Curtis, hence the Amelia name.
But adding the name Jewel to this Amelia seems something of a masterstroke by the Walsh’s, who with the team have allowed Racenet in behind the scenes as her much hyped first departure from parochial West Australian fans who have cheered seven wins from nine starts and rightly lament the other two seconds, while racing fans on the east have eagerly awaited her arrival.
None of the palava or media focus that will come with Amelia’s Jewel this spring will worry Simon or Walshy one bit, Miller sweeps it away with “I’m just a fan”, Peter with the enthusiasm of a footy player, lining up in his first grad final which he did for North Adelaide in 1978 – and won.
And certainly, none of it will bother the remarkably placid Amelia’s Jewel, she’ll hardly win a pick of the yard prize this spring, sexy but no supermodel, but if she had a voice, you wouldn’t expect her to say, “look at me”.
Which is why Miller was at Northam races last Thursday when the supposed precious cargo was loaded onto the plane with his foreman Kelly Kinninmont in charge. Strapper Siobhan O’Donnell, daughter of WA jockey Shaun, and a snap at landing the best horses in the Miller stable, was already setting things up at Nick Ryan’s Flemington stables for her arrival.
“I reckon I was on racing.com when I just said we’d be staying with Nick, I hadn’t even asked him at the time, but it worked out,” said Miller with the typical cheek that will be much endearing this spring.
“Aaron Mitchell was apprenticed to me and he’s at Nicks and I told him I’d give him a spin on her and he said, ‘fair dinkum, you’re staying with us?’”
The response ended in “Oath”.
“Anyway, I got a photo of her being loaded at 5.30 (pm), the blokes at Northam said, ‘what are you doing here’, “
“I got one on the tarmac at 6.40, a video from the plane, landing at Melbourne about 1am your time so it was 11 here, midnight on the truck, and 1 am at the stables. She just walked in, put her head into the bin and attacked it. She’s amazing, just no fuss.”
Miller crossed over paths with Kinninmont, allowing the trainer to be ready to watch O’Donnell give Amelia’s Jewel a Flemington course proper gallop with one of Ryan’s Tuesday morning.
"She worked brilliant and recovered so well. Can’t wait for Saturday. Bloody exciting, " was Miller's message to Walsh post gallop.
So, for this journey, it goes back to April 18 when Amelia’s Jewel went to the paddock at Walsh’s (where Sarah Brown runs everything) after that teasing photo second in the Quokka.
She came back to Miller’s Ascot stables on June 13.
“She spelled in a paddock along a main road, anyone driving past wouldn’t have known who she was, and she didn’t care if they did, kept her head down eating.”
Walsh and Annie would go feed her carrots, as close as he ever is to the mare bar raceday.
“I thought she could turn orange, that’s how many she would eat,” said Walsh.
"We'd go feed her every day when she was out here, we just love her, mind you Annie said if there was a choice between her and or Amelia's Jewel, my response was 'Annie I can live without you, I can't live without her'.
There has been one love casualty in the Amelia’s Jewel camp, O’Donnell was booked in for a Bali wedding this spring, that’s off, there is another affair going on in Melbourne right now.
Name -Amelia.
Anyway, Peter and Annie are all still living together and the contact with Miller about “her” is based on a very simple premise: “Don’t ring or text me unless there is something wrong.”
“I’m frightened if I ever see his name come up,” said Walsh.
He got one when Amelia’s did arrive back to start this haul in June. “I couldn’t believe how excited he was, he’s not like that. Something like 'she’s never been better, she’s a freak Peter!’.”
Knowing the intense media interest, Miller enlisted Hamilton Content Creators to give fans an insight into Amelia’s Jewel’s gallops progress, as well as opening a Tik-Tok account.
But it was that first gallop (August 8) that he shared on X (Twitter) that had him convinced Amelia’s Jewel was ready to deliver.
“An unbelievable aerobic capacity, and some brain,” Miller said.
“Sure, she is stronger but she is only 480kg or so, I never write anything down, but her heart rate after a gallop, something like 89, just incredible, I thought anywhere between 101 and 105 I’d be thrilled, Valour Road, who she galloped with, an old by was 117, but 89, unbelievable, that’s her asset, her ability to absorb everything with a minimum of effort and fuss.”
So, you have all seen the two trials, the Lark Hill – “there were random people leaning over the fence, I did eight interviews out there and four radio the next morning but one day the phone won’t run, it doesn’t bother me a bit, but I reckon she’s that good, we are only just about to see the best for her.”
Then Damian Lane, “the last piece of the puzzle”, flew in unannounced, for “Frosty” announces nothing but professionalism, for the second Belmont trial and said all the rights things and not much more - as much as Miller said those first two runs are in Melbourne before the fork in the road decision comes for the money of a King Charles in Sydney or the prestige of Cox Plate in Melbourne.
Walsh has already revealed Amelia’s Jewel is locked into Dubai next March on World Cup night (a place he visited this year as a guest and is keen to return with his charge) but a betting man would lean Miller’s deference to the Valley, openly citing his amazement that Winx could turn up there four years at a peak.
They’ve been courted by Racing New South Wales and The Valley and Charlotte Mills visited with the Cox Plate on August 18, as if they needed much reminding of what’s on offer.
Along the way a brother has been born in France, (“he’s got the same head as her, a little dish in it”, she was crowned WA’s Horse of The Year, a no-brainer), but now the work begins on the track Saturday and expect some fun off it.
The extended Walsh family, and the Mettam’s are in town Thursday, it’s Japanese Friday night at Wakuda off Bourke Street, guests of New Zealand Bloodstock and Brent Thomsen Saturday in the Chairman’s Club at Flemington.
“The best part of all of this is she doesn’t know what the fuss is all about,” says Miller.
Let’s hope she, and Team Amelia get to create some this spring. There will be plenty of voice behind it all.
Stay with us here for the ride.
