Jason Gillespie, the former South Australian Test cricketer knew his time was up after 71 matches in the baggy green, even when he left the field with a still record 201 not out for a night watchman against Bangladesh in 2006. He was never selected again, despite batting over a rain interrupted three days.
Fellow South Australian Flow Meter batted through to 200 not out on Saturday at Morphettville, an innings over a dizzying 3147 days.
When long time best friend Carrina Riggs went to check on him Sunday morning at trainer John Hickmott's Murray Bridge property, she knew "Davey" (as he has been always known, but for no particular reason), had declared his innings. How?
"I went down as usual to let him into his little yard with his mate and he started eating the hay straight out of the wheelbarrow, not waiting for his feed bin, he thought he could be a little bit different now it was all over. I shed a little tear," Riggs said.
In fact, both Riggs and Hickmott knew a very rare Australian racing career was over perhaps halfway through the Congratulation Flow Meter on 200 Handicap where he eventually tailed home five other rivals.
The racing.com headline "Flow Meter fails at 200th start" was perhaps a little discourteous, mind you their pre match screen form snapshots suggested he "may need the run" and was "still learning".
"The track got to a soft five and it was too firm for him," Hickmott said. "I watched the race with Carrina in the mounting yard and turned to her and said, ‘that's it'."
"We could send him around at Murray Bridge, but he doesn't have another point to prove to anyone. He's as good as gold, but if something were to happen, we couldn't live with ourselves. Racing needs good stories like him, and I might be a little bit biased but he's a good story," Hickmott said.
Hickmott is a battle-weary trainer, licensed first in 1978, with over 1000 career winners, his best on record Classic Delight in a Sandown Guineas before being sold on to Hong Kong but Flow Meter will always mean much more. Hickmott may have also sired successful trainers Robert and Michael, but don't think there isn't a soft touch when it comes to Davey.
"Carrina didn't want to come Saturday, but I wanted her there and I'm glad she did, she sat with him all day before and after the race, holding his head on her shoulder and having a cry. I said that's it darling, you won't be bawling again."
Carrina came to Hickmott's stable as a nine-year-old old with her father Colin, an old bushy, who is still there.
"She used to fill up the waters, and by the time she was 16 was virtually running the stable," Hickmott said.
Carrina can release the emotions a little more than John and has certainly done that over the weekend.
"I was at the stables before him (Flow Meter), but the journey he has taken us all on has been just amazing," she said.
"It was pretty emotional over the weekend and will take a few days to soak in but the good thing is that I will get to see him again every day."
Which means the horse too old to race on, they are now banned at the end of their 12-year-old career, will be a mere whipper snapper when he transitions into paddock life where his mates Kulnura, 26 and Taos Pleasure, 24, already have their weanling and yearlings to school in the art of horse life.
Mind you, Davey can always boast those 200 starts, well not many can, Kulnura retired at nine with 72 starts and over $200,000 in Stakes, Taos Pleasure, 125 starts and over $500,000 in the bank.
"It was something special on Saturday," Riggs said. "I rugged him after the race, kept him warm and gave him cuddles and people came to take photos and give him a pat."
"Whilst it is hurting me that he won't race again, I am very happy he has retired a happy sound horse that I can still be with. They are all good memories for me."
Not that John or Carrina ever thought it would get to this, not the 200 starts, sure those are few and far between, but perhaps even a first start that got this going way back at Gawler in November 2013 when Amy Hermann was riding.
Mind you, just to clean up the stats, some 15 jockeys rode Flow Meter in his career – including long retired Darren Gauci and Steven King, as well as the sadly lost Chris Caserta and injured Dwayne Dunn, while Ronnie Stewart won five from 10 and Sairyn Fawke started as a 3kg claimer on him and won nine of 76 subsequent rides.
And thanks to the work at Racing South Australia who revealed if we had a $1 all up on his 20 wins, well happy days, you won $83 Trillion (but I will let the fact checkers run that one to ground).
But then you could have bought him for just $5000 as lot 215 of the 2011 Inglis Great Southern Weanling sale offered by Eric Buttler's Rangal Park Stud.
The son of Danerich already had a winning half-brother (by Niello), Chats Girl, but there were no bids for this boy. The oldest of the Danerich breed at that stage were unproven two-year-olds.
"I looked at him because I looked at all the horses off that farm, no-one thought he was any good, thought he had five legs and a flat tyre, but I got a few others off the farm and did a deal to lease him and just kept rolling that over, though I almost sent him back he was that slow early," Hickmott said.
So, add being the longest horse leased in Australian racing history to the Flow Meter CV.
"I remember ringing Eric and telling him that the little black horse wasn't much good. He said, put him in a paddock and give him time, it's a slow maturing family and he will be alright," Hickmott said.
"And since then he's never had an injection to his hocks or his joints, amazing really, but that was him, tough sound and durable."
"It has been quite amazing. I always thought Dusty Springs was my best horse, I bred him, and he ran into Rancher in the Blue Diamond Prelude's as a two-year-old, we eventually found he had an abscess on his larynx, those were days before scopes, but he was operated on and won 26 races."
"Frenzel Rhomb (a winner of 16) was popular but I didn't know why until some fans of the Australian punk band of the same name sent us some t-shirts and followed him, but Flow Meter was different," he said.
Whilst he only ever reached a career high rating of 90, which slumped to as low as 56, before he went out a 60 rater on Saturday, Davey had his own fan base. That's what longevity does for you.
"I had a phone call from some people at Bendigo one day, simple country people who flew into Adelaide just to see him race and thankful that they did," Hickmott said.
"There was an elderly lady from Sydney, she flew down one day, watched the race, he didn't win but she wanted to see him, then got on the plane and went home, those are the good stories of racing and why this horse was so special."
PS – Trying to research horses in Australian racing with as many starts continues to highlight the parlous history keeping records of a national sport. Passion Moon always gets highlighted, but there is no agreed figure as to how many starts he had, mostly in North Queensland, some in two or three horse races. One note says 232 starts for 118 wins, including 15 of those aged 15 when you could do that back then.
Another historian recorded 109 wins from 270 starts or another with 113½ wins. Not surprisingly Jorrocks, a horse from the 1800s, has limited records but what's written is as impressive as incomplete.
He was allegedly 19 when he won his last race and was said to peak aged 13-15 winning 30 of his 356 starts but as to the number of starts that he had, you could suggest it was many more than the announced 95.
And it's worth mentioning a horse called Warra Nymph, a son of dual Cox Plate winner Chatham, who started once at two, then went chasing sheep on the owner's Tasmanian property before returning to racing from five. He was sent to America, won a steeplechase in Tennessee as a nine-year-old.‘'
As an 11 and 12-year-old he was the leading money winner of his age with seven wins. At Hollywood Park on July 4, 1951, after one success he was rewarded with a thunderous ovation, which almost equalled that paid to the mighty Citation.
After that race he was dubbed ‘Man O'War Nymph', the poor-man's Citation. He was voted best claimer for 1951 at Hollywood Park and was the leading money-winner of his age at 14 and 15. In Australia and Tasmania he had 35 starts but confirmed his durability with 133 in the United States," quoted a found online report.
In modern times, one can think of Mustard, with 131 starts who was a durable Saturday performer until retirement age.
Bashboy was a grand jumper, winning a Crisp and Grand National Steeplechase at 12 and over $1m in prizemoney from a modest 56 starts. And Bryce Stanaway had a stable of centurion starters at old age, headlined by Crafty Cruiser, 159 starts until 12 and $1m in stakes, Ventura Highway retired early at eight but chalked up 143 runs while Costano Mille didn't win in 123 starts until nine.
But until Racing Australia can compile definitive if not a little more detailed records, we are left to our own investigative devices and I'm sure there are plenty more out there we can add to this discussion that all started with Flow Meter and 200 – not out.
Farewell old fella and congrats on a job well done.
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