Last Saturday night was a nightmare for me, 1. I had a killer headache and 2. my most favouritest (it's a real word...honest) homebred filly was lining up as favourite for the Daisy Cup. I could have murdered Jackie when she picked her to win in the field write-up, especially as another filly worked a 120 as well like Faithy (Chocolate Faith LD). I am a true believer in the 'moz'. It might be an Australian term, might just be a term my partner and I made up when we watch races, I don't know. Basically a good example of a moz is when someone watching a horse race says "this horse is home.." and then the horse which was 2 lengths in front suddenly gears down to snail pace and gets beat.
Well when it comes to my horse's running in cups there is a few things I do not do. 1. I never, ever say out loud that my horse has a chance at winning and 2. I never, ever choose my horse in the handicapping contest. I would rather lose the tipping contest than 'moz' my cup runner. So when Jackie picked Faithy to run first, I was a little worried. Nevertheless the days before the cup were spent trying to push thoughts of having my first homebred cup winner out of my mind.
I went to bed later than usual on the saturday night with butterflies in my tummy, could've been the nausea accompanying my migraine but I put it down to the cup anxiety. We had to get up early to go to my in-laws for the day and I took the laptop to our room so I could check the results while still in bed. For those not familiar with the time difference Canada races run at 3am here and I find all the best cup races are typically run in Canada. I had a terrible night, tossing and turning, lightly dreaming of logging on and the news reading Chocolate Faith wins the Daisy Cup or having nightmares of her running last. I kept checking my phone for the time, 11.58pm, 12.45am, 1.30am, 2.13am, etc.. Finally it turned 2.58am and I turned the laptop on hurrying it to load.
I turn the laptop off at nights, especially being in my room that night the little fan sound would've bugged the hell out of me. As the computer loaded, my mind skipped ahead to all the possibilities that could happen. Would she win? Would she run second? Would she injure, run nowhere? Arghh the anxiety was fiercely pounding my sleep deprived body. I logged on right before the cup race had run (so no results to be seen on the front page) but one navigation away from my stable info and a new private message popped into the left hand corner. My earnings went up dramatically enough as well, though I can't remember if any of my other pixel ponies were running in Canada that night.
She had won! My little Faithy had won the Daisy Cup! My tired eyes could not beleive what I saw, was this a dream? I found the race results page only to see she had won by a nose. And I mean a nose. The second horse had run the exact same rating, I felt so lucky that it wasn't Faithy that had gotten beaten so closely. I don't know how I would've delt with it, probably still pleased I had a homebred cup placer I suppose. Thinking of her running second kinda hurts though so I must move on...
My headache still pounded yet as I laid down to sleep finally after shutting the laptop down, my heart had slowed to a steady beat, the butterflies in my tummy were gone. I managed a few grim hours before I had to get up at 6am dreaming of Faithy once more, hoping that when I woke up her cup win hadn't been a dream after all. When I got up I hurriedly turned on the computer, excited to see what article had been written about my girl. 'Chocolate Faith Wins Photo Finish in Daisy Cup' I smiled, knowing that it was all real, as real as winning a virtual horse race with a pixel pony could get.
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