Everest mares in horse heaven but have mountain to climb
‘I’m getting paid for this?’ … life is good for strapper.
Welcome to wonderland. Bong Bong Farm in the NSW Southern Highlands. Where the grass really does appear to be greener. Where a gloriously down-to-earth strapper called Lenny answers most questions with a kindly raised eyebrow. Where a couple of good old girls in I Am Me and Bella Nipotina are plotting the downfall of the blokes at The Everest. Only male horses have ever won it.
God’s Country here. No wonder a young Bradman ran amok and a thousand quick singles. Something’s in the air. Vibrant colours, open fields, flowers in full bloom, manicured gardens. Even the trees look healthy. Blades of grass stand to attention like clean-cut soldiers. Folks are friendly. A hundred strangers say g’day before you swing off the Hume Highway and onto Bong Bong St and zip past Bong Bong Common and cross Bong Bong Bridge and here you are. The grand, gated entrance to Bong Bong Farm.
It’s an elite, lush, glowing, sprawling, postcard-perfect, immaculate, state-of-the-art, $70m facility that is home to trainer Ciaron Maher’s two Everest-bound mares. I want to see who they’re like. Laverne and Shirley? Cagney and Lacey? Thelma and Louse? After a few interactions resembling a scene from Mean Girls – I Am Me is Regina George and Bella Nipotina is the initially submissive Lindsay Lohan – they finally meet harmoniously at a water bowl like they’re about to clink champagne glasses.
I Am Me’s stablename is Meme. Who doesn’t love a good Meme? “Generally, there’s always a dominant one with mares, but these two get along great,” says Lenny Todd, strapper for I Am Me. “They definitely recognise each other on race day. That helps them. Their last start, they travelled to the races together, they were next to each other in the stalls, then they ran out and came first and second. If they’re trying to keep up with each other in a race, that’s only going to help them, too.”
The Everest is a ’mare for mares. It’s not just that a female horse hasn’t won the madcap $20m sprint for a motza. A member of the fairer equine sex has never run a place. An extraordinary statistic. Todd raises both eyebrows.
All 21 placegetters in The Everest’s brief seven-year history have been fellas. Six of the winners have been geldings. The only exception was the Chris Waller-trained Yes Yes Yes saluting and then laughing all the way to the bank as a mischievous three-year-old colt in 2019. “A mare hasn’t won? Or run a place? I didn’t know that,” says Todd. “Let’s see if we can change it.”
Meme and Bella Nipotina are no giggling schoolgirls trying to take down the boofheads. Aged six and seven, they’re worldly and wise, perhaps Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman for maturity and life experience. Should probably be out to pasture, but they’re racing better than ever. “A lot of mares at this age and level have a bit more toughness in them,” Todd says. “They just have something about them when they get a bit older. You can feel these mares are tougher and smarter. They’ve been around a while. When I first started with Meme about three years ago, she was a bit hot. Very hot, to be honest. She’s really started to relax over her last few preparations but for a while there, we had two people on her head on race day. Just trying to get her to calm down and relax.”
Meme is paying $16 to win The Everest; Bella Nipotina is $9. But in the paddock at Bong Bong, Meme is the boss. She shoves Bella Nipotina away from the water bowl before eventually allowing her to join in. Later, she kicks out when Bella Nipotina gets too close. Then they buddy up and stand side-by-side. Everything seems on Meme’s terms. What’s the psychology of the pecking order? Is Bella Nipotina too scared to run past Meme in a race?
Meme beat her in the Concorde Stakes on September 7. They came first and second. Meme scored another victory in The Shorts on September 21, and has knocked over Everest rivals Private Eye (twice), Giga Kick, Lady of Camelot, Stefi Magnetica as well as Bella in her last two starts. She’s never lost to Bella Nipotina.
“I think the atmosphere at races used to get to her,” Todd says. “She wasn’t used to the routine. She is now. She’s found the trick and worked out how to enjoy it and be happy. She’s a hell of a lot calmer these days. Loves it out here at Bong Bong. She gets so relaxed she falls asleep in the ice bath.”
Bong Bong is horse heaven. A five-star hotel. Massages. Ice baths. I suspect there’s in-room dining, fluffy pillows, complimentary robes and slippers, Netflix and a jacuzzi out the back. Todd says Meme will warm up for The Everest by having a shampoo – and getting her nails done? – at Warwick Farm before trying to win everyone $7m by taking out the richest turf race in the world. Which would be rare air for a mare. “I think all horses know a lot more than they’re letting on, I really do,” Todd says. “The best racehorses, boys and girls, are just a different breed at this level. They just – they just get it. They get racing. They love racing. They love to run and a race lets them run as fast as they can. It’s as simple as that. They trust the jockeys to do the steering and off they go. They know what a race day is. They know a race is happening.”
How do you know that? “There’s little signs in it for them, and they respond. It’s a different routine on race day. Not as much work in the morning. They know what that means. And then there’s something like this. In trackwork, Meme will wear black earmuffs. On race day, the pre-race muffs are red. I came in one time for trackwork and had to leave the black earmuffs for other horses in work. I grabbed the red set. She started getting so pumped. She thought that meant a race was coming up. I had to tell her, ‘No, no, not today.’ But they pick up on the different routines. The longer you’re in racing and around horses, the more you learn about how much they know. And what they’re saying to you.”
Such as? “I just mean, they’re communicating with you all the time. They’ve got their body language. For starters, they say a lot with their ears. When the ears are forward, you have their attention. They’re liking what you’re doing. If the ears go back, they’re getting a bit angry and don’t like something. They’re letting you know. I might be giving her a massage and she’ll take a step back or forward to say, this spot, please. If I get the wrong spot her ears will go back and she’ll look at me sideways like, ‘I don’t want that.’ Licking of the lips, yawning, that’s a sign of releasing tension, you end up knowing what everything means. You definitely develop a bond. I think you get to really trust and understand each other.”
Todd says he never dreamt of being involved in an Everest. “What an amazing day that will be,” he says. “But every day with her feels special. You can’t believe you’re around such quality. I’ll ride her at the beach the day after a race and think, ‘I’m getting paid for this?’ A beautiful horse just does something to you. They’re amazing animals. When she won her last race, it actually made me really emotional. We were told, ‘You’re going to The Everest.’ I thought, ‘Well, that might be a bit of all right’.”
If she wins it? “Well, that might be a bit of all right, too.”
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