“THE REPORTS OF MY DEATH ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED”

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) is often credited with making this claim and whilst not entirely accurate, he did in fact, say something very similar in 1897 – “the report of my death was an exaggeration”. With it being a month since my last Post you could easily be forgiven for thinking I’d been “scratched from life’s race” but you would be wrong. Staying alive hasn’t been an issue. It’s just getting on with living that has been a problem.

I was scheduled to have my fourth course of Chemo on May 9th but after discussions with my Oncologist, it was decided to have a hiatus from Arthur to see if I could throw off the debilitating nausea and tiredness that I’d been living with for the previous couple of months. It took until May 18 for the constant nausea to abate but the fatigue remains an issue. I was seriously considering whether the Therapies I’ve been undertaking (Chemo every 3 weeks, Nubeqa medication twice a day and Hormone Therapy) were worth the price I was paying in the hits I’d taken to my quality of life. Being able to live a good life is more important to me than simply staying alive.

Tuesday this week was an important day. I had my 3 monthly CT and NM TC-PSMA Scans. I didn’t need a sign from God if I was to continue my treatments but I did need an indication from the Radiologist reviewing the Scans that Rupert had been slowed down. The Results were better than I could have hoped for at this stage and my decision to place my faith in the Specialist’s recommendations seems to have been vindicated so it’s back into Hospital next Tuesday for another dose of Chemo I go.

I have stated previously that I have found the reminiscing required in compiling this Blog to be greatly therapeutic and whilst I can’t guarantee how often I will Post now I’m resuming Chemo, please don’t assume my failure to post is an indication of my demise. As with old mate Mark, assuming my death “would be an exaggeration”.

NICKNAMES: Anyone who has spent a lifetime playing Team Sports and/or spending their days on Racetracks is bound to accumulate plenty of nicknames. Most don’t stick but occasionally one will stay with you for the rest of your life. Since my Primary School days I’ve been known variously as Eggy, Eggshells, Edy, Rusty, Rissole, Big Fella, Refrigerator, The Fridge, Knuckles (don’t ask), Rich, Blossom (given to me by the drunks at Sunshine Baseball Club in the 70’s and still probably the monicker most used by my mates) and finally Cecil.

The handle Cecil was given to me by Rick Tresize in the showers in my early days at Essendon because he felt I bore a strong resemblance to Cecil the ram from Footrot Flats. Every Sporting Club needs someone to keep things loose on the Field and if there was a Hall Of Fame for Team Clowns, Rick would have been inducted decades ago. He was famous (infamous) for setting teammates shoe laces on fire, for putting his false teeth on the Dinner Plate of the Waverley Baseball Club’s President and for peeing on the leg of all and sundry in the showers. A couple of these require further explanation. The “false teeth on the dinner plate” incident occurred in 1984 during Waverley’s 25th Anniversary Dinner at their ground. Having played Waverley that afternoon, most of the Firsts stuck around for the celebrations. The fact that we won after being 9 runs down in the ninth innings probably contributed to our willingness to join in the merriment. To his credit, the Waverley President laughed off the “false teeth” accompaniment to his chicken dinner although he did consign the entire meal, false teeth and all, to the bin. Not sure why he didn’t just tuck in!😃 The “peeing on the leg” of unsuspecting Teammates in the shower has been going on in Team Sports since Adam played full back for the Eden Garden Apple Eaters but Rick was much better at it than most. I’m not sure why, but I somehow suspect, it never found its way into Women’s Locker Rooms.🤔 Veterans know to always shower facing your teammates and to never close your eyes when shampooing your hair. This is important information every Granddad should pass onto his Grandsons, so Robert, take note.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Every fisher has a story about the “one that got away” and this old horse owner has one as well. In the 1978/79 Racing Year I had seen a really nice two year old colt win a couple of races. I liked the horse that much that we actually bred our only mare to his sire. The Studmaster standing the sire was also the driver of the horse in question and I asked him would the now 3 year old be for sale. The horse was owned by the Studmaster’s Father In Law and they eventually let me know that the horse was for sale for $30,000. He had made a couple of starts at 3 without troubling the scorer and it did seem a lot for a maiden 3yo but I agreed to trial the horse with a view to purchase. Around the same time I was considering investing $35,000 for a 14% share in a Stallion that was coming to Australia. The Stallion was by the World’s Leading Sire out of a terrific broodmare and had a decent race record. The choice for me was a risky investment in a 3yo colt or a reasonably safe investment in a young Stallion that should generate a steady stream of income for the next 20 years. Unfortunately I went with the stallion. His name was Sprinkler and he may well be the worst Sire ever to pollute our Standardbred gene pool. The 3 year old colt was Popular Alm, the greatest Australian Pacer I’ve ever seen.

After agreeing to trial Poppy, I arranged for Hall Of Famer, Brian Gath to travel to Bendigo give the horse a hit out. He was to work the horse over a mile and the only people present that morning apart from Brian and myself, were my Dad and Popular Alm’s owner, Arthur Pearce. Ron Pocock also viewed the workout from his lounge room across the road from the track. Of the group witnessing the trial, only Brian is still alive to verify this account and although I’ve never discussed the subsequent events with him, I suspect he’d view Poppy as his “one that got away” as well.

Poppy ran a mile in 1.58.1 for Brian hard held! To put this effort into perspective, at that time, no horse had broken 1.58.4 in Australia’s preeminent mile race, The Miracle Mile. Both Brian and myself thought we’d made a blue clocking the mile but we both had identical times. Poppy had ran a time that was simply unheard of. The negotiations for purchase took place in Arthur Pearce’s kitchen and after a bit of haggling he’d agreed to drop the price from $30,000 to $25,000. Brian had won our richest race, The Interdominion on Markovina for a couple of Adelaide Owners in 1978 and he spent the next half hour trying to convince them to pay the asking price but they wouldn’t budge off $20,000. I suspect they also considered Poppy their “one that got away”. By the time Brian had made his way back to his stables in Deer Park the aforementioned Ron Pocock had learnt from the Owner that Brian couldn’t come up with the asking price and he promptly called Vin Knight to let him know that he’d seen the fastest mile ever paced at Bendigo and that the horse could be his. The rest as they say, is history with Poppy becoming an equine hero throughout Australia. Vinny always maintained he paid $40,000 for Popular Alm, and perhaps he did, but one thing I know for certain is that had I not selected Sprinkler as my investment of choice, Poppy would have been going home with me for $25,000 and Vinny would never have got his hands on him. A “sliding door” moment if ever there was one.

Finally, one of the advantages (if I can call it that) of being too tired to leave the house is that I get to binge a lot of TV Shows. Whenever I Post going forward I will recommend a Show that I think you’ll enjoy. This week’s recommendation is a great show on Netflix called “Rough Diamonds”. It is fantastic viewing and if you can put up with the Subtitles, you’ll love it.