Twenty six years after this photo was taken I’m delighted to report the featured horse is still alive at the remarkable age of 31. Yes it’s Subzero, who only this week has overcome a life threatening illness.
The picture was snapped eight months after the gallant grey’s 1992 Melbourne Cup win and just weeks after he’d finished third in the Sydney Cup. He was spelling at Shipton Lodge, a popular agistment property at Cobbitty (NSW).
A photographer requested a shot of my son David with a Yamaha trail bike and me with a different kind of horsepower. We needed a racehorse in a hurry and who better than the last Melbourne Cup winner.
Subzero was happy to oblige, little realising this would be the kind of thing he’d be doing for many years to come. Sadly he didn’t win again in twenty starts after his Melbourne Cup triumph.
He contested another Melbourne Cup in 1993 finishing well back and was retired after finishing at the tail of the field in the Brisbane Cup of the same year.
His extraordinary temperament saw him become universally popular on Melbourne race tracks as the regular partner of Clerk Of The Course Graham Salisbury. Horse and rider became great favourites with the racing public.
Stories of the places Subzero has visited and the duties he’s performed have become legend. Far better horses than Subzero have won Melbourne Cups, but it’s doubtful that any have given people more pleasure off the racetrack.
Thanks to his fighting heart and the expertise of his veterinary support team at the Bendigo Vet Centre, Subzero is destined to spend a little more time with his best mate Graham Salisbury.
I’ve never forgotten the few minutes I spent in his company at Cobbitty way back in ‘93.