BROWNIE'S BLOG - AN OVERWHELMING EXPERIENCE
By Damian Browne | Thursday, March 31, 2016
In this latest edition of his personal blog, Damian Browne gives HRO readers a first-hand account of what it was like to ride Buffering to international glory at the Dubai World Cup in what was a magnificent achievement not only for the entire Buffering team but for Australian Racing as a whole. “Brownie’s Blog” is exclusive to HRO.
I’m back home now. It’s time to get my feet back on the ground and get back to reality ... but what an amazing experience it was travelling to Dubai and claiming an international success with Buffering.
In terms of Buffering’s level of performance it was certainly up there with his best.
I was really confident when I saw him before the race ... to see how bright he was. He gave me a really good feel going down to the start and, facing the starter, I was probably as confident as I’d ever been.
If I was worried about anything, I was more worried about the first 100m than the last. That was my main concern with the 1000m with a couple of the opposition being known speedsters.
But when Buffering began well and I was able to be right on top of them after 100m I knew then he’d be able to grind them and keep up a good tempo. Everything couldn’t have worked out better.
I knew that if I could wait for Buffering’s supreme effort at around the 300m, 250m mark ... I knew he’d give me the length he always does and then he would then be hard to run down.
There were a couple of horses who, while they didn’t level up to me they did get within range, probably at the 200m, but then when Buffering gave that good kick I knew for sure it was going to take a pretty good effort for anyone to go past us.
The way Buffering responds to that sort of challenge has probably been a trademark of his whole career. Quite often it has looked a couple were going to get to him but they just can’t get past him.
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When you go through the line and start to pull up there is the excitement of knowing you have got the job done.
It doesn’t really all sink in right away. It is a bit surreal for a little while. You have so many different thoughts going through your head. You even start thinking about everybody back home and all of the horse’s supporters.
It is just hard to take it all in in that moment.
Then, as we came back to the mounting yard, there were quite a few Aussies there and we could hear them chanting Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.
It was quite overwhelming.
Even being a Kiwi, and as a young fella I thought I’d never say it, I was proud to be representing Australia in the first place ... and when you win it, well it is just an amazing feeling.
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It was a nice touch from champion jockey Joao Moreira when he leaned over to congratulate me in the pull up after the race.
All of the jockeys there are obviously all very professional, all top of the tree athletes and riders.
They were all very receptive of me. It was quite humbling having people of that calibre in the sport coming over to congratulate you in the jockey’s room after the race.
That, in fact, was one of my highlights.
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After the race I went up and spent some time with the owners.
Obviously with our race being race five and there being nine races I was able to spend time with them and enjoy the moment ... and the whole show of fireworks and the other races. It was all very entertaining.
After that I took my gear back to the hotel and got a quiet chance just to sort of think about it a bit and relax for a little while.
I went and had a few drinks after that. I didn’t party as hard as the owners. They got right into it.
The enjoy and excitement on their faces ... what it meant to them ... that was part of the enjoyment of it for me.
That’s what it is all about and that’s what makes it such a great sport.
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I didn’t get to do as much tourist sight-seeing as the other guys did. Even my wife Kim was able to go out into the desert and ride the camels and that.
I pretty much kept to myself right up until the race.
I was focussed on what I was doing. I was at the track. I was doing the form and going through all of that ... so I didn’t get to see as much as everybody else.
On Sunday, after race-day, I was able to go to Atlantis and swim with the dolphins and do couple of other ‘downtime’ things which was pretty nice.
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I did want to get home after that.
That’s one thing about being over there ... it was great to celebrate there, but I prefer to celebrate with family and friends at home.
Those friends hired out a room in our local tavern and they put on a bit of a home-coming party for us. It was a bit of a surprise when I walked in there.
All our friends were there and what they’d done for us, again, was quite overwhelming.
We arrived back at about half-part-six, seven o’clock on Tuesday and by eleven o’clock we were down there at the tavern ... and to walk into that was quite something.
They showed me a couple of videos of the local group back home taken at the time when Buffering won and the celebration that followed.
They are all good friends, but I’m glad they are not my neighbours. That’s for sure.
It was a great ending to a wonderful experience.
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