Joy to the World

She doesn’t have an appealing name. It’s quite annoying actually, More Joyous. It doesn’t roll off the tongue or inspire grand, generous images of a champion racehorse. But what’s in a name, because More Joyous is just that - a champion racehorse. An outstanding one. A race mare in a superior league with legions of accolades to that poor name. She rolls on and on and on, and I swear her heart gets bigger and bigger every season.

She is quite plain, which makes her unmistakeable. More Joyous has few white markings, save the clear pair of white heels on the rear end. Like Sea The Stars, she is a forgettable bay canvas in colour, little strawberry brand on her off excluded, but in motion and musculature.. oh brother. She can stretch and coil like a rubber band, can flick a field of A-graders like they were chewing gum under her shoe. She is quick, efficient. She is a machine.

She was bred in New Zealand in 2006, by the sire of that moment More Than Ready out of Sunday Joy. The family is fascinating, not least because John Singleton is at its helm. An insatiable character in Australian horse racing, Singleton is mad as a March hare and prone to enormous honesty. In the last 12 months he has tried a Charles Howard-like charge towards a Joyous-Caviar match race, and he has declared that he’ll never again send a horse overseas (promptly silencing the ridiculous calls to bring his mare to the world stage in England). Such abrasive, abrupt honesty? We need more of it.