Face to face with a star

I was invited to meet him. He looked over at me, and I instinctively knew this was the one. He was much younger than me, but there was no acknowledgement of the age difference.
In fact, he just looked at me as he held his head high. I reached over to touch him, and his nostrils flared as he took in my pink grapefruit and rose fragrance. I'm so glad I stopped to put the cr?me on my hands. He was tall, and as he walked away his gait was slow, but poise still evident.
I noticed his hair was slightly matted, but then I was in the presence of a star, that had made his mark, and a million dollars, on the racetrack - the nearly 19 year-old All in Fun, which is the only Stratford horse to have run in a Melbourne Cup.
That was about 11 years ago, and All in Fun is now retired on Peter and Min McDonald's farm, surrounded by his brothers and sisters.
Born in 1989, All in Fun was owned and trained by Peter's father, the late Tom McDonald.
His pedigree of wins is held in the memorabilia of silver cups, crystal trophies and sashes. They are impressive. The Melbourne Cup could have been All in Fun's.
And for the Australian jockey who rode him on the day, the high strike-rate jockey Shane Scriven was always too heavy to race in the Melbourne Cup.
To ride All in Fun was his only chance to ride in the cup. The McDonalds agreed that he could be their jockey on that fateful day. Shane had to lose about seven kilos and two weeks before the race he placed himself on a strict diet.
It was the undoing of the race that might have belonged to All in Fun who led at the 1000 metres, but Shane did not have the energy to keep him out front.
The malnourished jockey was taken to hospital after the race. All in Fun was the first New Zealand horse home. It was gut-wrenching for the McDonalds. In New Zealand, Jim Collett was All in Fun's jockey.
These days All in Fun enjoys rolling around in the dust. It's a far cry from the race track parades of smart hats and champagne; but when you've put many a best hoof forward and made your million, life on a farm with a mountain as a backdrop, and rolling in dust, is a comfortable retirement.
All in Funs'winnings:
1994 Trentham Stakes
1993 Counties
Racing Club,
2100 metres
1998 Rotorua Cup
1998 Coongee Handicap
Stratford Cup
Manawatu Cup
Won two Group1
weight for age
Won nine Group races
He was placed on another seven occasions in Group 1