BILL Prain's life had become routine. Tuesday: go to hospital for
shots. Wednesday: vomit. Thursday: vomit. Friday: Feel a little
better. Saturday: Top of the world. Sunday: Start feeling depressed
about Tuesday coming around again.
As routines go, there are some pretty mundane ones that sound far
more appealing. Especially for a horseman compelled to rise before
the sun and work until it sets. The former battling jockey turned
battling trainer had lost six metres of his bowel, a quarter of his
liver and, thankfully, a tennis-ball sized tumour which had grown in
the region. Now the hard part had started.
The cancer began attacking his body around 1995. Like a "typical
bloke" it took about a year of feeling unwell, losing weight and
feeling run down until he finally listened to his wife, Julie, and
went to see a doctor. Soon he was in hospital with colon cancer.
"They told me if I'd left it another month the cancer would have
exploded throughout my body. Then there'd be no operation, no
anything, nothing they could've done for me," the old jockey
recalled this week. "I sure timed my run."
That he had, but there were still many blows to be sustained by
his ravaged physique if he was to survive. Most of 1996 is a bleak
memory now, of that sapping routine, and of the gnawing fears that
despite a willingness to fight, there was no telling which side
would win.
The horses at his Warwick Farm stables became something to
sustain him, but soon some of them were lost as well. Worried that
Prain, 53, might not be up to it as his treatment continued, some
owners took their runners elsewhere. Fred Peisah was not one of
them.
A successful breeder at his Lomar Park Stud south-west of Sydney,
Peisah had been friends with Prain since he rode for him late in his
career as a jockey. When Prain became a trainer in 1988, Peisah
engaged him as one of his trainers, sending him horses, including
Moment's Pleasure, which ran seventh in Danzero's 1994 Golden
Slipper. When Prain became ill, Peisah kept sending him horses.
"It wasn't a decision I took - there was no decision to make. It
never entered my mind to send my horses elsewhere," said Peisah, who
perhaps gives a fuller picture of his friend's battle than the
jovial Prain himself. "It was a very scary thing. He was very
fortunate to come through it. He was doing it very hard with the
chemotherapy."
Though his loyalty was not up for discussion, Peisah might have
known the effect it could have.
"The doctors told me that they'd give me all sorts of treatment, but
that wouldn't help unless I mentally thought I was going to beat
it," Prain said.
"I lost a couple of owners. But Fred - instead of taking his
horses off me, he gave me more to train. I could understand the
other owners, worrying the mental effect of the treatment might mean
I couldn't do my job properly. But if Fred had done the same thing
and taken his horses away, I might have dropped my bundle. I don't
know if I'd still be going today."
With his wife and three daughters supporting him, Prain endured
more than a year of his routine. He recalls precisely 63
chemotherapy shots and 52 blood tests.
"And I'm a bloke who hates needles," he said. After four more
years of scaled down treatment the cancer went into remission,
though it remains in the back of his mind.
The Prain-Peisah union has endured. It hasn't quite dripped gold,
though in 1997 the 66-1 shot Regal Chamber's third place to Guineas
in the Golden Slipper gave them their biggest result from around 600
horses together over 18 years. But now they might have the best of
the lot in My Lady's Chamber, who will continue her Slipper campaign
in today's Sweet Embrace Stakes at Randwick.
My Lady's Chamber, by Lomar Park's dual Group 1 winner Arena, and
a close relative of Regal Chamber, won her third start this month at
Rosehill. It was especially impressive as she was later found to be
in season, or in heat. This finally explained the sour mood which
almost led to her scratching after she lashed out at barrier
attendants. Medication has ensured she should be calmer today.
"If she wins I might give her a break before the Slipper to get
her through her cycle and get over her women's complaint," said
Prain. "I haven't put any pressure on her because I always thought
she'd make a better three-year-old. But her work has been
sensational. If she runs in the Slipper I'm sure she'd be more than
competitive. I'd just hope we draw a good alley."
Regal Chamber had barrier 13 when run down in her Slipper.
Moment's Pleasure drew 16 when ridden by Corey Brown when still an
apprentice. Prain and Peisah will stick by a youngster again, with
polished two-kilo claimer Tim Clark to retain the ride on My Lady's
Chamber at Randwick and in the Slipper if the leggy filly gets that
far.
"Seven years ago I thought I might not be around much longer. But
here I am still at it, and with a rough chance of getting into a
Slipper," Prain said. He speaks in a gravelly voice, evidence the
knockabout Parramatta boy's brush with death has not changed him
enough to end a pack-a-day habit. But he has learnt a few things.
"I used to take getting beaten pretty hard but now I know we've
always got next week," he said.
Considering he never rode in a group 1 race and has not trained a
winner at the top level, it seems fair to suggest winning the
Slipper would be the biggest day of Prain's life. "Mate," he says,
"if I win the Slipper I'd be happy if it was the last day of
my life!"
Well, you know what he means.
