Delfina a lady of lake
IT’S not every day a beautiful woman in a red ball gown rides a horse bare back into a lake – but hey, funny things happen on the Gold Coast.
Argentinian businesswoman and model Delfina Blaquier did not hesitate, she hopped bareback onto the five-yearold former racehorse and rode it straight into the water.
“I am a very aquatic person and a horse lover so to be able to swim with a horse is like a gift from heaven to me,” said the 37-year-old former world champion high jumper and photographer.
Blaquier is in Australia with polo star husband Nacho Figueras for The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions Carnival which culminates with a $10 million race day today.
Also attending will be the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall and former English rugby international husband Mike and retired NRL legend Billy Slater and wife Nicole, who sold the first yearling from their new stables at the Magic Millions yearling sales yesterday.
Unlike the world class jockeys who will be riding today, Blaquier put former racehorse Glonass through a different kind of exercise. “He wanted to go into the water and I could totally feel that he was happy there,” she said.
Although the swimming “made him super, super tired because it is so much exercise for him”.
“This reminds me of when we were little children and we would all take our ponies down to the river to swim. I love swimming with horses,’’ she said.
Meanwhile Slater’s career as a racehorse breeder got off to a flying start when his first colt sailed past the reserve and sold for $180,000.
Legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse, for whom Slater rode trackwork as a teenager before taking up rugby league, was in the bidding for the bay colt by Wandjina out of Inishowen but was pipped by Victorian trainer Ciaron Maher.