Diary of a racehorse: The Zarius that nobody knows

Zarius takes advantage of a shady tree in a corner of his paddock. Picture / Amos Chapple

The finely tuned racehorse Zarius, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, has another persona - Bob.

Bob is the stable name for the thoroughbred, named after owner Bob Emery.

Bob the horse is a bit of a character, a little different and, some even say, a bit weird. He chases his tail, runs around in figure eights when bored and insists on being kept in a paddock at Te Akau racing stables in Matamata with company.

It sounds mean, but Bob is affectionately regarded as a bit thick.

Even trainer Mark Walker admits Bob is not the sharpest spur in the stable, and had been a bit of a "dur-brained" colt.

With a wry grin, stablehand Mary Johnson puts it a little more kindly and says: "Bob's just Bob."

Geoff van de Milson, who mainly attends to Bob, says the duffer is one of his favourites. "He has a lovely temperament, a lovely horse. He's nice in a dull sort of way."

Mr Van de Milson says Bob likes routine and took a while to adjust to race days. He is also a bit unpredictable in how he likes to be groomed, but with sensitive skin always prefers a light touch when being brushed.

As Bob is paddock-trained, he is not boxed inside but left outdoors at night, surrounded by a high electric wire fence.

Recently he's been hanging out with Capitan, stable-name Brad who, unlike fillies, doesn't kick. So they get on pretty well, although Bob rules the roost.

Every day Bob gets three feeds.

Breakfast, still in the dark, is a dipper (about 1kg) of dried crushed oats.

At 11am he lunches on another dipper of oats, this time mixed with maize and Mitavite, a vitamin-supplemented feed designed to cater for equine athletes. Those servings are relatively modest compared with Bob's evening meal, when he gets to eat, well, like a horse.

About 4.30pm he is given a huge bucket of standard mix and chaff, about the equivalent of six to seven dippers' worth. It's twice as much as some of the other horses get but Bob is not particularly greedy, it's just that he is still growing.

During summer Bob gets his hooves polished every day to stop them splitting in the dry conditions.

But because the weather is warm and his coat slow-growing, he needs a decent haircut only about once a month, although he has his mane pulled when a big race is coming up.

His life in the paddock is pretty uneventful and, not surprisingly, Bob will often just have a snooze.

Today Zarius will be running the Nathans Memorial on Derby Day at Ellerslie, his last big race and training before the Auckland Cup on Wednesday.

He is one of the favourites, with Pentane, Genebel, Kerry O'Reilly, Our Kitty and Kind Return.

* Monday: Zarius, aka Bob, gets a swim, a check from the vet and new shoes.