Racehorses meeting at the beach for a swim yet recretaion clubs not allowed to 'gather'

From the Age website ........

YOU can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him … go in, in the case of Stockade at Safety Beach, near Dromana, yesterday.

The colt, one of trainer Lee Freedman's runners in the Victoria Derby at Flemington on Saturday, was with five stablemates for what the trainer called a "relaxer" and they headed straight in to the flat water just after 6am.

It took plenty of urging from rider Diane Hobbs for the youngster to get in one of nature's great wading pools, but having tested the chilly water he and Husonic, the stable's other acceptor in the classic race, relished the change from trackwork at Freedman's Rye headquarters. The beach brigade squelched along for about a kilometre before turning back.

"At this time of the year, we've got a float going to the beach nearly every day," Freedman said on inspecting the Derby waders back at his stables.

Actually, two floats yesterday: Stockade and Husonic in a six-horse truck with Incumbent (a runner in the Coolmore on Saturday), Saab starter Cefalu and two others running over the carnival, Sonic Quest and Satin Robes; and Moment Of Truth and Post Thyme in a two-horse float dispatched earlier.
Another to test the Safety Beach waters was English stayer Bay Story, with trainer Brian Ellison. He waded twice as far as the Freedman group as part of his regimen for one of the distance races on Tuesday.
So you can take a truck & float load of racehorses to the beach and who knows who else turns up yet the local Pony Club can't get together?????
HG Vic