Here's a funny story from AAP. Sorry if you have already read it, but, it does show how the mind of the horse is. We forget sometimes they are animals, and we forget that they don't know what price they are, and there are a miriad of circumstances that can inhibit their performance...

AAP
It would be an amusing case of boys being boys if a $4 million horse race wasn't hanging in the balance.

Daliapour, the tall, dark, handsome stallion representing the eminent Newmarket stable of Sir Michael Stoute is in Australia to prepare for Tuesday week's Melbourne Cup.

In the same barn with Daliapour at the Sandown quarantine is Jardines Lookout, a well-performed gelding trained by the astute Englishman Alan Jarvis, who is also here for the Cup.

Along with Jardines Lookout is his stablemate, Henry, a creamy-coloured Shetland pony who acts as companion and pacifier.

According to Jarvis's daughter Sarah Simmons, Jardines Lookout frets badly if he is away from Henry for too long.

The pony travelled alongside him on the 26-hour flight to Melbourne, shares a box with him at Sandown and will go with Jardines Lookout to Flemington on Cup day.

There is a snag, however, to the quaint and cosy arrangement.

Daliapour has apparently taken an excessively amorous interest in Henry.

According to the Daliapour team, their horse would prefer Henry to be his companion, and his alone.

A local bloodstock expert said such situations weren't uncommon on the thoroughbred world, where it was often a situation of gentleman preferring blondes, or blonds, as the case may be.

"Stallions often show that sort of interest in other horses that are a lightish colour, no matter what sex the other horse is," he said.

The situation is less than conducive to getting Daliapour to the post in good order for the Melbourne Cup.

But Australia's quarantine laws mean the triangle cannot be broken until at least next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the respective stables are doing their best to keep things respectable.