BUFFERING - STILL A SUCCESS STORY AT 18 YEARS OF AGE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 30, 2025

The racing dream might be about chasing big victories on big stages, but true pleasure can also be gained in the simplest of ways, such as … as a trainer, having an old friend pop in to visit you at the stables.

Robert Heathcote enjoyed just such a pleasure earlier this week when his old mate Buffering dropped in for a stay at Heathcote’s Eagle Farm stables.

Buffering, who is now eighteen years old, will forever shine as one of Heathcote’ s brightest stable stars and the memories they made together will never fade.

The meaning of Buffering’s continued presence in Heathcote’s life is best understood when seeing Heathcote’s smile when he speaks about Buffering’s visit … a smile which is fondness personified.

“Buffering retired to a property that Bruce (Harry) has which about half an hour from where I live … so, not only do I pop over to see my friend and have a beer, but I get to see the horse as well, so Buffering and I have always stayed in touch.

“I just love to get the old fella back in so we can do all of the ‘housekeeping’ … you know, get his teeth done, get his feet done, get him wormed … and it was funny seeing him in the stable on the walker with all of the young two-year-olds yesterday.

“He was bright and enjoying himself.

‘Ten year’s ago, this weekend, Buff won the Winterbottom for the second time … and it was just a coincidence that I was getting him back into the stable again on a tenth anniversary of that win.

“We like to have him around good couple of weeks,” continued Heathcote. “It’s a change of scenery for him … and he’ll have another change while he is here.

“I’ve got him here now at my on-course stables … and then, after a week, I’ll take him over the Mein Street stables where he spent all of his time when he was in training.

“We like to look after them and I’m so happy to have him around.”

The son of Mossman took Heathcote to international glory when winning the Group1 Al Quoz at Meydan in Dubai, also winning another nineteen races at Doomben, Eagle Farm, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Randwick, Flemington, Caulfield, Moonee Valley and all the way over in WA at Ascot, accumulating over $7 million in prize-money.

Those are great memories for all connected with the Buffering team, but that was then … this is now.

In a world in which the question of the life of a racehorse after its career is over is often raised, Buffering, once again, is a success story in the most heartwarming of fashion.

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