For Paul and Collette Beshara, life at their modest training complex in South Australia just isn't the same without their once champion racehorse and family pet Happy Trails.
It seems everywhere they look reminds them of their wonderful horse that defied a bargain basement price tag to beat some the best horses in the nation. At the same time, he remained the family's likeable old campaigner who would stand all day and watch his trainer and his wife go about their daily chores.
![Trainer Paul Beshara with his much-loved champion Happy Trails.](/web/20170208183241im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/5/w/d/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu5w5x.png/1486272805941.jpg)
One can sense the hollowness of the family stables without Happy Trails. For more than a decade, Happy Trails empowered his connections to believe that dreams can come true.
Just moments after the Emirates Stakes on the final day at Flemington when Happy Trails finished back in the field, Beshara walked slowly from the grandstand and knew with one look in the horse's eyes "that my old boy has had enough".
Happy Trails had five appearances in the Cox Plate and has been racing at Moonee Valley on their premier day for the past seven years.
He has amassed a staggering $3.3 million in stake earnings, and finished second in the 2013 Cox Plate.
"Collette would be putting the washing out on the line and old Happy Trails would wander out and put his head between the clothes. He didn't need to be caged or boxed up. If I had to fix a pipe or something, I'd open the door and he'd just follow me like a lovely old labrador dog," Beshara said.
Happy Trails who cost just $11,000 as a yearling, was never be overraced. And at the first sign that this brave racehorse was feeling the pinch he was retired.
"We've got the memories and they're great. I suspected when the horse came home from the Adelaide yearling sales all those years ago I thought I had something special that might go all right," Beshara said.
"I had the horse broken in by Will Clarken here in Adelaide and he said, 'Paul, that's the best horse I've ever broken in'."
And the first time Beshara put Happy Trails against the clock he knew the horse breaker had made the right assessment.
However, after it was decided that Happy Trails' racing days were over Beshara and all the owners of the horse were determined the horse would have an enjoyable and soft retirement after achieving so much.
"We were put in contact with Chelsea Moss, who took him over as a show jumper and it looks like the old boy loves doing it," he said.
Happy Trails has taken to show jumping and his new life like a "duck to water", according to Moss who also works for Caulfield trainer Mick Price.
"He's an absolute beauty. He loves his jumping and loves everything to do with it. He's a funny bloke, once he got to know me he looked for me everywhere I went.
"I'd have him tied up at the shows and if I went out of sight to get something he'd be calling out like a yearling worried where I'd got to. I can see why Paul and his family miss him. He's just got the freak personality," Moss said.