Trainer Ciaron Maher is repeating a successful four-start spring program with Set Square in a bid to deliver an ATC Australian Oaks win. Set Square won the VRC Oaks at her fourth race start and Maher has timed her autumn campaign with the same precision. The three-year-old will return to… Read More »
David Hayes and his nephew Tom Dabernig are putting together a stable of high-class etsablished gallopers at their Lindsay Park complex. And the training partnership is set to unleash what they believe to be two-year-old of quality when she makes her debut at Flemington on Saturday. Stay With Me, a… Read More »
The best Godolphin rides in Sydney will be kept open for James McDonald despite two overseas jockeys contracted to the international stable being confirmed for autumn carnival mounts. English jockey James Doyle will arrive from Dubai next week to ride at the Chipping Norton Stakes meeting while his British colleague… Read More »
Tim Clark is confident Avoid Lightning has done enough groundwork to overcome a distance query when she resumes at Rosehill on Saturday. The Les Bridge-trained mare has never won beyond 1200m and will have to beat prolific winner and odds-on favourite Catkins to change that statistic in the Millie Fox… Read More »
Trainer Robert Heathcote has called on the experience of jockey Damian Browne to help turn around the fortunes of two of his runners at Doomben. Stakes performer Excellantes, who contests the Listed Falvelon Quality (1200m), has been ridden by apprentices at his past two starts and had no luck. He… Read More »
Bryan Guy is hoping the wet track bloodlines of three-year-old Polynikes come into play if the predicted heavy rain hits Doomben on Saturday. Polynikes is on the second line of betting for the Greenslopes Paediatrics Handicap after an impressive third in similar company two weeks ago. Guy is confident Polynikes… Read More »
Confirmatory tests on eight of nine Queensland samples have returned cobalt levels higher than the allowable threshold. Results of further tests will not be known for at least two weeks. “Those samples will now be sent to Sydney for referee analysis,” Racing Queensland’s integrity chief Wade Birch said. He said… Read More »
Apprentice Luke Tarrant has wasted no time consolidating his lead in the Brisbane jockeys’s premiership on his return from suspension. Riding at his first metropolitan class meeting since January 17 on Wednesday at the Sunshine Coast, Tarrant took out the first race on Montana Star to move to 43 winners… Read More »
Blake Shinn’s decision to appeal a careless riding suspension paid a handsome dividend on Wednesday when the leading jockey rode four winners at Randwick. But the best might still be in front of the glamour jockey as he prepares to ride Shooting To Win at Rosehill ahead of a trip… Read More »
Godolphin galloper Miniver might be a filly going places after a solid on-speed performance at Sandown. The Bernadini three-year-old showed a quick turn of foot when Chad Schofield asked her for an effort and held on to win by a head from Tan Tat Diamond. Godolphin’s Melbourne foreman David Charles… Read More »
Lee Freedman is undecided whether Minnesinger will make his stakes racing debut in the CS Hayes Stakes at Flemington or be saved for another assignment. Minnesinger is part of a good line-up of 14 three-year-olds in Saturday’s 1400m Group Three race at Flemington but has drawn the outside barrier. Freedman… Read More »
The ATC Australian Oaks has emerged as the clear-cut autumn target for Ballet Suite after the Coolmore filly’s first-up Randwick win for leading trainer Chris Waller. “She’s got the pedigree to be an Oaks filly so we’ll put her on a traditional path to the Australian Oaks,” Waller said. Giving… Read More »
Jockey Nick Hall can be thankful a leg injury suffered in a trackwork fall is not more severe but it has cost him a winning double at Sandown. Hall was taken to hospital on Tuesday after it was feared he suffered an autumn carnival-ending broken leg in the fall but… Read More »
Golden Slipper favourite Vancouver will have his final lead-up run to the $3.5 million race in the Todman Stakes. Unbeaten after wins in the Breeders’ Plate and the Canonbury Stakes, Vancouver was expected to continue his build-up to the world’s richest two-year-old race in the Silver Slipper Stakes. But he… Read More »
Dedicated thoroughbred channel TVN is to close next month without a media deal in place for vision of Victorian racing. The NSW shareholders in TVN split with their Victorian counterparts in December in favour of a deal with the TAB-owned Sky. A separation agreement was signed on Wednesday with TVN… Read More »
Former New Zealand mare Role Model earned herself a return to stakes racing when she lived up to her early Australian promise with victory at Randwick. It has taken the four-year-old almost a year to break through for trainer Gai Waterhouse but the wait could be worth it after she… Read More »
James Winks has been given a gilt-edged Group One chance on unbeaten sprinter Deep Field in the Lightning Stakes at Flemington. Winks was called up for the ride in Saturday’s Group One race after the sprinter’s regular jockey Dwayne Dunn failed to get a careless riding ban reduced on appeal… Read More »
David Hayes has described Criterion as equal to any horse he has trained in many years after the four-year-old’s impressive raceday work-out at Sandown. Hayes and Tom Dabernig took over the training of the dual Group One winner late last year and the horse will do his autumn racing in… Read More »
Desleigh Forster has resisted the temptation to add blinkers to the race gear of promising youngster I’m Belucci as he takes his next step to the Brisbane winter carnival. I’m Belucci will be having his second race start in Saturday’s Greenslopes Emergency Two-Year-Old (1350m) at Doomben. The colt came from… Read More »
Paceman can work as well as any two-year-old Peter Snowden has nurtured but the unbeaten youngster still has to prove himself to the trainer in the Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill. In the absence of the Gai Waterhouse-trained star Vancouver, Paceman is one of six unbeaten juveniles among eight acceptors… Read More »
