Adelaide gelding Waging War will press his Winter Championship claims in Melbourne when he runs in a heat of the series at Sandown. Waging War is the early favourite for Saturday’s Ladbrokes Back Yourself Handicap (1600m) and co-trainer Leon Macdonald expects the five-year-old can make his presence felt off the… Read More »
The Melbourne Cup has received another prize money injection, with the 2019 edition of Australia’s most famous race to be worth $8 million. Victoria Racing Club chairman Amanda Elliott made the announcement on Tuesday, with the prize money increasing by $700,000 from the $7.3 million last year. The connections of… Read More »
Apprentice Jag Guthmann-Chester has been rewarded for a piece of brilliant horsemanship by retaining the ride on smart mare Manaya at Ipswich. A last-start winner in spectacular fashion at the Gold Coast, Manaya is set to confirm her ability in Saturday’s Listed Gai Waterhouse (1350m). Guthmann-Chester is the leading Queensland… Read More »
Tony Pike’s two winter Group One performers are heading home but the New Zealand trainer still plans to have a hand in the rest of the Queensland carnival. Pike has been a major Group One player during the winter carnival with The Bostonian winning the Doomben 10,000 and Kingsford Smith… Read More »
The Ballarat Turf Club has been forced to transfer another meeting from the turf track because of heavy rain. After 30mm of rain fell on the track on Wednesday, taking the total over the past month to more than 160mm, Sunday’s meeting has been transferred to Echuca. Racing Victoria stewards… Read More »
High profile West Australian owner Bob Peters is hoping to know in the coming weeks whether he will have at least one runner in the $14 million Everest. Peters recently announced two of his best horses, Arcadia Queen and Enticing Star, would be transferred to champion trainer Chris Waller for… Read More »
Ipswich is on course for a record crowd at its Cup meeting with the club buoyed by news its redevelopment will be completed on schedule. There has been unparalleled early demand for tickets for Saturday’s Ipswich Cup meeting despite some redevelopment delays leaving parts of the course as a work… Read More »
A decade after breaking new ground at Royal Ascot, American trainer Wesley Ward is returning with a team of eight as hungry as ever. The trainer was not well known in England when he first brought horses to Britain’s summer showpiece meeting but it did not take him long to… Read More »
In-form jockey Josh Parr will spend the next couple of days nursing an injured knee suffered in a fall as he was about to celebrate a victory at Warwick Farm. Parr came off the Rebecca Dunn-trained On Her Word past the winning post after Wednesday’s first race, an 1100m-maiden. The… Read More »
Country trainer Paul Preusker has worked on getting recent acquisition Marcel From Madrid to switch off but will not know if he has been successful until the gelding races at Sandown. Having started his career with Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra at Flemington, Marcel From Madrid was transferred to Preusker’s… Read More »
Jockey Ryan Maloney has made a winning return at Doomben after being sidelined for several weeks by injury. Until Wednesday, Maloney had not ridden since April when he was injured in a fall at Caloundra. Maloney led all the way on Musical Genius ($2.50) to win the Class Three Plate… Read More »
Trainer Grahame Begg does not see a longer than initially planned gap between races as a problem for lightly raced mare Global Sanction who will be chasing back-to-back victories at Sandown. Four-year-old Global Sanction finished strongly to win a 1500m benchmark 64 race on the Sandown Hillside track and she… Read More »
Talented stayer Yogi will add some X-factor to the Winter Cup meeting at Rosehill where he begins a surprise off-season Cups campaign. After just missing a Melbourne Cup start last spring, Yogi went on to claim the Sandown Cup in November to put himself on a path towards the higher… Read More »
Toowoomba trainer Kevin Kemp’s decision to take Fighting Teo to Sydney last year has proved the catalyst for the horse to develop into a stakes class runner. Kemp’s belief in Fighting Teo’s ability will get another test when the gelding tackles the $175,000 Listed Ipswich Cup (2150m) on Saturday. One… Read More »
Connections of Australian sprinter Houtzen say they have not travelled to England to make up the numbers and are upbeat about her Royal Ascot chances. The four-year-old continued her build-up to next week’s King’s Stand Stakes with a rousing 800-metre gallop alongside travelling companion Acqume on Wednesday. Jamie Spencer warmed… Read More »
Queensland bush champion Fab’s Cowboy will get a big money chance to regain his title as the winner of the most Australian races for the season. Fab’s Cowboy was pushed into second place on the list when Mr Quickie won his ninth race for the season in Saturday’s Queensland Derby…. Read More »
Jockey Beau Appo has been unsuccessful in an internal application into a four-week suspension for weighing in light on a winner at Toowoomba. Appo rode Pieridae who won the last race at Toowoomba on April 22. He was suspended for four weeks and the horse disqualified after Appo weighed in… Read More »
Jockey Corey Brown has no plans to retire despite revealing how close he came to not being able to walk again following his fall from Lord Arthur in the Queensland Derby. Brown underwent surgery in Brisbane on Sunday to repair an unstable fracture to his T7 vertebra and is also… Read More »
The Brisbane Racing Club is keen to change the winter carnival schedule so the Queensland Derby is run before the Queensland Oaks. Eagle Farm will host three straight meetings next season with the Kingsford Smith Cup, Queensland Oaks and Stradbroke/Queensland Derby scheduled to be run in that order. This year… Read More »
Trainer Jim Conlan hopes the predicted rain in Melbourne does not eventuate for German import Beau Balmain who is scheduled to have his second Australian start at Sandown. Beau Balmain is weighted on the minimum of 54kg in the fifth heat of the Banjo Patterson Series (2100m) on Saturday with… Read More »
