Trainer Mark Webb is favouring the idea of an attempt at repeating history with Miss Iano when the mare runs at Caulfield. Miss Iano holds a nomination in three races at Caulfield on Saturday, an 1100m mares’ race, an open handicap over 1400m along with the Group Three Bletchingly Stakes…. Read More »
Last-start Winter Stakes winner Noble Boy is on target for more black-type success in the Listed Winter Challenge at Rosehill. Trainer Clare Cunningham cannot fault Noble Boy as she prepares the gelding for Saturday’s Listed 1500m Winter Challenge at the same track of his previous victory. In his first preparation… Read More »
The Listed Winter Challenge at Rosehill looms as the likely kick off point for Mugatoo after the import pleased his trainer Kris Lees in a barrier trial at Newcastle. Mugatoo, winner of the Listed Canberra Cup in his first Australian racing preparation earlier this year, is among 12 initial nominations… Read More »
The decision by Te Akau principal David Ellis to leave star mares Melody Belle and Probabeel in Sydney following their autumn campaigns is already paying a dividend. They have been in the hands of travelling foreman Ashley Handley, who is providing positive feedback to trainer Jamie Richards as to how… Read More »
The Listed Queensland Cup will return to its traditional timeslot as part of a revamped spring carnival but at a much shorter distance. The Cup was run in the Queensland spring for more than 100 years and is one of the oldest races in the state. It was one of… Read More »
Streets Of Avalon is scheduled to begin his latest campaign in the Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on a path to Group One targets at the same track later in his preparation. The five-year-old became a Group One winner with an upset victory in the Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield last… Read More »
Caloundra galloper Doctor Zous will chase the remaining northern sprint feature races after his comprehensive win in the Rockhampton Newmarket. The Rockhampton Newmarket is usually the first leg of a sprint series that carries a $100,000 bonus for any horse that can win three of the five races. But there… Read More »
Trainer Phillip Stokes has pencilled in a spring program towards the Group One Thousand Guineas for unbeaten Instant Celebrity after the filly’s impressive win in the Listed Oaklands Plate in Adelaide. Instant Celebrity sprinted quickly from back in the field to pass her rivals in the straight in Saturday’s Oaklands… Read More »
Trainer Patrick Payne rates Tallyho Twinkletoe the best jumper he has trained after adding the Brendan Drechsler Hurdle to his amazing record. Tallyho Twinkletoe has raced in Australia three times, claiming the Grand National Hurdle and Steeplechase double last year along with Sunday’s win at Pakenham. Payne says Tallyho Twinkletoe… Read More »
Melbourne-based jockey Patrick Moloney hopes to return to Singapore one day to build on his international career. However, he will now have to wait after the Singapore Turf Club cancelled his licence last week. Singapore Turf Club said Moloney and fellow jockeys Michael Rodd and Alysha Collett had relinquished their… Read More »
Lindsay Park trainers Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes got off to the perfect start following the exit to Hong Kong of David Hayes, but there are still many challenges facing the pair amid COVID-19. With Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire in lockdown, travel between Lindsay Park’s country base at Euroa… Read More »
Gary Portelli remains convinced Time To Reign can turn around an inglorious first-up performance and put his racing career back on track. A stakes-winning two-year-old and half brother to Group One winner She Will Reign, Time To Reign has competed just twice since finishing fifth in the 2019 Golden Slipper…. Read More »
David Jolly is convinced rising five-year-old Behemoth has a big race win in him as the South Australian-based trainer prepares the sprinter-miler towards a new-season return and Group One assignments during spring. Behemoth was a luckless second in last year’s Group One Goodwood (1200m) in Adelaide and finished fourth in… Read More »
The nightmare of Red Verdon’s two failed Melbourne Cup campaigns is all but forgotten as the English stayer rides a wave of resurgent northern hemisphere form. Red Verdon contested the Caulfield Cup in 2018 and 2019, finishing unplaced both times. He was robbed of a chance to show his true… Read More »
Benbatl, runner-up in the last of champion mare Winx’s four WS Cox Plate wins, is expected to return to action later in the UK summer. The six-year-old has demonstrated his versatility late in life by proving just as effective on dirt when winning a Group Two at Meydan before finishing… Read More »
Trainer Grahame Begg is planning to kick-off Caulfield Cup hopeful Nonconformist’s preparation on the Memsie Stakes program, but it is unlikely to be in the main event. Begg has high hopes for the lightly raced rising four-year-old this spring and has pinpointed the $5 million Caulfield Cup (2400m) in October… Read More »
Trainer Tony Gollan set a state record for winners in the best possible way when Solar Star won the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich. Gollan already had gained the record for most metropolitan victories when he became the first to train 100 Brisbane winners last month. He went into… Read More »
Kathy O’Hara was all smiles after guiding Spaceboy to his third successive win saying the three-year-old toughed it out after finding himself in front a long way from home. Trainer Gary Portelli feared the late-charging Prairie Fire had nabbed his horse on the line and was relieved when Spaceboy clung… Read More »
Progressive three-year-old Right You Are has arrived in time under the urgings of Damien Oliver to score a narrow win under a big weight at Flemington. Trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr, Right You Are had 62kg in Saturday’s TAB/ATA Trainers’ Trust Handicap (1600m) against his own age… Read More »
Luck finally went the way of Bandipur when he gave trainer Kelly Purdy and jockey Jag Guthmann-Chester their biggest wins in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich. Guthmann-Chester got a needle eye run on the rails in the straight to drive Bandipur ($11) to a half-length win over Boomsara… Read More »
