Veteran trainer Harold Norman hopes to put the icing on his 80th birthday cake by giving jockey Rikki Palmer her first city winner since her comeback. Norman and Palmer will combine with tough gelding Lucky Tom in the Kartaway Open (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday. Palmer, who was apprenticed to… Read More »
MOONEE VALLEY CUP AS A MELBOURNE CUP LEAD-UP * Kingston Rule (1990) the most recent of three horses to win the Moonee Valley Cup-Melbourne Cup double in the same year. * Wodalla (1953) and Blue Spec (1905) also did the double * Prince Of Penzance won the 2014 Moonee Valley… Read More »
After building a solid foundation of seven wins from eight starts, Nictock returns to a wet track at Randwick, the scene of his only defeat. Mudgee trainer Cameron Crockett is interested to learn whether that third in June on a heavy track was a one-off. Randwick was into the heavy… Read More »
Sydney trainer Pat Webster has nothing but admiration for Winx. His stable star Happy Clapper has raced the great mare on five occasions, registering Group One second placings in a Doncaster Mile and George Main Stakes. The pair meet again in Saturday’s Cox Plate at Moonee Valley and Webster would… Read More »
Bonneval’s spring aspirations have foundered in Melbourne but her sister can give the Baker family some consolation at Randwick. After her unplaced Caulfleld Cup performance, one-time favourite Bonneval has been sent home to New Zealand with her Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained stablemate Jon Snow to carry the flag for… Read More »
Kerrin McEvoy has yet to get the photos but the day he got to take champion Winx for a spin around Rosehill remains clear in his mind. It was March this year and the champion mare’s regular jockey Hugh Bowman was in Melbourne riding at the Australian Cup meeting at… Read More »
Veteran stayer Who Shot Thebarman only has to satisfy his connections with his performance in the Moonee Valley Cup to confirms plans for a start in his fourth Melbourne Cup. Who Shot Thebarman was third in the 2014 Melbourne Cup, 11th in 2015 and fifth last year. The nine-year-old will… Read More »
Trainer Matt Dunn hopes his patience in keeping Red Bowers away from city racing will be repaid at Doomben on Saturday. The gelding will get a chance to improve on his ordinary Doomben record when he steps out in Saturday’s Open Handicap (1200m). Red Bowers has not run in Brisbane… Read More »
Tony McEvoy is expecting talented filly Roomooz to bounce back to her best form at Moonee Valley. The three-year-old won first-up at the Valley in August before two sub-par performances that left the trainer scratching his head. McEvoy ran extensive tests on the filly and believes she’s ready to get… Read More »
Blake Shinn has never ridden his Cox Plate mount Humidor, but the Sydney jockey knows exactly what he’s up against in Australia’s weight-for-age championship. Shinn has benefited from Damian Lane’s careless riding suspension at Caulfield last weekend to gain the ride on Humidor. A two-time Group One-winner, Humidor is one… Read More »
A fitter It’s Somewhat will step out for his first spring target at Moonee Valley. A winner of the Group One Doncaster Mile and the Group Two Hollindale Stakes in the autumn, It’s Somewhat contests Saturday’s Crystal Mile. Godolphin trainer James Cummings said the 1600m contest, run one race before… Read More »
THE 2017 COX PLATE FIELD HAPPY CLAPPER (Damien Oliver/Pat Webster) * Saddlecloth No.1 and barrier 9, has won 9 of 29 starts for $3,123,800 * The seven-year-old gelding and Group One Epsom Handicap winner has twice finished second to Winx GAILO CHOP (Mark Zahra/Darren Weir) * Saddlecloth No.2 and barrier… Read More »
Chris Waller isn’t getting caught up in over-thinking Cox Plate scenarios but the champion trainer doubts whether any of Winx’s rivals will adopt daring tactics in the $3 million race. He says it would only be to their detriment. Winx is the $1.15 favourite to win a record-equalling third Cox… Read More »
Australia’s top jockeys are at his beck and call, but Chris Waller is reserving some of his highest praise of the spring for an Irish-born apprentice. Lee Magorrian first joined Sydney’s premier trainer on a two-week scholarship in August last year and soon Waller recommended he relocate permanently from New… Read More »
Jockey Dwayne Dunn reckons champion mare Winx should have some new gear added to her raceday attire for the Cox Plate. “Maybe we can put a gear change on her, ‘tow rope on’,” Dunn joked. “I think that’s the only way she can be beaten.” Dunn doesn’t have a ride… Read More »
Supply And Demand will state his case for a two-pronged assignment in Western Australia over summer when the gelding makes a comeback at Randwick. Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have targeted two $1 million Group One races at Ascot for the five-year-old providing he rediscovers the form he produced during… Read More »
THE MANIKATO STAKES – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW * Group One, 1200m, $1 million, weight-for-age. Run at Moonee Valley on Friday, October 27, 9.30pm HISTORY * First held in September of 1968 as the Freeway Stakes run over six furlongs and won by Winfreux * Renamed in 1984 after… Read More »
After success in the Australian Guineas, trainer Tony McEvoy was expecting Hey Doc to be one of the weight-for-age stars of the spring. And following success first-up over the straight 1200m course at Flemington in August, McEvoy saw nothing to alter that opinion. After a respectable fourth to Vega Magic… Read More »
WS COX PLATE – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW * Group One, $3 million, weight-for-age, 2040m, to be run at Moonee Valley on Saturday, October 28, 2017 HISTORY * First run in 1922 when the Moonee Valley Racing Club committee voted for a high-quality, weight-for-age race * British seven-year-old stallion… Read More »
A faultless few weeks since Winx’s Turnbull Stakes win has the champion mare perfectly placed for her attempt at a record-equalling third Cox Plate. “The Cox Plate last year we said on that day it had to be a champion to beat her because she was as good as we… Read More »
