The addition of a middle-distance race for four-year-olds at Melbourne’s season-opening city meeting is a common sense decision according to trainer Ken Keys. And the trainer is keen to make the most of it with in-form Spanish Reef. The $120,000 Domain Handicap (2000m) was added as a 10th race to… Read More »
Group One star Yankee Rose was one of six trial winners for trainer David Vandyke at the Sunshine Coast this week and he hopes to continue the run at a race meeting on Saturday. Vandyke moved from Sydney to Queensland 14 months ago and has been an instant success finishing… Read More »
Group One-winning jockey Darryl “Digger” McLellan has taken the first successful step to a return to race riding. McLellan has not ridden in a race since a fall at Newcastle in 2011 but has been riding trackwork at the Gold Coast. He rode Sugarparma to win a barrier trial for… Read More »
A Queensland trainer has lost an appeal against a conviction and the severity of a 12-month disqualification on three charges relating to cobalt. Queensland Racing Integrity Commission stewards charged Vale after cobalt above the allowable levels was detected in urine samples taken from three horses – Prince Dan at Mackay… Read More »
A radio appeal to raise funds for the National Jockeys Trust has reached almost $30,000. The appeal was run by Brisbane-based RadioTAB which covers Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Brisbane’s racing media were joined on Monday by premier Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan and Sky Racing’s Bernadette Cooper… Read More »
A heavy winter workload on the course proper at the Cranbourne Training Complex has prompted changes in scheduled trials. An important set of trials at the complex on Monday, when Group One winners Catchy and I Am A Star were due to step out, have been rescheduled while a set… Read More »
Big Orange’s bid for a third Goodwood Cup has been thwarted by three-year-old Stradivarius. The John Gosden-trained colt overhauled the front-running Big Orange inside the final 400 metres to beat him by 1-3/4 lengths. Stradivarius was the third of four winners on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) for his jockey Andrea Atzeni… Read More »
THE KING IS RETIRED, LONG LIVE THE KING WHY NOW? The great jockey hasn’t ridden since December and says his son’s fledgling career as an apprentice is one he’d be happy to follow instead. Lachlan King will represent Australia at the Longines Prix Future Racing Stars in France next month…. Read More »
Racing’s first lady argues galloping on the course proper at Canterbury is so good, the Australian Turf Club could be charging for the privilege. Gai Waterhouse says the outing “works in a massive way” for her stable after she took a truckload of horses from Randwick to the suburban track… Read More »
Condor Heroes has put a big space on his rivals in a barrier trial but his trainer is not concerned he has used it all up before he returns to racing. Gerald Ryan said the three -year-old, who won a 900m heat by more than six lengths from stablemate Menari,… Read More »
Australia’s most expensive sire for hire Snitzel has dominated the end-of-season winners tables to back up his skyrocketing service fee of $176,000. The jewel in Arrowfield Stud’s crown landed a record-equalling 26 individual stakes winners in Australia, smashed the prize money record with $16.1 million and fell just one win… Read More »
Apprentice Taylor Marshall is off the mark in Victoria with a winner at Warrnambool. The son of 1999 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey John Marshall has recently made a move from Sydney to join the Danny O’Brien stable in Melbourne and Tuesday’s Warrnambool meeting was just his second in Victoria. The 24-year-old… Read More »
Clarry Conners has three nominations for the Group Two Missile Stakes at Randwick but will just take one shot at it. The veteran trainer indicated only Bolero King would be given an opportunity on Saturday to bounce back from a difficult run at the same track on July 22, when… Read More »
Cranbourne trio Mick Bell, Kevin Forrester and Jungle Edge have developed a cult following after their heroics during the Sydney autumn carnival. It extended further to Brisbane in winter before coming to an end on firming ground at Doomben in June when Jungle Edge beat one runner home in the… Read More »
A colt Tony McEvoy has always held in high regard begins his Caulfield Guineas campaign at Melbourne’s first city meeting of the season. Azazel resumes in Saturday’s 1000m handicap for three-year-olds at Flemington, his first start since his trainer scratched him from the Group One Blue Diamond Stakes in February…. Read More »
New Zealand colt Summer Passage has pleased his trainers in a barrier trial at Te Teko ahead of his Melbourne spring campaign. Trained by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, Summer Passage won the Group One Sistema Stakes at Ellerslie in March and finished second to Invader in the ATC Sires’… Read More »
Adam Wadick trains at Warwick Farm but rarely has a runner on race day, so starting off the new season at home with Hurricanes is guaranteed to be a memorable experience. Wadick is gradually growing his operation in David Vandyke’s old stables where a year ago Big Arty was his… Read More »
Eleven of the 13 horses entered for the abandoned Bletchingly Stakes have been nominated for the rescheduled running of the weight-for-age race at Sandown. Monash Stakes winner Supido is a notable omission for Sunday’s 1200m Bletchingly Stakes which has been added to Sunday’s Grand National Hurdle and Crisp Steeplechase meeting. The… Read More »
Former top race mare Silent Achiever has produced her second Frankel foal in England, this time a colt. The multiple Group One-winning mare is owned by Kevin Hickman, proprietor of New Zealand’s Valachi Downs Stud who sent her to England to be served to southern hemisphere time. “He’s a strong,… Read More »
The Melbourne Racing Club has announced Josh Blanksby will succeed Brodie Arnhold as its chief executive later this year. Blanksby will begin the role on December 15, succeeding Arnhold who has spent 10 years with the club including just under five as chief executive. Blanksby is currently the MRC’s executive… Read More »
