One person, who has previously been a standard fixture as a participant at the Queensland Winter Carnival, has been notably absentee from the 2023 edition of the event … and missing the prime time months of racing in his home state has been a painful experience for Jim Byrne in… Read More »
The news that Racing Victoria stewards have issued show-cause notices to connections of twenty-nine horses ridden by apprentice Wiremu Pinn with an incorrect apprentice allowance claim is sure to be a real conversation starter. It was only discovered after the fact that Pinn, who is in Australia on a three-month… Read More »
A driving two-horse finish featuring Coolmore and Godolphin runners … that is a description of a race that could have taken place anywhere around the world but, in this particular instance, it was all about the battle between the Coolmore owned Lady Of Honour and Gravina from the Royal Blue… Read More »
“It’s clear the industry doesn’t want me – so I just have to move on now.” As reported on Punters.com, that was Ben Currie’s response to the news that his eighteen-month disqualification, handed down by stewards, had being reduced to a nine-month disqualification by the Queensland’s Racing Appeals Panel. Currie… Read More »
With his experience and capability in the saddle, the chances were always good that Damien Thornton was going to enjoy a successful stint riding in the Sunshine State in the lead-up to, and for the duration of the Queensland Racing Carnival. The broad smile on the usually poker-faced Thornton when… Read More »
Ben Thompson advanced his stellar season along another step down the line of success on Ipswich Cup day where he landed two winners (including a win in the Ipswich Cup) and three second placings on the city’s biggest race-day. “It was a great day … a winner and two seconds… Read More »
A relaxed Robert Heathcote powered a golf drive far enough down the fairway to be able to have time in-between shots to talk about Rothfire, his stable star who finished second in the 2023 Stradbroke Handicap … and, while enjoying some, brief, well-deserved down-time away from big race pressure, he… Read More »
“I’ve waited a long time for a horse like this.” You would think that is quite a statement of commendation coming from trainer Joe Pride about his Stradbroke Handicap winner, Think About It, particularly given that Pride also trains, amongst others, the likes Eduardo (a fifteen-time winner who has earned… Read More »
The Meagher family, a name entrenched in both Australian and Singapore racing, is better placed than most to come out of next year’s closure of Singapore racing with a sure foothold into the future … and that future is set to be Queensland’s gain. While the remains a real degree… Read More »
Robbie Fradd won the 2020 Stradbroke aboard Tyzone, sweeping out wide on the track, coming from well back to prevail in a grandstand finish in which only a length covered the first five runners across the line … the irony being that win was achieved in front of an empty… Read More »
Trainer David Vandyke has tasted success at the highest level, but a mere Maiden win at Doomben on Wednesday … should it arrive in the third race on the card … could be quite an emotional result in its own right for the stable. Don’t expect that emotion to be… Read More »
It is good to finally see some movement on the jockey’s protective vest issue but, for any true value to come out of the latest rumblings, things do not only have to move in the right direction, they have to move at a pace that the urgency of the matter… Read More »
Leah Kilner celebrated a birthday on Friday. Only twenty-five years young … but it was a birthday Kilner thought she might never see yet, thankfully, here she is, ten-and-a-half months after she suffered critical injuries in a race-fall at Grafton back on July 3, 2022, able to celebrate that particular,… Read More »
Twin sisters Beany and Deanne Panya notched up a special ‘twin’ result when they both rode winners at the same meeting for the first time at Shoalhaven City Turf Club meeting at Nowra on Sunday. Both riders had only returned to race riding action in relatively recent times after extended… Read More »
Trainer Robert Heathcote has no regrets about not running his stable star Rothfire in the Doomben 10,000 last Saturday. That would have been against Giga Kick, the horse now being touted as the best in the land, who cemented that status with another impressive Group 1 win in the 10,000…. Read More »
Not for the first time, the Group 1 Doomben Cup will be Zaaki’s to win or lose at Doomben on Saturday, given that the race will take place under standard weight-for-age conditions. He did lose last year in a boil-over result which saw Zaaki’s bid for back-to-back wins in the… Read More »
On a day when the powerful metropolitan stables from across the country (think Gollan, Hawkes, Heathcote, Neasham, Snowden, Waller) were all in play … Toowoomba based trainers came up trumps in the two Group 3 races on the card at the Gold Coast Turf Club’s Hollindale Stakes race-day, which this… Read More »
This is a serious racehorse! It wasn’t just the fact that the Tony and Maddysen Sears trained three-year-old Yellow Brick won the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas at the Sunshine Coast on May 6 … or the fact that this victory took Yellow Brick’s race record to six wins from… Read More »
Brad Stewart, long considered by some of the best judges around as being amongst the top jockeys in Queensland, will undergo further surgery today … the outcome of which will go a long way towards determining his future in the saddle. As far back now as last September, Stewart broke… Read More »
Trainer Desleigh Forster has beaten an animal cruelty-related charge on appeal and the six-month ban imposed previously on her for her alleged actions relating to the use of a prohibitive stockwhip has been set aside. She has however been fined $1000 for possession of a stockwhip and $6000 for the… Read More »
