As confident as Pat Carey is in Recon’s ability, after his first-up fifth placing in a Listed race at Flemington he dared not dream he would so soon be single-figure odds in a Group 1 event. But a stunning second-up win in the Hareeba Stakes virtually compelled the canny Mornington… Read More »
It is nine starts and almost 10 months since El Pensador last won a race, but Rex Lipp is optimistic his next victory could come at Ipswich on Monday. The son of So You Think will be out to back up a good first-up performance in the penultimate event, the… Read More »
For the second straight year, dual state-based trainer Phillip Stokes has won the South Australian Derby at Morphettville with a longshot. After Femminile scored at $19 last year, Wigmore, having just his second outing for Stokes, scored at $41 in the 2518m Classic for three-year-olds on Saturday. Providing Teo Nugent… Read More »
Last year’s Golden Mile is just one of the many races in Von Hauke’s career that Cliff Brown would rather forget and, for a tick over a minute on Saturday, he feared the 2026 edition would filed away in the same folder. But, unlike last year when the regularly-unlucky gelding… Read More »
The Group One Tattersall’s Tiara is the goal for Victorian mare Splash Back after she upstaged several big name sprinters to capture the Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm. The winner of the Stocks Stakes at Moonee Valley in the spring, Splash Back ($8.50) had finished midfield behind Victory Stakes rival… Read More »
It wasn’t a $1 million Group 1, but Jordan Childs was happy to pick up where he left off last weekend with another feature win at Bendigo on Saturday. The in-form jockey took out the first of the Black Type races at Bendigo’s Golden Mile meeting when he teamed with… Read More »
Peter Snowden has continued his incredible affinity with the Hawkesbury stand-alone meeting, adding the Gold Rush to his list of feature race wins courtesy of talented sprinter Zealously. Snowden has been supporting the program since its inception and has claimed the Hawkesbury Crown (1300m) seven times and the Guineas (1400m)… Read More »
For trainer Nathan Doyle, his emotions were a mix of exhilaration and relief after Churchill’s Choice made her winning run virtually next to the outside running rail. “She has been a frustrating mare as she’s always had the ability but hasn’t won one of these stakes races,” Doyle said. “But… Read More »
Country Championships Final winner Chidiac has made a successful transition to stakes grade with a narrow but determined victory in the Group Three Hawkesbury Crown. In doing so, she has provided rising apprentice Braith Nock his 300th career win and an early double on the stand-alone card after his triumph… Read More »
Skyhook proved there is no substitute for class and put himself firmly into the Stradbroke Handicap conversation with a brilliant all-the-way win in the Group 3 $250,000 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) at Hawkesbury on Saturday. A riding plan devised by trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexious was carried out to the… Read More »
Promising sprinter Golden Straand continued his form surge and is making a compelling case to be given his chance at stakes level after another brilliant win at Hawkesbury on Saturday. Golden Straand settled back in the field early, jockey Nash Rawiller cut the corner and the powerful four-year-old did the… Read More »
Lindsay Park’s domination of the richest race on Bendigo’s Golden Mile program continued on Saturday when the Hayes brothers produced the well-related Marffiano to win the VOBIS Gold Rush. Tycoon Star’s half-brother led home a Lindsay Park quinella when he defeated Resonant in the race for two-year-olds that carries $250,000… Read More »
Stormy Marco made an impressive debut and led home a Chris Waller stable trifecta as hot favourite Tenenbaum flopped in the Clarendon Stakes (1400m) at Hawkesbury on Saturday. The two-year-old feature is the traditional opener at the Hawkesbury stand-alone and is often used by Waller to prepare his emerging two-year-olds… Read More »
Bianco Vilano completed the rare Riverina big-race double when he defeated a classy field in the Listed $200,000 Wagga Wagga Gold Cup (2000m) at Wagga Wagga on Friday. Trained by the highly respected Ron Stubbs, Bianco Vilano became only the fourth horse to complete the Albury Cup–Wagga Wagga Gold Cup… Read More »
Trainer Danny O’Brien will be looking to tick off another box when Cannae runs in the South Australian Derby at Morphettville. O’Brien has 23 Group 1 winners to his credit and has, on occasions, been a shareholder in the ownership of some of those wins. But to date he has not owned a… Read More »
The Ciaron Maher stable has high hopes for imported galloper Zahrann who will make his Australian debut at Bendigo. The Listed Golden Mile (1600m) on Saturday will be the Irish-bred galloper’s seventh race start, and he comes to Australia with some good form behind him. Bendigo has been dubbed the ‘Nursery of Champions’ with horses the… Read More »
The James H B Carr Stakes might have been the race that got away for Karinska, but she has another golden opportunity to land an overdue stakes win in the Group Three Hawkesbury Guineas. The filly was desperately unlucky at Randwick when James McDonald angled her to the outside to… Read More »
Well-travelled sprinter Way To The Stars will return to his home state for the first time in more than a year at Hawkesbury where trainer Matt Smith expects him to run a bold race. A dual Listed winner, Smith says the gelding has had genuine excuses at his past two… Read More »
Having finished runner-up last year, champion jockey Craig Williams will again head to Rockhampton for the $1 million The Archer (1300m) on Sunday, booked to ride none other than Rothfire for Robert Heathcote. Both horse and rider are a big pull for the Rockhampton Jockey Club, with the slot race… Read More »
Kembla Grange horseman Paul Murray has continued his family’s wonderful association with the Wagga Cup carnival, plundering the $200,000 Town Plate with Harry’s Bar. Murray’s late father, legendary South Coast trainer Bede, first started travelling horses to the feature country meeting in the 1970s and rarely a year went by… Read More »
