Trainer Stephen Brown does not see a rise in distance as being a concern for My Brothers Keeper when he steps out at Flemington. My Brothers Keeper will run for the first time at 2500m in the Mahogany Challenge Final on Saturday. Brown said My Brothers Keeper was ready for the trip after three runs at… Read More »
The Victorians might just hold the aces in the penultimate race at Rosehill with Cranbourne-based trainer Aaron Laing plotting to upstage fellow travellers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, who will be represented by the favourite. Laing has brought Sir Rockford to Sydney for the TAB Handicap (1800m) on Saturday, the gelding on the… Read More »
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace are among the more innovative trainers in the country, ever looking for another edge to strengthen and grow their team. Given the success and subsequent soaring costs of buying and importing proven European horses to Australia, the pair have enlisted the help of a few veritable… Read More »
Adam Durrant says Ihts Closing Inn has the credentials to go on with the job against career-best opposition at Belmont on Saturday. Ihts Closing Inn has been one of the eye-catchers of the winter season and is ready to take the leap from graduation company into stakes grade. The daughter of… Read More »
Trainer Neville Parnham believes Demolish has improved since his return run in the Belmont Guineas (1600m) and is confident the three-year-old can snap a feature race drought on Saturday. Demolish ran third to Rusty Dreams and Upper Limits in the Belmont Guineas two weeks ago, the Rich Enuff gelding’s fourth straight placing in… Read More »
Racing Victoria has disqualified the 29 horses that Wiremu Pinn rode with an incorrect weight, but the connections of those horses will get to keep the prize money. RV Stewards ordered an inquiry after an audit established Pinn rode with an incorrect claim when he first came across from New Zealand to be based with Michael Kent at Cranbourne…. Read More »
With Sydney’s best horses in the paddock and a ten-race card of exclusively benchmark events, David Payne is hoping to make the most of some off-season opportunities at Rosehill. The decorated trainer only has a small team in work these days, but he will have four runners at his home track… Read More »
Liam Howley will kick off the Australian career of former New Zealand mare Silverina at Flemington. Group 2 placed during her eight-start career in New Zealand, Silverina runs in the Leilani Series Final (1400m) on Saturday. Silverina has not raced since finishing third in the Group 2 Isuzu Stakes (1600m) at Te Rapa on December 10 before transferring into the care of… Read More »
Father-and-son training team Mark and Levi Kavanagh has been quietly developing First Immortal into a potential stayer of the future. After two victories at 2000 metres, the time has come to test the three-year-old at 2500m when he lines up in the Mahogany Challenge Final at Flemington on Saturday. The corresponding race in 2020 was… Read More »
A close relation to one of Hong Kong’s great milers will make her debut at Flemington this Saturday. Yeronga Songbird, a half-sister to Beauty Generation, will contest the $150,000 Next Generation Sprinters Series Final that kicks off the Finals Day card. The two-year-old is not only from a mare who… Read More »
They didn’t get the Royal Ascot result they’d hoped for with Coolangatta, but Ciaron Maher and David Eustace still have some feature race cards to play before the end of the season. The training duo will have at least two stakes runners at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday with enigmatic mare… Read More »
Enthusiasm for a task is usually a good quality but when it comes to racehorses, it can be detrimental. When Deep Expectation joined the Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou yard earlier this year, the filly was keen to get on with the job and her high energy was costing her at the end… Read More »
Trainer Michael Kent says he has not been fair to Crimson Light through her brief career and believes she is up to winning better races than a midweek event at Sandown. Resuming from a spell in the Tobin Brothers Celebrating Lives Handicap (1600m) on Wednesday, Crimson Light relished the wet ground to score a three-quarter length win… Read More »
In his first ride since the death of his father Peter, Beau Mertens has scored an emotional victory aboard Anahita at Sandown. A seven-time Group 1 winning jockey, Peter Mertens died following a battle with pancreatic cancer on the weekend aged 58. His former champion apprentice jockey son stood down from riding until Sandown… Read More »
Tulloch Lodge filly Taormina could be aimed at the early spring carnival races after she upstaged some well-related juveniles to make a winning debut at Warwick Farm. Co-trainer Adrian Bott said the stable had held the two-year-old in high regard since she finished third behind Sicilian and top filly Learning To Fly at… Read More »
Trainer Phillip Stokes knows Lavish Thinker has one thing in his favour when he heads to Flemington. The 2500m of the Mahogany Challenge Final (2500m) on Saturday is the distance that Lavish Thinker is looking forward to according to the trainer. Lavish Thinker, who will be having his eighth start when he lines up on Saturday, reminds… Read More »
Relishing a recent tree change, Emperor will make a hit-and-run visit to his former home of Sydney where trainer Matt Dunn hopes the superbly bred colt can continue to build on his record and confidence. By star sire I Am Invincible out of Group 1 placed mare Jolie Bay, Emperor showed early… Read More »
A hat-trick of wins in Sydney has earned promising three-year-old Grebeni a trip north for his first shot at stakes company in the Group 3 Winx Guineas at the Sunshine Coast. The gelding has had an almost faultless preparation, narrowly beaten first-up at Kembla Grange before stringing together a midweek win… Read More »
Chris and Michael Gangemi have walked down this path before, but this time the brothers and co-trainers hope the trek might be a little different. Their enigmatic gelding and yearling sale topper Samizdat is looking to maximise what could potentially be his final campaign of racing. This is quite literally the… Read More »
Albury trainer Mitchell Beer breathed a heavy sigh of relief when Blake Shinn elected to start his suspension after the upcoming Flemington meeting. Beer had already booked the in-form jockey to partner Mnementh in the Listed Santa Ana Lane Print Series Final (1200m) on Saturday and was not relishing the task of finding a replacement… Read More »
