David Jolly is convinced rising five-year-old Behemoth has a big race win in him as the South Australian-based trainer prepares the sprinter-miler towards a new-season return and Group One assignments during spring. Behemoth was a luckless second in last year’s Group One Goodwood (1200m) in Adelaide and finished fourth in… Read More »
The nightmare of Red Verdon’s two failed Melbourne Cup campaigns is all but forgotten as the English stayer rides a wave of resurgent northern hemisphere form. Red Verdon contested the Caulfield Cup in 2018 and 2019, finishing unplaced both times. He was robbed of a chance to show his true… Read More »
Benbatl, runner-up in the last of champion mare Winx’s four WS Cox Plate wins, is expected to return to action later in the UK summer. The six-year-old has demonstrated his versatility late in life by proving just as effective on dirt when winning a Group Two at Meydan before finishing… Read More »
Trainer Grahame Begg is planning to kick-off Caulfield Cup hopeful Nonconformist’s preparation on the Memsie Stakes program, but it is unlikely to be in the main event. Begg has high hopes for the lightly raced rising four-year-old this spring and has pinpointed the $5 million Caulfield Cup (2400m) in October… Read More »
Trainer Tony Gollan set a state record for winners in the best possible way when Solar Star won the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich. Gollan already had gained the record for most metropolitan victories when he became the first to train 100 Brisbane winners last month. He went into… Read More »
The Kenso track proved to be more a greyhound track on Saturday, Chantrea continued her winning sequence in the West while a couple of former greats passed. All that and more in this weeks edition of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. KEY NEWS: Fast Lane At Randwick It… Read More »
Kathy O’Hara was all smiles after guiding Spaceboy to his third successive win saying the three-year-old toughed it out after finding himself in front a long way from home. Trainer Gary Portelli feared the late-charging Prairie Fire had nabbed his horse on the line and was relieved when Spaceboy clung… Read More »
Progressive three-year-old Right You Are has arrived in time under the urgings of Damien Oliver to score a narrow win under a big weight at Flemington. Trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr, Right You Are had 62kg in Saturday’s TAB/ATA Trainers’ Trust Handicap (1600m) against his own age… Read More »
Luck finally went the way of Bandipur when he gave trainer Kelly Purdy and jockey Jag Guthmann-Chester their biggest wins in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich. Guthmann-Chester got a needle eye run on the rails in the straight to drive Bandipur ($11) to a half-length win over Boomsara… Read More »
A typically laconic Kris Lees is more interested in training his next batch of winners than reflecting on the significance of landing his 2000th career-victory at Randwick. The Newcastle horseman brought up the milestone at Saturday’s Kensington meeting when Killin became the third horse in as many races to lead… Read More »
Apprentice Teo Nugent has taken out the Rising Stars Final at Flemington aboard six-year-old mare El Questro, who has provided trainer Allison Sheehan with the thrill of her first Flemington winner. Despite winning Saturday’s race which was restricted to apprentice riders only, Nugent finished second in the Rising Stars Series… Read More »
Brothers Richard and Michael Freedman continue to make waves as a Sydney training partnership, producing import Paths Of Glory for an upset win at Randwick. At $31, Paths Of Glory was the outsider in Saturday’s Quincy Seltzer Handicap (1800m) having finished unplaced in two Australian starts since his arrival from… Read More »
Well-bred colt Alcyone has broken his maiden and secured a ballot exemption into this year’s Victoria Derby with victory in the Byerley Handicap at Flemington. By stallion Teofilo out of 2009 Queensland Oaks winner Purple, Alcyone was sent out the $1.95 favourite in Saturday’s 1800m race which provided a staying… Read More »
A notable character of the turf Bryce Stanaway has shown that persistency can pay off when Ventura Highway broke a 1270 day drought at Donald. Ventura Highway has not won a race since January 2017 but that has not stopped trainer Bryce Stanaway from trying to get the 7YO back… Read More »
Toowoomba trainer Kevin Kemp made some gear changes on Fighting Teo and they paid off when the gelding won the Grandview Stud Handicap at Ipswich. The biggest horse racing in Queensland, Fighting Teo ($6.50) rolled to the lead for replacement jockey Jim Byrne and held on in the straight to… Read More »
Trainer Robert Hickmott holds spring ambitions for Bumper Blast after the lightly raced galloper returned with an impressive win at Flemington. Leading jockey Craig Williams produced a stunning ride on Bumper Blast, taking the gelding from barrier one, gradually crossing heels to the extreme outside to win The Belzoni over… Read More »
Chris Waller has no intention to spell Giovanna Run after the filly’s all-the-way maiden win, instead naming the Group One Flight Stakes as a potential target. A daughter of Waller’s 2015 Caulfield Guineas winner Press Statement, Giovanna Run has the trainer convinced her victory on Randwick’s Kensington track on Saturday… Read More »
Apprentice Alex Patis is set to further her association with the Tony and Maddy Sears stable after a win on Bangers And Mayo at Ipswich. Bangers And Mayo ($7) bounced straight to lead and was never headed in the Ipswich Events and Entertainment 2YO (1666m). Paris rode her first Eagle… Read More »
One of Queensland’s most popular racehorses Chief De Beers has died aged 28. Chief De Beers had been in retirement at the Living Legends complex in Victoria after an outstanding career as a racehorse and police horse. Living Legends turned to social media on Friday to announce Chief De Beers’… Read More »
Champion jockey Damien Oliver has been cleared to ride at Flemington despite breaching Racing Victoria coronavirus protocols. Oliver rode trackwork at trainer Danny O’Brien’s Barwon Heads property on Friday without a Racing Victoria exemption. He hasn’t been allowed to ride outside of Racing Victoria-approved racecourses since strict biosecurity measures were… Read More »
