Racing Victoria could underwrite staying races in Victoria
Racing Victoria are poised to add considerable financial aid to distance races in the future.
Racing Victoria are poised to add considerable financial aid to distance races in the future.
The Caulfield Cup, one of the great handicaps of the Australian turf, could have its first non-capacity field since Leilani won it in 1974 as trainers look for different options to get into the Melbourne Cup.
With 12 straight wins and a career total of eight at group 1 level Australian wonder mare Winx is starting to take on the characteristics of Pegasus, the mythological horse whose wings allowed him to fly quickly and cover more ground than any galloper before or since.
Anthony Cummings is marshalling his spring forces and is looking further afield than Melbourne with Thunder Fantasy, which will have an inoculation booster this week with a view to December's Hong Kong International meeting.
For Kerrin McEvoy pulling on the Godolphin blue, when he rides Scottish, will bring back years of good memories and he thinks he can add another one in Saturday's Caulfield Cup.
The debate over which state is the powerhouse in Australian racing will be decided over the next month, but Sydney made a great start when the northern horses arrived in force for the start of the Caulfield carnival on Saturday.
Michelle Payne's dream of defending her Melbourne Cup crown on Prince of Penzance might now be over following the horse's serious leg injury – but could another young woman jockey, Kate Mallyon, follow in her hoofprints and take out Australia's greatest race just 12 months later?
An oldtime racehorse trainer from the Mornington Peninsula, Mick Crawford, first met the allegedly crooked jockey Danny Nikolic when the kid was just 14, in 1988.
While Winx took a tighter grip on this year's group 1 Cox Plate after winning the Caulfield Stakes, the news for defending Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance was grim.
It was a red-letter day at Caulfield for the Hayes family training partnership and top jockey Dwayne Dunn, who landed, respectively, a four-timer and a hat-trick.
Wallabies halfback George Gregan once taunted the All Blacks with a "four more years" sledge in a World Cup semi-final victory. Divine Prophet's owner Tony Falcone knows how long four years can be – and has found out how sweet victory can be after the wait.
Canberra trainer Matthew Dale to decide where to next.
Any lingering dreams Michelle Payne had of repeating her Melbourne Cup heroics aboard Prince of Penzance are over after the seven year old received a serious injury at Caulfield, ruling him out of the spring carnival.
It was a red-letter day at Caulfield for the Hayes family training partnership and top jockey Dwayne Dunn, who landed a four-timer and a hat-trick respectively.
The expectation with Winx is that she should win. She did that again in the Caulfield Stakes, which started as a Saturday stroll and worked to a crescendo, exactly what Hugh Bowman and Chris Waller had wanted.
When fillies hit form in spring, there is no predicting what they can do - and there is no better authority than Gai Waterhouse for knowing when a three year old filly is poised to bloom and blossom.
Canberra trainer confident going into g2 Schillaci Stakes.
New Zealand horseman Murray Baker knows what it takes to win an Australian group 1 with a three-year-old and this kiwi is not into wasting his time when he crosses the Tasman.
Forgive me for not dwelling on the three horse Caulfield Stakes, another disappointing Michelle Payne chapter, or whether Sydney horses, including Impending in the Caulfield Guineas, can get around the difficult circuit on Saturday.
Rory Hutchings wants to seize his opportunity on Veladero in the Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
The numbers aren't actually stacked up against super mare Winx in Saturday's Caulfield Stakes, only Black Heart Bart and He Or She are rivals, but history of small fields makes for unusual results.
Tiny race fields aren't necessarily a bad thing.
The 2016 spring carnival is pending and ready to take the back page.
To describe Caulfield trainer Stuart Webb as hands on is probably an understatement.
The Cox Plate has become racing's big blue with queen Winx to be challenged by Godolphin's Hartnell in a clash which invokes memories of great racing rivalries at Moonee Valley later in the month.
Canberra racing stalwart Barbara Joseph said she was "gobsmacked" to receive the Special Recognition Award at the NSW Country and Provincial Awards.
As debate swirls around the benefits or otherwise of having a field of just three in this year's $600,000 Caulfield Stakes, the possibility of approving the European practice of allowing stablemate pacemakers remains a distant prospect.
Thunder Fantasy is probably the best horse at Randwick on Saturday and will carry a good horse's weight of 63kg as he returns to racing after 18-month break.
The massive Godolphin racing operation have confirmed that last Sunday's impressive Turnbull Stakes winner Hartnell will not contest Saturday week's Caulfield Cup, and instead will go straight to the Cox Plate.
James Cummings knows how deep the talent pool runs with the three-year-olds this season, but he also knows he has a couple of extra good ones in Prized Icon and Good Standing.
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