• Chris Roots

The focus of the racing world will be the Gold Coast this week with the Magic Millions but it will quickly turn to Monday and Tuesday mornings in coming weeks as the stars including Winx return at the barrier trials.

• Chris Roots

In the first year former champion jockey Chris Munce has bought and prepared his own two-year-olds, he heads into Saturday's Magic Millions Classic with an unbeaten colt, Ours To Keep, and an unbeaten filly, Champ Elect.

• Chris Roots

Tim Clark could be more comfortable being the underdog heading to Magic Millions as Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott supply him with Invincible Star and dual group 1 winner Global Glamour to lift the Gold Coast features on Saturday.

• Chris Roots

The first week  of 2017 been good to Blake Shinn in way of winners, but tempered by a suspension, which he has appealed.

• Chris Roots

Glyn Schofield ran a lap of Warwick Farm to make weight on Dal Cielo and then used an old school South African trick to make sure the four-year-old bounded from the gates. When Dal Cielo got away with them his talent was always going to ensure victory.

• Chris Roots

There is not much of Chicago Bull but it did stop the talented four-year-old beating the older horses in the Fremantle Pacing Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

• Patrick Bartley

David Hayes' vast training operation took a tighter grip on some of Australia's most important two-year-old races after their high-class filly Catchy proved too dominant for her rivals in Saturday's Siggins Plate.

• Chris Roots

David Payne bought Colesberg at the Magic Millions last year, but there is no consideration of rushing to the Gold Coast next week after his strong debut win at Warwick Farm on Saturday.

• Eamonn Tiernan

Trainer Matt Dale confirms gelding Fell Swoop to make highly anticipated return in Melbourne next month.

• Max Presnell

During the wasting process Jack Thompson resembled a grasshopper while John Miller struck a praying mantis pose during their sauna sessions at the now defunct Giles Baths at Coogee.

• Adam Pengilly

Mathew Cahill or Matthew Dale is how Michael Travers remembers the Cowra Cup in recent years. But in the absence of both this year, who knows who will take out the $30,000 feature in the central west on Sunday?

• Patrick Bartley

 It seems the domination of two-year-old races by trainer David Hayes just gets stronger and Saturday's meeting at Caulfield will be no exception.

• Adam Pengilly

Wilf Mula remembers being told he was a hex. A sport that was supposed to bring people together had friends sidestepping him at sales and parade rings. Wonder what they would think now?

• Adam Pengilly

It's the $2 million question Gary Portelli has been asked all week, but will Michael Hawkes be the one who will answer it for him?

• Patrick Bartley

Nearly two years ago, members of the media, Racing Victoria executives and senior Seven West officials gathered in the boardroom of the network in Melbourne to announce the birth of racing.com.

• David Polkinghorne

The Black Opal Stakes is looking to lure punters from Singapore and New Zealand.

• Adam Pengilly

Toby Edmonds is hoping Sundance's main Summer Sprint rivals will be vulnerable fitness wise as the canny Gold Coast trainer plots a potential Magic Millions swoop via Warwick Farm.

• John Holloway

The performances of the progeny of Frankel were an outstanding feature of racing in 2016. The hype is about to land Down Under big time.

• Adam Pengilly

Racing Australia's contentious whip policy is having the final touches applied after an exhaustive review. But don't expect jockeys to have their use further restricted.

• Patrick Bartley

In a significant twist to the James McDonald betting inquiry senior NSW integrity officers are now hopeful that a pivotal witness may give evidence.

After being a late withdrawal at Randwick on Boxing Day, group 1-winning former New Zealander Dal Cielo is scheduled to head back to town for the Summer Sprint at Warwick Farm.

• Adam Pengilly

Pocket rocket Destiny's Kiss closed to within one more win of being a million-dollar marvel as the horse shunned in a sales ring and not big enough to be exported to Hong Kong continued to defy father time.

Lindsay Park senior trainer David Hayes may have been disappointed with Oscietra's third at her Flemington debut but he's happy in the knowledge the stable has two ready-made replacements.

• Michael Lynch

So you've bought this horse who could not be better connected. 

• Michael Lynch

For the sons and daughters of superstar sportsmen and women, living up the family hype and public expectation can be impossible.

• Adam Pengilly

As if there was any doubt about Winx's place on the world stage, there shouldn't be now after trainer Chris Waller and the two-time Cox Plate-winning heroine's connections were invited to rub shoulders with the world's best later this month.

• Michael Lynch

Tulips normally bloom in spring, but the filly of that name flowered in perfect style at Moonee Valley on a hot and summery New Years Eve twilight meeting that saw out 2016 and welcomed in 2017.

• Adam Pengilly

He shirked at initial attempts to put him into the gates, but Winning Rupert never gave his connections or punters cause for concern afterwards after landing a half-million dollar payday and smashing a track record at Eagle Farm.

• Adam Pengilly

Michael Hawkes thought "justice prevailed". He would have done well to take a straw poll of punters at Canterbury nearby. If their 2016 had been bad, they stumbled into the new year on their knees and with a headache long before the clock struck midnight.