There was a ray of sunshine to finish "a dirty day" for Sydney jockeys premiership leader Brenton Avdulla as Torpenhow closed his day a winner at Canterbury, but it was tempered by five-meeting careless riding suspension on Wednesday.
It's a measure of how much the Melbourne Cup has changed in the past couple of decades that a young stayer on the way up virtually has to win at group race level to even get a sniff of a place in the field.
The vision of Michelle Payne sweltering with only head and shoulders coming out of a stable dung pit, an accepted form of jockey weight reduction before pills and flash saunas, is hardly splendid. Obviously, it was also an appetite suppressive, a situation that created a month's suspension for the Melbourne Cup-winning hero.
As Darren Weir closes in on another extraordinary season of major winners and training records that may never be bettered, the trainer will next Sunday head to Warrnambool in a bid to win two of that sport's most important jumping features.
The winter doldrums of racing will be lit up by jockey premiership battles in Sydney and Melbourne for the next month, where the leaders Brenton Avdulla and apprentice Beau Mertens are under more pressure than the chasers.
Racing Minister Martin Pakula has to back the right horses when he announces appointments to a newly independent Racing Victoria board later this year.
For Jessie Constantine, one of the youngest horse trainers in Australia, to win her first race with her first starter in her home town of Casterton, it couldn't get any better.
It's not often that early in July Spring Carnival aspirants appear but there might have been an exception on Saturday at Caulfield.
Haualalai has been rated the best two-year-old at Tulloch Lodge this season, but it took until Saturday for him to show his talent as a racehorse.
Hugh Bowman has cut Brenton Avdulla's lead in the Sydney's jockey premiership in half in two meetings as he focuses on late charge for the title.
The recent examples of New Zealand stayer Yogi and Tiberian, tuning up in Europe for the Melbourne spring, prompted the spark that Australian racing rides on the back of syndicates.
Racing Australia chief executive Barry O'Farrell has welcomed changes to the Australian visa system, which will give the racing industry certainty for its skilled overseas workers.
John Thompson believes the challenge of black type racing will fit well with Invincible Knight in Saturday's Civic Stakes at Rosehill.
Since the beginning of the season Tulloch Lodge has had Hualalai near the top of its juvenile list, yet he is still not a city winner as July starts but that should be rectified at Rosehill on Saturday.
Very few horses can brag a winter strike rate such as Canberra visitor Clipper who makes her Victorian debut on Saturday.
For some, weight loss is always worth the agony. Michelle Payne's ban shows that jockeys are still struggling with an age-old problem.
Former NSW premier Morris Iemma will be charged with resurrecting the greyhound industry after landing the role as chairman of the state's governing body.
A master of apprentices, Ron Quinton doesn't just produce good jockeys, he produces good men.
Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne, who on Thursday was suspended for four weeks after testing positive to a banned substance, admitted to Racing Victoria investigators that she had used the drug to "maintain her weight level".
The lure of winter black type has champion Victorian trainer Darren Weir launching his biggest raid on Sydney on Saturday and a couple of wins could have consequences well into the future.
Joe Pride has timed the preparation of Destiny's Kiss to peak for Saturday's Winter Cup at Rosehill, but the top weight of 61 kilograms has left him feeling his planning might come to naught.
Not even the might of Chris Waller's exalted mare Winx could stop the 2016-17 Australian stallions' premiership going the way of Arrowfield Stud's Snitzel.
Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne has tested positive to a banned substance.
Tabcorp supremo David Attenborough has raised new questions about racing.com's promotion of corporate bookmakers, saying the broadcaster is undermining the funding of Victorian racing.
Bendigo racecourse had never been more silent in years than on Wednesday morning, as trainers and jockeys moved quietly about their business, not uttering anything of the events of the day before.
Godolphin and its former trainer John O'Shea will be back in front of Racing NSW stewards in August after an inquiry heard revelations about an unreported case of a horse in Australia's biggest privately-owned stable that had strangles last year.
Racing is a fashion game as much as a form game. On the track, not just in the grandstands and cocktail bars at carnival time.
Breeding champion gallopers has become an obsession for the Victorian studmaster over the past 20 years.
The Australia gambling market on racing is among the strongest and most diverse in the world but self interest, as always, plays a big role in what is the best way forward for the sport and betting.
The horse which became a viral sensation for an amazing charge to victory from last at its first start, may literally stop the internet this time by doing just that in a race.
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