• Michael Lynch
• 23 mins ago

There's an old saying in racing that all horses go fast past trees.

• Chris Roots

Harness Racing NSW chief executive John Dumesny says there will be racing at Newcastle Paceway for at least the next couple of years despite a proposed sporting precinct around Hunter Stadium not including a racetrack.

• Chris Roots

The success of the Highway series will be celebrated at Randwick on Everest day as the Anniversary Highway Handicap worth $200,000 will give country trainers a spring focus for their stable stars.

• David Polkinghorne

Norm Gardner says the $200,000 Anniversary Highway race will have country trainers checking their paddocks.

• Chris Roots

A long preparation has mellowed Heavenly Anna and has Kembla Grange trainer Kerry Parker convinced she is ready to run a mile at Warwick Farm on Saturday.

• Patrick Bartley

PUNTERS TREATED TO A DAY OF EXCITING FINALS

• Max Presnell

Ron Quinton is following in the Theo Green tradition, the knack developing jockeys that Bart Cummings had with Melbourne Cup winners, emphasised by Hugh Bowman and Andrew Atkins chasing this season's premierships.

• Patrick Bartley

A freak accident at Mildura has put Dean Yendall out of action at Flemington on Saturday.

• Chris Roots

Corey Brown has been the pin-up jockey for Godolphin since returning from Singapore and it is apt he could give its new trainer James Cummings his first winner in blue at Warwick Farm on Saturday.

• Michael Lynch

Three cases of depression have forced players to stand down by the halfway mark of the AFL season, with social media cited as a major contributing factor.

• Chris Roots

The Australian Turf Club and Racing NSW will share in a $1.725 prizemoney investment in a revitalised spring carnival that features a month of group 1 racing culminating with The Everest at Randwick on October 14.

• John Holloway

The most intriguing race worldwide this weekend takes place in the US with the running of the group 1 Belmont Derby Invitational over 1 miles on Saturday, featuring the reappearance of the Japanese-bred Yoshida.

• Chris Roots

Big races are hard to win but buying horses out of Japan might be tougher. Wyong trainer Kim Waugh has been able to achieve the later and now she has her sights set on a Newcastle Cup with Meiner Freccia, which returns at Warwick Farm on Saturday.

• Chris Roots

Port Macquarie trainer Jenny Graham and owner Dale Miller wanted to upgrade their racing stock when they headed to the Inglis Classic sale last year and Awesome Pluck was exactly the horse they were looking for.

• Chris Roots

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.

• Michael Lynch

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.

• COMMENT
• Max Presnell

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.

• Patrick Bartley

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.

• Chris Roots

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.

• COMMENT
• Patrick Bartley

Racing Minister Martin Pakula has to back the right horses when he announces appointments to a newly independent Racing Victoria board later this year.

• Patrick Bartley

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.

• Patrick Bartley

It's not often that early in July Spring Carnival aspirants appear but there might have been an exception on Saturday at Caulfield.

• Chris Roots

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.

• Chris Roots

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.

• Max Presnell

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.

• Chris Roots

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.

• Chris Roots

John Thompson believes the challenge of black type racing will fit well with Invincible Knight in Saturday's Civic Stakes at Rosehill.

• Chris Roots

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.

• Patrick Bartley

Very few horses can brag a winter strike rate such as Canberra visitor Clipper who makes her Victorian debut on Saturday.