Apprentice Mikayla Weir didn't dare to believe she was riding in Sydney until the fields with her name next to Nic's Vendetta in Saturday's Highway Handicap appeared, but she got the whole fairytale with a victory that broke favourite backers' hearts.
The canny horseman in Hugh Bowman has played a key role in his late charge for the Sydney jockey's premiership title after he completed a winning double on Sayed and Liapari at Warwick Farm.
It's the unkindest cut of all, the ultimate gear change. But it must be said that a gelding operation has made a man of emerging sprinter Ability.
It was the perfect start to James Cummings' time as Godolphin's Australian trainer on Saturday.
There's an old saying in racing that all horses go fast past trees.
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.
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.
Norm Gardner says the $200,000 Anniversary Highway race will have country trainers checking their paddocks.
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.
PUNTERS TREATED TO A DAY OF EXCITING FINALS
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.
A freak accident at Mildura has put Dean Yendall out of action at Flemington on Saturday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.