Just when it seemed that the all-conquering Winx had a mortgage on a third Cox Plate, a talented overseas competitor has emerged that could well test the world's finest race mare. When nominations closed on Tuesday for
Winx is heavier than this time last year but her showing in a Randwick barrier trial win has Chris Waller confident the world's best horse on turf is as good as ever.
His jockey, British champion rider Jim Crowley, says he is "a motorbike" - a horse with serious pace and all the gears.
It was just a few lines in a stewards' report last week, but the embarrassing bungle of a horse being disqualified from a Gosford race a few days after it had won and bets paid out is not the first time something similar has happened in NSW in the past year.
Financial returns to the three codes of Victorian racing from its joint venture with TAB have dipped for the second successive year.
Corey Brown hobbled off the Kokoda Trail and then out of the winning stall after the Missile Stakes. If he was a horse, he might not have passed the morning vet check. Yet while the body might be slowing, the brain - and tongue - remains as sharp as ever.
The Golden Rose bubble has burst for a couple of highly touted Sydney colts, but it's very much intact for Shogun Sun.
The burning question at Flemington on Saturday was, would history repeat itself later in the spring after the imported Aloft was successful in the Nursery Handicap?
Sayed crushed his rivals to make it back-to-back wins since switching to Sydney.
Riverina trainer Wayne Sullivan has reluctantly launched groundbreaking legal action against Harness Racing NSW to recover rehabilitation costs and damages from potential lost earnings over a shocking incident involving his filly Jovial Rock in last year's Leeton Breeders Plate final.
Kris Lees doesn't doubt the effectiveness of his Missile Stakes duo Le Romain and Invincible Gem despite the prospect of unfamiliar racing roles back in the field in the Missile Stakes.
Racing NSW Country has unearthed a range of candidates as it searches to replacement outgoing chief executive Paul Weekes.
Henry Plumptre admitted a "serious bullying issue" clouded his judgement in the non-reporting of strangles condition.
Cobbie's gone but scratch the surface and there are still characters, the Carrot Cake Kid for instance, on the turf.
Crack Newcastle sprinter Le Romain returns to racing on Saturday at Randwick in the group 2 Missile Stakes and his record is hard to fault.
Tony Krushka had to wait 20 years to win as an owner-breeder the group 1 he should have won as a trainer.
The Godolphin jockey merry-go-round? Glyn Schofield doesn't say it in these exact words, but you sense he'd like to climb aboard and ride the carousel for as long as he can.
Not every Sydney sprinter is going to end up with a slot in the $10 million Everest - and that suits Gerald Ryan just fine.
With Aussie supermare Winx owning the Cox Plate, Canberra trainer Nick Olive will set Single Gaze for the Caulfield Cup.
Godolphin's former head trainer John O'Shea will be asked to answer a charge of giving false or misleading evidence to stewards while Sheikh Mohammed's ex-Australian boss Henry Plumptre also faces sanctions before the resumption of the strangles inquiry later this week.
They came in all shapes and sizes, ages and colours, they arrived in some very old horses floats and some very new trucks. People from across the racing world converged on Geelong racecourse on Tuesday morning for a horse's birthday with a difference.
Champion Canberra gelding Fell Swoop is raring to go ahead of the world's richest race on turf - The Everest.
Four-time premiership winner Hugh Bowman doesn't wear the Godolphin blue often, but don't be surprised if that changes a bit in the new season.
Hugh Bowman revealed his premiership prod came via a swipe from a Melbourne Cup-winning owner as he sealed a fourth premiership - then fell foul of stewards when losing a race on protest which will mean he starts the new season on the sidelines.
While strong gale force winds moved Racing Victoria stewards to post-pone Saturday's Caulfield race meeting, the flagship race on the programme the Bletchingly Stakes and supporting races may yet survive.
It was almost two years between drinks, but Shiraz vindicated Kim Waugh's patience when he broke through in the Winter Challenge at Rosehill.
Caulfield trainer Robert Smerdon is hoping that his late season rush of winners continues into the rich Spring Carnival.
Port Macquarie, Mudgee and Wagga Wagga are all big winners out of the new Country Championships schedule after Racing NSW announced prizemoney for the final will jump to $500,000.
With Jason Coyle having so many female jockeys winning races, it took me back to the era when females were shunned in the saddle.