![In a canter: Hugh Bowman (blue/white centre) rides Winx in her first 2018 appearance at Rosehill Gardens.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180123074128im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/l/y/t/4/image.related.wideLandscape.460x259.h0m00a.png/1516619727587.jpg)
Red carpets rolled out as Winx edges towards Apollo mission
Winx - racing's pin-up girl - doesn't seem to care that the world is watching, at least not judging by an effortless barrier trial on Monday.
Winx - racing's pin-up girl - doesn't seem to care that the world is watching, at least not judging by an effortless barrier trial on Monday.
The world's best horse on turf Winx has finished midfield in the first barrier trial of her autumn at Rosehill on Monday.
An explosion in the rift between head trainer James Cummings and Darren Beadman has led to the former champion jockey and group 1-winning trainer reportedly being stood down from his duties for a week by Godolphin.
The Snowden yard will start to roll out its autumn team this week starting with the stable's star, Redzel, taking on Winx in a Rosehill barrier trial on Monday.
Chris Waller has got used to the attention of having superstar Winx in the stable but admits it is a different feeling having Golden Slipper favourite Performer also at Rosehill barrier trials on Monday.
Warwick Farm trainer Matthew Smith and owner Frank Cook hatched a plan to train group 1 placed Faraway Town as sprinter this preparation and returned immediate results at Randwick on Saturday.
Champion trainer Chris Waller is still learning about the timing and effects of maturity in his horses and he was given another lesson when D'Argento continued his unbeaten record at Randwick on Saturday.
Australian Turf Club officials were quick to clear up an issue of a missing Golden Slipper nomination for impressive debut winner Estijaab on Saturday.
It was the win Soho Tribeca deserved and it was done in dominant and commanding fashion in the WA Pacing Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Formula One drivers and boxers might beg to differ, but if pressed to answer the question which is the most dangerous sporting profession in the world, many might answer "jockey". Not for nothing is it often pointed out that they are the only sportsmen and women whom an ambulance follows in the course of their performance.
Goulburn trainer Danny Williams is going to have a strong team for next month's Country Championships heat on his home track, but the evolution of the series will see him use it as a possible Doncaster springboard for Don't Give A Damn.
2017 was a tough year for Arthur and Charlotte Inglis, moving their Sydney horse-auction base while dealing with the death of their daughter Olivia.
Warwick Farm trainer Bryce Heys knew the hard nature of the racing game but has experienced it at its harshest as his group 1 sprinter Spieth moved on to Lindsay Park for its autumn preparation.
Ron Quinton has never been scared to give an apprentice a chance and James Innes jnr will be the latest to get an opportunity on evergreen sprinter Boss Lane at Randwick on Saturday.
To all breeders large and small the agonising reality that they have sold a young horse, not only under its right market price, but with the prospect the yearling itself could also go on and win millions of dollars in stakes, is a sensation only they endure.
Size does matter, particularly with Saturday fields, but its importance has declined with jockeys which was emphasised by Hugh Bowman last week.
The most interesting runner at Flemington on Saturday will be one of Australia's most promising sprinters, Nature Strip.
Champion trainer Chris Waller is looking for the next generation of his stable to come through and believes he has at least one group 1 three-year-old colt among Merovee, D'Argento, Paret and Al Mah Haha, which are scheduled to resume at Randwick on Saturday.
The Sydney apprentices ranks are strong. Andrew Adkins, Blaike McDougall, Lee Magorrian and James Innes junior all have their admirers, but it is the imports who could fight out the Sydney junior riding title this season.
Chief steward Jim Walsh is confident heat protocols will allow Thoroughbred Park's races to run as scheduled on Friday.
Ruling Symbol and Saint Antonio Lad were forward enough to make the first official barrier trials in September, but it has taken until January, a couple more trials and gear changes to get them to race day at Randwick on Saturday.
After one Australian sale – the Magic Millions Gold Coast extravaganza which thrilled huge crowds from January 10 to January 14 – a huge question has emerged: what prices will Snitzel and I Am Invincible stand for in the 2018 breeding season beginning in September?
He is the king of summer but at the ripe old age of nine, Destiny's Kiss is paying for his consistency with 61kg in his fourth Gosford Cup on Thursday.
It was on the eve of Savabeel's 2004 Cox Plate when the then Racing Victoria chief, Robert Nason, made the bold call that he would shut down the Spring Carnival if it meant he could get rid of Betfair.
In the past 12 months Luke Currie has won two group one races aboard the highly talented sprinter/miler Hey Doc as well as landing the biggest monetary prize of his career on Saturday when he took out the $2 million Magic Millions Two Year Old classic aboard Sunlight.
Despite having stood down leading trainers Robert Smerdon and Stuart Webb, pressure still remains on the beleaguered Aquanita training centre and its operations.
Jockey Matthew McGillivray should consider himself very fortunate to be only serving a month's suspension for the carnage he caused in the Magic Millions Classic.
Tony McEvoy has 10 weeks until the Golden Slipper and will sit down in the next couple of weeks and plot how to get Magic Millions winner Sunlight to the world's richest race for two-year-olds.
Greg Hickman took a call from Corey Brown about Pierata and Magic Millions day last November and it only confirmed what he thought of the Pierro colt.
A woman was arrested and taken to Southport watchhouse after trying to steal the horse ambulance on Magic Millions day on the Gold Coast on Saturday.