Cox Plate winner Ocean Park’s quest for international glory began poorly on Saturday night as he ran a flat 12th in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free (1800m) behind Godolphin mare Sajjhaa. Sajjhaa won comfortably from Mike de Kock’s The Apache, with French mare Giofra third. The Godolphin mare had… Read More »
Shea Shea proved himself one of the world’s emerging sprinters with a dominant performance in winning the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint (1000m) at Meydan, smashing his own track record in the process. The Mike de Kock-trained galloper came down the centre of the track and proved too strong for… Read More »
Cavalryman returned to his best form with a slashing win in the Group 3 Dubai Gold Cup (3200m), ensuring Godolphin remain the only owners to win this race in its short history. The son of Halling showed an electric turn of foot, coming from the rear of the 10 horse… Read More »
The Dubai World Cup is racing’s unofficial world championships, a chance for horses from all nations to compete for ridiculous prizemoney at the world’s most lavish and opulent racecourse. Tonight’s card features a number of horses with Australian links – every race from the third onwards has at least one… Read More »
Australia and New Zealand are expected to have scarce representation in Dubai this year, following the release of nominations for Dubai World Cup night.
Tomorrow marks the end of 2012, which – it is safe to say – has been one of the more dramatic racing years on record. There have been some remarkable highs and some incredible lows, some fantastic feel-good stories mixed in with more than a whiff of controversy. We wanted… Read More »
Her Majesty The Queen is set to have her first horse permanently based in Australia – Carlton House.
Punters around Australia will be scrounging for every available cent while bookmakers rejoice: it’s a typical scenario following a forgettable Melbourne Cup Carnival from a wagering perspective. Data obtained from SuperTAB confirms what every punter already knew – the 2012 Melbourne Cup Carnival was nothing short of lamentable for those having… Read More »
The South Australian Derby winner who was one of the most promising staying three year olds last preparation. Outside of him and Ethiopia, the crop hasn’t really stood up, but both of them look good stayers. This time last year, he was still a maiden who had just run fourth… Read More »
The Lexus Stakes winner. An English import who only had two starts in the United Kingdom before being purchased by Chris Waller for Australia. He won his first start in Australia over 1250m at Canterbury last September and he’s emerged as a promising stayer since then. Amazingly, he started the… Read More »
Group 1 winner at a mile and a half in the United States who came here in the spring of last year as an eight year old. It was hard to believe he could still be competitive, given he was well worn, but he showed some good form – a… Read More »
This is the third Melbourne Cup for Precedence, after finishing eighth in 2010 and 11th last year. He probably hasn’t been at his best for about 18 months, although his run last year was actually quite admirable given he pulled his way to a clear second and was left a… Read More »
I’m sure plenty of the once a year punters – in particular, the women – will be on this one. Not only does she have a great name, but she is trained by Peter Moody, who is better known as the trainer of champion mare Black Caviar. Luckily for them,… Read More »
French import who’s joined Mick Kent, one of the shrewdest trainers around. I’m a huge fan. But he’ll need to be extremely shrewd if he is to get a Melbourne Cup win out of Tac de Boistron. A horse who took a long time to work through the grades, he’s… Read More »
Nicola Matthews is your average Australian. An 18 year old from Canberra, she will be having her first bet on the Melbourne Cup this year – despite her protestations that she doesn’t know how to bet. Every year, all manners of experts come out of the woodwork and declare a… Read More »
Lloyd Williams import who was a beaten favourite in the Cox Plate last week. Prior to that, he’d finished fifth in the Memsie Stakes and second in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes before winning the Turnbull Stakes. He was especially impressive in the Turnbull Stakes, hence why he started… Read More »
Ethiopia’s the big query of the field. This time last year, Ethiopia hadn’t even set foot on a racetrack. In fact, he didn’t have his first start until February this year, so it has been a very quick ascension for him. He’s very lightly raced, having only had the seven… Read More »
My early Melbourne Cup tip, back in July, who has not run since a good win in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes in August. I still remember seeing him win first up at Newmarket while I was in a Singapore bar with Racing Victoria’s international scout Leigh Jordon. He declared then… Read More »
Forget the horse. The story, if Cavalryman were to win, would not have anything to do with the horse. No, the story would be Frankie Dettori and the fact he has finally won the Melbourne Cup at his final ride as Godolphin’s stable jockey. That’s of incredible significance – Frankie… Read More »
Italian Group 1 winner who is one of two runners for Black Caviar’s trainer Peter Moody. He is bound to be popular with the once a year punters because of his French name and because he is a stunning looker – a cracking grey. He made a good impression upon… Read More »
