Horse Racing News
THANK goodness Black Caviar isn’t racing at Caulfield on Saturday. If she was lining up for her 20th consecutive win it would have taken some of the gloss of a high quality Sportingbet Oakleigh Plate. A full field of 18 have accepted for the 1100 metre dash and you can make a strong case for a lot of them. Heading the weights and the markets is star three-year-old Sepoy ($2.70 fav.) who has lost only once in his twelve runs to date with five wins from as many starts at Caulfield, including three from three over the 1100 metres. Of course the best of them was when he blew his rivals away in the 2011 Blue Diamond Stakes before going on to win the Golden Slipper. Barrier 11 is the widest he has yet drawn in a race but that shouldn’t be too much of a concern as he has…
IN racing these days the champions can earn their connections millions of dollars but for every one of them there are hundreds, maybe thousands of horses whose earnings don’t cover their costs – financially. However for some the rewards are not recorded in monetary terms but more in the lifestyle that they present. Harness trainer John Collins is a perfect example. John bred, owners, trains and drives veteran pacer Khans Gold who finished second last in the first race at Melton on Tuesday, nothing unusual about that. After all it was the 85th time the now 11yo has fronted the starter and he has won only one race (in September 2008) and he hasn’t run a place since May 2010. It continues a somewhat under-whelming record for the breed as his mother had 29 starts for no wins and his half-brother Yeah Alright won only one of 43 race starts.…
FLYING filly Samaready remains the hot pick for next Saturday’s Blue Diamond after drawing well when the final field was announced today. Unbeaten in her only two outings Samaready has drawn in barrier eight and will jump from seven if none of the emergencies get a run. Sportingbet have the daughter of USA sire More Than Ready at a tight quote of just $2.10 for the two-year-old classic on the strength of her fast win in the Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield on February 11. At her only other outing she was an impressive winner at Flemington in December. After her latest win her jockey Craig Newitt declared her as the best two-year-old he has been associated with. The only other runner under double figure odds is The Travelling Man who has been rested since he resumed with a smart all-the-way win over 1000 metres at Caulfield on Australia Day.…
THE second round of heats for the 2012 Inter Dominion has done little to sort out the three way logjam in the search for this year’s final winner. Superstar pacer Smokin Up, local champ Im Themightyquinn and New Zealand star Auckland Reactor remain unbeaten after winning their heats and that trio look to have the race between them. Edging slightly back into the mix was another Kiwi with Raglan benefiting from a more tactful drive from Anthony Butt when he led to win the first of four heats on Monday night. Raglan looked in danger of missing a spot in the final when he finished down the track last Friday after Butt allowed himself to get pocketed in going down the back straight and from there he never got a shot at them. But in a heat where Raglan ($1.80 fav.) ran back into contention another star was virtually eliminated…
THE 2012 Inter Dominion pacing championships got underway at Gloucester Park in Perth on Friday night with the farcical situation that we might know this year’s winner before we can be sure of last year’s winner. Amazingly we still don’t have a final result for the 2011 series which was “won” by Smoken Up in New Zealand last April. That “win” was eradicated when Smoken Up returned a positive swab to a substance named as dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) which shocked the horses trainer driver Lance Justice. At the time Justice declared he knew of the substance but had never used it. However a hearing last August found Justice guilty and apart from having the horse disqualified which resulted in the loss of $400,00 in stakemoney, the trainer/driver was fined $3500 and ordered to pay costs of more than $32,000. Justice appealed the decision and that hearing was held earlier this…
The world's number one racehorse, Black Caviar, is set to set to break even more records tomorrow at Flemington in the Group 1 - 1000m Coolmore Lightning Stakes. The Lightning Stakes is the only 1000m Group 1 race in Australia and is the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge. The 2012 Global Sprint Challenge will showcase 10 of the worlds most elite sprint races across six countries allowing those who compete a chance to win a US$1 Million bonus. Black Caviar pulled up sensationally after easily defeating the competition last Saturday at Caulfield in the 1400m CF Orr Stakes. Trainer Peter Moody was commented on the champions performance. "She has pulled up terrific and I am really happy with her," Peter Moody said. "She had a nice little gallop here this morning and then a swim in the pool and she looks great." "She'll take the lightning in her…
SMARTLY performed import Drunken Sailor will have to overcome a huge weight disadvantage against the rest of the field if he is to win the Mornington Cup but on quality he does look good value. Alloted 60kg., he is giving 5.5kg. to the next weighted horse Western Jewel with the rest of the 14 horse field all set the minimum weight of 54kg. Drunken Sailor was entered for last week’s Hobart Cup but his trainer Michael Moroney elected to bypass that race when the horse was lumped with 60.5kg. The Mornington race will be Drunken Sailor’s second start for Moroney after the Flemington trainer took over responsibilities for the horse from English trainer Luca Cumani who prepared him for his assault on the Melbourne Spring Carnival. In the two biggest staying races in Victoria Drunken Sailor ran a pleasing seventh in the Caulfield Cup before he was checked in the…
NSW harness racing has been rocked by the report that a horse prepared by leading trainer Luke McCarthy has returned a positive swab. McCarthy joins a long list of trainers under investigation after a tumultuous change in the Stewards panel late last year. A sample taken from McCarthy’s horse Mach Wiper has shown traces of the banned steroid boldenone. Harness Racing NSW issued a statement saying: “A report from the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory (ARFL) that boldenone, at a level greater than 15 micrograms per litre in urine, has been detected in a post race urine sample taken from MACH WIPER following its win in the NXFM Newcastle Cup (2550metres) run at Newcastle on 9 December 2011. The “B” sample and the control were sent to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Laboratory (HKJC) for confirmation, and the HKJC has today confirm the presence of boldenone in the post race…
