News

Good ones remind us what's so great about racing

9th Aug 2009

Sydney Morning Herald - Craig Young - Monday, 10 August 2009

THERE'S nothing like thoroughbred horsepower to set the heart racing. Off-track dramas continue with bitter battles on several fronts. Racing's financial income streams, club mergers and such are creating chasms, but not to worry. The good horses are on the way back.

Spring is fast approaching and with it new equine stars will emerge to compete with the proven.

Debate will rage about which four-legged animal is best. Who'll win the Melbourne Cup? The Cox Plate? Will a three-year-old emerge and dominate? Will the Golden Slipper and Magic Millions winner Phelan Ready return to the highs of last season? Will two-year-old burnout come against the Queenslander? So much to look forward to.

You had to be impressed with a warrior named El Segundo at Flemington on Saturday.

Burdened with 63.5 kilograms, the Cox Plate winner of two years ago returned with a slashing performance. The eight-year-old has suffered all manner of leg problems but their management is a credit to astute horseman Colin Little.

El Segundo charged home from the rear to finish third behind rising star Mic Mac, a stablemate and trackwork sparring partner of one-time sprinter of the year Apache Cat. Mic Mac emerged at the back end of last year. A winning streak of five victories came to an end in the group 1 Randwick Guineas in March.

The Greg Eurell-trained gelding was returning on Saturday and taking on the older horses for the first time. The Aurie's Star Handicap triumph has Eurell thinking Cox Plate. So, too, Little and it is worth noting El Segundo was giving Mic Mac 8kg in the Aurie's Star.

At Randwick you left wondering if Murray's Sun can claim a feature. The Dubbo dasher rattled home to claim the final race. Murray's Sun is a feelgood yarn. Trainer Bridget Jones parted with $900 for the now gelding as a weanling. It has won nine of 15 starts and is a six-year-old with untapped ability.

The meeting at headquarters was a triumph for Rosehill trainer Chris Waller. He claimed the feature, the San Domenico Stakes, with Shellscrape, which raced nine times as a two-year-old. No signs of burnout when he tore away from rivals. Waller's just not sure where this colt will end up.

Waller is on the move - he finished third in the Sydney trainers' premiership behind heavyweights Gai Waterhouse and Peter Snowden last season - and the Kiwi is eyeing off The Metropolitan with Voice Coach, another galloper Waller found in Britain. Voice Coach blew away rivals for the second week in a row. Jockey Corey Brown is talking Caulfield Cup.

And you had to be taken with Tuesday Joy, the mare owner-breeder John Singleton named with the Melbourne Cup in mind. She strolled around in an exhibition gallop between races. Waterhouse has one race in mind: the one that stops a nation. The campaign cranks up with Tuesday Joy trialling at Wyong on Friday.

Yes, the thoroughbred stocks are cranking up. Phelan Ready put paid to rivals in a couple of bounds at the Randwick trials last Friday. The three-year-old is down to run in Saturday's Premiere Stakes at Rosehill.

Another trial winner was Singo's and Waterhouse's filly More Joyous.

She created any number of headlines back in the autumn. Just how good is this filly? Can't wait to find out.

And her stablemate Manhattan Rain, which finished third in the Golden Slipper, was no match for Phelan Ready in the trial but the colt is some 50kg heavier. That's a huge horse.

Bart Cummings also sent around the AJC Australian Derby winner Roman Emperor. And so many more are out there being groomed and finetuned.

How good is that?