The Victoria Racing Club (VRC) yesterday announced a new Flemington tradition - the Harry White Whip trophy - to be awarded to the winning jockey of the Melbourne Cup each year.
When your dad is High Chaparral (IRE) and your mum is a full sister to Fastnet Rock, it’s not hard to think that a colt like this might be well above average.
Swettenham Stud has jumped the blocks with its two year-olds this season, the Victorian nursery earning black-type twice in the first two juvenile events of the season in Melbourne.
Stawell-based trainer Terry O’Sullivan bought Caulfield Cup starter Magnapal (Magnus x Luxapal) as a yearling from the 2011 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale for $70,000. The gelding has since delivered over $380,000 in his four years on the track for his owners, and with a chance to add $1,750,000 and take his total prizemoney to more than $2 million on Saturday, O’Sullivan doesn’t regret going over his usual budget at the sale.
Boom I Am Invincible colt Super One might have been rolled at Cranbourne on Sunday in his first Australian start after travelling from Singapore, but his sire has another rising star in the pipeline in the shape of Hellbent.
Scone trainer Rod Northam had a Muswellbrook double on Monday and will send out a handful at Gunnedah on Saturday, but he will be with Odyssey Moon in Melbourne in an attempt to lift the Caulfield Guineas trophy.
Outstanding sprinter Brazen Beau was declared Champion Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding at the Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards overnight, putting the icing on the cake of a stellar career for his racing connections including his large syndicate of owners, 36 of whom were in attendance at the event, trainer Chris Waller, and Ontrack Thoroughbreds’ Grant Morgan.
The Australian Cup and Blue Diamond Stakes will each get a $500,000 prize money boost to $1.5 million. Racing Victoria also announced on Tuesday the Newmarket Handicap would rise by $250,000 to $1.25 million and the Lightning Stakes and Australian Guineas from $500,000 to $750,000.
New Zealand trainer Murray Baker has provided an update on the progress of dual Derby winner Mongolian Khan ahead of his next start in Saturday's Group 1 Caulfield Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield.
A half-brother to smart stakes-winner Dublin Lass, promising Manhattan Rain gelding Mr Manhattan made it three wins from six starts when posting an eye-catching return from a spell at Warwick Farm on Monday.
Glorious conditions graced the Inglis Newmarket Complex in Sydney for the third The Star Ready2Race Sale, where a high quality catalogue of two and three-year-olds were sold to a geographically diverse buying bench both on-site and online. The day’s selling achieved a healthy clearance rate of 75% and an average of $69,174, with new record top price set of $540,000 for a well-related son of I Am Invincible.