KRIS Lees has a decision to make whether to split his Queensland Oaks candidates Crathie Kirk and Erin Jo (pictured) at the weekend - or keep them together. Both fillies have been entered for a 3 & 4YO Benchmark 68 Handicap (1800m) at Friday night’s National 2YO Classic meeting at the Gold Coast, and the traditional Oaks lead-up, the Group 2 The Roses (2000m) at Doomben on Saturday. “At this stage I will accept in both races with the pair and then look at fields, barrier draw

KRISTEN Buchanan was happy to be proven wrong at Port Macquarie yesterday. The Wyong trainer chalked up career win number 338 when Thunder Lights (pictured above at Randwick) broke through impressively at his eighth start. Given a flawless ride by Newcastle apprentice Shannen Llewellyn, Thunder Lights ($2.45 favorite) revelled in the wet ground to trounce his rivals in the Maiden Plate (1509m), scoring by a widening four and a half lengths. Buchanan purchased the All Too Hard

THE words of Newgate Farm managing director Henry Field were ringing in his ears! It turned out prophetic advice when Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan achieved a career milestone at Scone’s metropolitan meeting yesterday, clinching a breakthrough stakes triumph – and with a $151 bolter to boot. Ryan’s Queen Regent, ridden by his close friend Jay Ford, powered past her rivals in the Listed Woodlands Stakes (1100m) for two-year-old fillies at only her second start. Ryan revealed F

KOIOS’ overdue breakthrough at Kembla Grange yesterday had a special touch to it. Notwithstanding the fact that there had been a gap of 15 months between the five-year-old gelding’s first and second wins, his trainer Nacim Dilmi had an interesting tale to relate. Koios, a son of 2017 Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap winner Impending, fetched $200,000 when secured by Domeland as a 2022 Inglis Premier yearling in Melbourne. His dam is the Shamardal mare Shamalia – and that’s where t

DAMIEN Lane’s training skills were there for all to see at Scone’s metropolitan stand-alone meeting yesterday. The Wyong-based horseman had targeted the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1700m) with Oakfield Saturn on the back of a five weeks’ break - and, assisted by a superb Aaron Bullock ride, burnt her rivals with a dominant display. Lane posted career winner number 334 with the four-year-old daughter of American Pharoah, who had not raced since finishing unplaced in the $1m

KRISTEN Buchanan says she nearly cried when she found out her Queensland Derby hope Tambeloa’s barrier draw for his return to Brisbane tomorrow. But the certainty of a wet track has tempered the Wyong trainer’s disappointment for the colt’s Doomben mission.. Tambeloa drew barrier 19 for the Group 3 Rough Habit Plate (2000m); the traditional lead-up for three-year-olds to the $1m Group 1 Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm in a fortnight. A capacity field of 16 plus five emergencies w

TOMMY Wong is hoping he doesn’t lose his debut home track winner to Hong Kong, whilst Brad Widdup was simply relieved to get a maiden victory done with Escargoes. Between them, Dashing Splendour ($160,000 in Adelaide) and Escargoes ($280,000 in Sydney) cost $440,000 as a yearlings – and kept the local flag flying at today’s Hawkesbury meeting. Dashing Splendour (Louis Beuzelin) at $13 upset another debutante, Newcastle youngster Slander ($3.20 favorite) in the 2YO Maiden Plat

IT may have been the unkindest cut of all – but it’s turned I Am Carrot into a racehorse. And a very promising one at that. A Brisbane winter sojourn is now on the agenda for the three-year-old following a city breakthrough at the Kensington track yesterday. Ridden by Jason Collet, I Am Carrot won the Graduation Benchmark 68 Handicap (1300m) against his own age run under special conditions. It was his third victory from eight starts, and his Wyong trainer Nacim Dilmi’s 30th i

KRIS Lees says he can’t fault Tavi Time ahead of attempting back- to-back Scone Cup wins tomorrow. The $1m plus earner can become only the second horse this century to win the $200,000 Big Dance eligibility Listed Cup (1600m), after Brave Prince was successful in 2000-01. Whereas Brave Prince carried 60kg in both wins, Tavi Time scored with 56.5kg last year and now rises to 59kg topweight. “Racing is a good leveller, but Tavi Time is going well and his profile is similar to l

MICHAEL Freedman has held off making a decision as to whether favorite Our Huntress will attempt to break through for her first win at Hawkesbury tomorrow. But the Royal Randwick trainer didn’t have to ask twice for James McDonald make the trip to the provincial track for one ride should he give the “green light” for the filly to line up in the Gremmo Hones/IMSGlobal Super Maiden Handicap (1100m). The champion jockey’s wife Katie is a part-owner of the lightly-raced three-yea

SYDNEY Cup winner Changingoftheguard won’t be the only provincial representative in Saturday’s Melbourne Cup “free ticket” feature at Flemington. Multiple Group 1 winning Kembla Grange trainer Kerry Parker has decided to also start Flying Bandit (above) in the $300,000 Andrew Ramsden (2800m). The Listed event provides the winner with exemption from ballot for the $10m Melbourne Cup (3200m) at the same track on November 3. Parker was understandably pleased with Flying Bandit’s

JAKE Hull undoubtedly has a “soft spot” for Quirindi! He went back there yesterday to the track where he got the last winner of his riding career. The result was the same – but this time on the other side of racing’s fence as a trainer. Gosford-based Hull, who is making as great fist of his training venture, led in his 48th winner when lightly-raced filly Dingle Grey (pictured) took the Class 1 Handicap (1200m) to make it two wins from only four starts. Ridden by Luke Rolls (

A whopping 563 nominations have laid the platform for another bumper two-day Scone Cup carnival on Friday and Saturday. “Terrific entries indeed; it’s a great start to Cup week,” Scone Race Club chief executive Jason Hill said this afternoon. “All we want now is for those entries to translate to full fields on both Friday and Saturday.” A half-day holiday on Friday will ensure a big crowd, and Saturday’s meeting is a metropolitan stand-alone fixture. Two hundred and thirty-ni

GEOFF Allendorf wound back the clock at Kembla Grange last Saturday. It was fitting that the now Wyong-based trainer should have his first local runner at a track where he rode many winners, including the 1985 Brambles 2YO Classic on then buddling topliner Myocard, who broke the 1200m track record, and subsequently won the Group 1 Australian Derby (2400m) at Royal Randwick. Kembla Grange also was the scene of his last Australian ride as a jockey when he won a Class 2 Handicap

IT’S all tied up tied at the top! The 2025-26 racing season is now three-quarters of the way through – and two stables are presently vying for the honour of becoming Illawarra Turf Club’s premier local trainer. Kerry Parker and co-trainers Mitch Beer and George Carpenter have prepared 12 winners each so far this racing year. Multiple Group 1 winner Parker went two clear when successful with All The Way Mae (above) yesterday, but Team Beer “fired” back to win two races and dra

KRISTEN Buchanan was expecting a “hellova” day at Kembla Grange yesterday. It was that – but not quite in the way she had anticipated. The Wyong trainer was disappointed when her $1.75 hotpot Gravel Road hit the skids and finished fifth in the Class 1 Handicap (1000m). But at least she didn’t return home empty-handed, winning the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m) with another favorite, Hellova Nature ($2.80). With Jess Taylor aboard, Hellova Nature broke through for his third car

HE smashed ‘em – and how! Forget the Listed Takeover Target Stakes or the Benchmark 78 Handicap at Gosford’s metropolitan stand-alone meeting yesterday. Kembla Grange four-year-old Smashing Time put the winners of those two races in the shade when he blistered over the 1200m of the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1200m) in new track record time. Ridden by Adam Hyeronimus, the Australian Bloodstock-raced Smashing Time ($6.50) clocked 1:08.80 in an all-provincial finish, eclipsin

PRIDE Of Jenni’s jockey Declan Bates will be a new rider for Changingoftheguard at Flemington on Saturday. Trainer Kris Lees has confirmed Bates’ booking for the Sydney Cup winner in the $300,000 Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes (2800m). The Ramsden will be run at set weights, and the winner automatically gets a “free ticket” into the $10m Melbourne Cup (3200m) at the same track on November 3. Changingoftheguard, who finished in the “top 10” in last year’s Melbourne Cup, will be

KRIS Lees hunts a third Gosford Gold Cup tomorrow – but the first at the now annual Saturday metropolitan stand-alone meeting. And Newcastle’s leading trainer is pinning his main hopes on Group 1 winner You Wahng measuring up, and clinching a trip north for winter targets. Lees, who won the Cup in 2015 with Oriental Lady (Brenton Avdulla) and then three years later with Singing (Glyn Schofield) - both were raced by Australian Bloodstock syndicates - before the race became an

DYLAN Gibbons is on the doorstep of a career 500 winners and can edge closer with good rides in two of Gosford’s features at tomorrow’s metropolitan stand-alone meeting. The born and raised Novocastrian, who now calls Sydney home, is only seven short of that milestone and has worked hard to establish himself in the riding ranks in town – and is getting just rewards. With 81 winners so far this season (32 in town), he sits sixth on the State premiership table. Gibbons relocate