HAWKESBURY’S leading trainer Brad Widdup is looking to talented colt Tenenbaum to lift his spirits at his home track’s biggest meeting of the year on Saturday. With stable star Jedibeel sidelined for an indefinite period following a doomed trip to Perth and likely requiring throat surgery, Widdup is keen to see Tenenbaum put himself in the frame for a Brisbane winter carnival mission by winning the St Johns Park Bowling Club 2YO Clarendon Stakes (1400m). A relatively new add

MY WISH WITH HODGE & THE MARSHALLS HE was born in a paddock at Duckenfield on Newcastle’s outskirts in the wee hours of a Friday morning in early October 2020. And though of course no one knew it at the time, that foaling of the little colt (later gelded) set the tone for a trio of Newcastle racing aficionados to breed a horse from a “third time lucky” mare who has now become a Hong Kong champion. Newcastle trainer Steve Hodge and close friends Brad and Fran Marshall are the

HAWKESBURY boss James Heddo has no doubt the lure of Big Dance eligibility has given the Group 3 Richmond Club Hawkesbury Gold Cup extra impetus. Hawkesbury Race Club will celebrate the 21st anniversary of this now very popular stand-alone metropolitan meeting on Saturday, with the $250,000 1600m feature headlining the 10-race program. A record total of 224 entries has been received (12 more than last year), with 23 horses nominated for the Gold Cup. “This is the third year o

THE ups and downs of racing! Jason Attard was thrilled to win a race at Gosford yesterday for a number of reasons. Not only was it the first time the Hawkesbury trainer had won a race at the track after many placings, but also on the 15th anniversary of his first winner; Reiby Grand at Bathurst on Anzac Day 2011. But the good news was tempered with the subsequent breakdown at Royal Randwick of his four-times winner Nesrine, who suffered a career ending injury. “Nesrine got a

THERE’S no better advertisement for the underrated stallion Red Henno than Gosford trainer Jake Hull. His last five winners have been progeny of Red Henno, the well-bred son of Redoute’s Choice and Kishkat, who won five of her only nine starts. Red Henno is owned by Hull’s major client John O’Connor, who is more than pleased to hear from owners contemplating sending their mare to his stallion. As former jockey Hull nears a career half-century in the training caper, his latest

TRAINING racehorses is more of a hobby these days for Steve Hodge. The experienced Newcastle horseman has a full-time job on his hands managing Newcastle Jockey Club’s equine swimming pool at Broadmeadow racecourse. As a result, he has only four horses in work and relishes the chance to attend country race meetings whenever possible. It was possible yesterday – and Hodge got the desired result with New Zealand-bred mare Incantress at the Kempsey non-TAB meeting. Ridden by Ben

THE probability is that she will be a Queensland Oaks candidate at Brisbane’s winter carnival. But first Wyong trainer Nacim Dilmi wants to get Monday’s Kensington public holiday meeting out of the way with his promising filly Probability Theory. Dilmi also accepted with Probability Theory in the 3&4YO Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Royal Randwick’s Anzac Day program tomorrow, but opted to wait a couple more days. Rachel King partnered Probability Theory for the first time

IT was a gold standard result of many colours! Not only did Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan win his first race with online buy Silk Lace at Newcastle yesterday, but the aptly-named filly also gave her managing part-owner Michael Atkins and apprentice Emma Ly a real boost. To put the icing on the cake, both Atkins and Ly are attached to Ryan’s stable. Long-time racing afficionado Atkins works for the trainer, and Ly is apprenticed to him. “Michael wasn’t working for trainer Gord

BRILLIANT Provincial-Midway Championships Final winner Lord Of Biscay heads bush tomorrow seeking to add the Tamworth Cup to his resume. And whilst victory would earn him another shot at the $3m Big Dance (1600m) at Royal Randwick in November, Kris Lees has an even more important earlier goal in mind for the gelding. That’s Brisbane’s feature sprint, the $3m Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 13. “We have to get there of course,” Lees said today. “But I

SARA Ryan has already won a feature Country Cup, and has set her sights on winning another tomorrow. During her successful tenure as Domeland’s head trainer, Wyong’s Ryan captured the 2023 Coffs Harbour Cup (1600m) with Attractable (pictured) en route to also snaring the $3m Big Dance over the same distance at Royal Randwick a few months later. Now training in her own right, she takes Phearson, a relative newcomer to her team, further afield tomorrow for the $200,000 Big Danc

THE “old firm” is back for Private Harry’s resumption at Eagle Farm on Saturday week. Hunter-based Kurrinda Bloodstock boss Sean Driver this afternoon confirmed jockey Ash Morgan’s booking for the $300,000 Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m). Morgan partnered the classy four-year-old in a solo exhibition gallop between races at Canterbury today, with Private Harry going 1000m in 66.53 seconds, and coming home his last 600m in 36.29s. He was unbeaten on Private Harry at his first f

THEIR odds were in stark contrast – but it mattered nought! Gosford’s Jake Hull with $1.40 hotpot Redzero and Wyong’s Shaun Harvey with $41 bolter Albanian Star ensured provincial trainers book-ended yesterday’s Taree program. Former jockey Hull made it 47 career wins, including 13 this season, when Redzero broke through in the Maiden Handicap (1007m) at her fourth start, whilst former Victorian Albanian Star’s first-up victory in the Benchmark 66 Handicap (1007m) gave Harvey

TRAINERS of beaten Provincial-Midway Championships Final runners Oakfield Jupiter and Harry’s Bar have set new goals. Both mares ran well in the $1m Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 11, finishing sixth at $11 and fifth at $31 respectively behind impressive winner Lord Of Biscay. Wyong trainer Damien Lane is aiming Oakfield Jupiter at the Group 3 $250,000 Hawkesbury Crown (1300m) at the metropolitan stand-alone meeting on Saturday week. Kembla Grange trainer Paul Murra

THERE were “consolation wins” of sorts yesterday for Kembla Grange trainers Kerry Parker and Joe Ible. Whilst both had winners at home, the news wasn’t as good at Royal Randwick. Parker had hoped to start Flying Bandit in the Group 3 JRA Plate (2000m) as a lead-up to defending his Wagga Cup crown, but the gelding was second emergency and didn’t make the field, and ironically Doctor Askar was a late withdrawal at the barrier. Ible’s promising young stayer Barrengarry ran fifth

SATURDAY October 17 will be a special day for Hawkesbury Race Club chief executive James Heddo. Courtesy of Kings Valley’s win in yesterday’s $300,000 Listed Mornington Cup (2000m), he now has a runner in one of Australia’s great handicaps, the $5m Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m). Heddo part-owns the gelding, who gained a “golden ticket” into the Cup. Ridden by Lachlan Neindorf, Kings Valley ($6.50) just edged out Pounding ($10) in an exact quinella repeat of the recent Bairnsd

SYDNEY Cup winner Changingoftheguard will chase further success with Melbourne and Brisbane features on the agenda. Leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees reports the gelding has come through his Group 1 3200m triumph at Royal Randwick a week ago in great order, and has decided to keep him in work. “Changingoftheguard is a rising eight-year-old, and there are some nice staying races coming up in autumn and early winter,” Lees said today. “There is the Listed Andrew Ramsden (2800

HE is Gosford’s oldest trainer, has won Group 1s and has only one horse in work! It might not be another at racing’s elite level, but still he has a special target in mind; winning a race at his home track’s Saturday stand-alone meeting next month. Neil Ward, 78 years young (he’ll be 79 in August), says it would be very rewarding if he was able to do that with Stratafy, with whom he has won four races. That fourth success came at Wyong yesterday when Stratafy ($2.30) lived up

DUAL Summer Cup winner Tavi Time resumes at Royal Randwick tomorrow en route to another Cups hunt. Group 1 Sydney Cup winning trainer Kris Lees has booked stable apprentice William Stanley to offset the gelding’s 62.5kg topweight by 3kg in the Benchmark 100 Handicap (1400m). And he says he is happy with Tavi Time’s progress, with two recent trials to prepare him for his resumption. “Tavi Time is coming up nicely, and can run well fresh,” he said this morning. “All going well,

PAUL Perry isn’t looking back! Nonetheless the legendary Newcastle trainer has the “Choisir connection” on side to hopefully hoist him back into the Group 1 winning list at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Perry has booked Hong Kong-bound Melbourne jockey Ethan Brown for bargain buy Don’t Look Back in the $1m Champagne Stakes (1600m). The final Sydney two-year-old Group 1 race of the season in fact provided him with his last major success; The Mission ($9) in 2017 after the colt e

BRAD Widdup flies to Perth today to saddle his first ever Western Australian runner in Saturday’s $5m The Quokka at Ascot racecourse. Hawkesbury’s leading trainer says his stable star Jedibeel fitted the bill when Trackside NZ/Perth Racing was looking for a Kiwi-bred horse to represent their slot. The Quokka, the richest race to be run anywhere in Australia at the weekend, is in its infancy being first run in 2023 and is staged along similar lines to Sydney’s $20m The Everest