TERRY Croft wasn’t confident Tides Turning would leave punters “beached” at home today – but wasn’t totally surprised either with her giant-killing performance. The $81 rank outsider of the seven-horse field, Tides Turning upset Kurrinda Bloodstock’s resuming $1.45 hotpot Gorgeous in the TAB Agents Association of NSW Class 1 Handicap (1000m). Hawkesbury trainer Croft and talented apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald aren’t strangers to winning races together, though of course no one

LIGHTLY-RACED Viewpoint emerged as Brisbane winter carnival material in making a successful return at Hawkesbury today. Ridden by Nash Rawiller, the $1.85 favorite was too classy for his rivals in the CG&E Benchmark 64 Handicap (1400m), giving Wyong’s Nacim Dilmi his 25 th winner in his first season as Domeland’s head trainer. Purchased by Domeland for $200,000 at the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter yearling sale, the Wootton Bassett three-year-old has now won two of his four

HIS stable name appropriately is “Frankie”, and he hit the right note for his new connections at home today. Hawkesbury trainer Marc Chevalier took a punt to buy The New Sinatra online for $12,000 nearly 12 months ago, and syndicated him amongst a group of owners, including wife Charlotte. The Russian Revolution five-year-old earned $21,000 for his “encore” in the Vale Beth Johnson Class 1 Handicap (1300m). With Tyler Schiller aboard, The New Sinatra ($8.50) defeated leading

HAWKESBURY trainer Steve O’Halloran isn’t getting his “knickers in a knot”! He is debuting a King’s Legacy filly named Camilla’s Knickers (Tyler Schiller) at home tomorrow in the Hahn Super Dry Provincial Maiden Plate (1100m), and clearly has a sense of humour. “I haven’t heard from King Charles III; I’m still waiting for the email to come through,” O’Halloran said this morning. O’Halloran paid $55,000 for Camilla’s Knickers at the 2024 Inglis Classic yearling sale, and syndi

A 19 th Group 1 triumph and a sixth Provincial-Midway Championships Final! And Kris Lees’ Cup may not have runneth over yet either. Having clinched a $2m Sydney Cup (3200m) victory with Changingoftheguard and $1m PMC Final (1400m) with Lord Of Biscay at Royal Randwick yesterday, the leading Newcastle trainer isn’t resting on his laurels. He has announced his intention to try to qualify Lord Of Biscay for another attempt at the $3m Big Dance (1600m) at Randwick in November, a

APPRENTICE Leeshelle Small’s impending link with Brad Widdup could not have got off to a better start. The New Zealand expatriate is soon to join the leading Hawkesbury trainer after a successful stint in the country with Scone trainer Rod Northam, and Widdup took the opportunity to book her for Bondi Blossom at Newcastle yesterday. Small’s 3kg provincial allowance came in handy as Bondi Blossom ($5.50) edged out Newcastle pair, Jason Deamer’s Rose Water ($18) and Kris Lees’

KEMBLA Grange trainers Kerry Parker and Joe Ible have both put aside “setbacks” in search of Group 3 Royal Randwick success on Saturday. With the Sydney autumn carnival curtain coming down, Parker has Flying Bandit ready to run in the JRA Plate (2000m) en route to the gelding defending his Listed Wagga Gold Cup crown, whilst Ible chases the Frank Packer Plate over the same distance with promising three-year-old Barrengarry. Rain last week ruined Parker’s hopes of getting to y

THE “‘private” is ready to step up in rank again, but the “lance corporal” is grounded. That’s the latest bulletin from the Kurrinda Bloodstock “army”. Kurrinda boss Sean Driver is looking forward to Private Harry’s dual Brisbane winter carnival targets, but understandably disappointed the star sprinter’s unraced younger half-brother Lance Corporal is injured and sidelined indefinitely. Last season’s Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) winner Private Harry trialled for the second time

KRIS Lees considers blinkers and an improved surface can present Changingoftheguard with a real chance to land tomorrow’s $2m Sydney Cup at Royal Randwick. As such he is surprised about the gelding’s current $51 quote for the 3200m Group 1 feature. “It was always the plan to put blinkers back on him for the Cup,” the leading Newcastle trainer said this morning. “I did that for the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington last November when he ran well to finish in the ‘top 10’, an

NACIM Dilmi goes to Royal Randwick tomorrow with a different type of “pressure” on his shoulders. But he is confident Matcha Latte is “spot on” to justify his firm favoritism tag and become the first horse to win two Provincial-Midway Championships Finals (1400m), with last year’s jockey Ash Morgan also getting the opportunity to play his part in the history-making bid. In his first season of training and with 24 winners already to his credit, including a Gosford double yeste

IT’S been more than 10 years since Jason Attard nearly “killed Bambi”! Well not quite the Hawkesbury trainer himself. Rather his 2015 Hawkesbury Gold Cup winner Sons Of John, who at $31 and with freshness in his legs, went within a whisker of upsetting the mighty Winx in the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens on September 12 that year. Defeat would have punctured the champion mare’s subsequent remarkable winning streak, which became only three that day and

IT was a profound decision! Three well-known Newcastle owners, including former Newcastle Jockey Club chief executive Maurice Sinclair, are well placed to win Saturday’s $1m Group 1 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Royal Randwick on Day 2 of The Championships. Sinclair, along with fellow Novocastrians Phil Tonks and Ian Burford, share in the ownership of last Saturday’s impressive Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m) heroine Profoundly. “Phil has a close connection with legendary former trai

THEY’RE like peas in a pod! Sold as yearlings in Sydney, they are both now four-year-old mares, were broken in at the same time, are stabled beside each other and work together, have trialled together, each won their first race only a week apart and have now won four each, and their prizemoney tally is eerily similar (only $700 difference). Meet the Oakfield “girls” Jupiter and Saturn. Wyong’s Damien Lane prepares the talented mares for owner Bruce Mackenzie – and they will r

JAKE Hull’s winning run with the stock of the stallion Red Henno seemingly knows no bounds! For the third time in the last nine days, the Gosford trainer successfully saddled a debutante by the sire – and the youngster was spectacular at Grafton today. Five-times winner Red Henno, a son of the multiple Group 1 winner Redoute’s Choice, is owned by Hull’s major client, Feale Park’s John O’Connor. Three-year-old Spectorious, well backed to start a $3 second favorite, blew the st

PROVINCIAL trainers Kris Lees (Newcastle) and Marc Chevalier (Hawkesbury) will be rivals in the chase for Group 1 glory at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Whereas the leading Newcastle trainer is looking for his 19 th victory at racing’s elite level in the $1m Australian Oaks (2400m) on Day 2 of The Championships, Chevalier is seeking his first. Lees will back up last Saturday’s Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m) placegetter Satono Invader, whilst Chevalier takes Stand My Ground

TWO decades have passed since country racing trail-blazer Sue Grills has started a horse at Hawkesbury. The highly respected Tamworth trainer is back there tomorrow with two runners for the metropolitan midweek meeting. Grills was on the road this morning with Somerton Smart and Crimson Bonnet (pictured), and has called on former Tamworth apprentice Siena Grima (now based in Sydney with leading trainer Chris Waller) to ride both, hoping for better fortune than her previous vi

WHEN you’re on a good thing, it’s cool so why change? That’s why Newcastle trainer Mark Minervini has found another suitable race at Wyong in the near future for He’s Cool, who won there on Saturday. The Rubick four-year-old, a $40,000 buy in the trainer’s native State (South Australia in 2023), clinched his second success at his 10 th start, in the Midway Class 1 Handicap (1100m). Ridden by Newcastle apprentice Will Stanley, He’s Cool ($5) defeated Wyong trainer Rod Bailey’

IT’S a sure bet John O’Connor will buy himself a carton of Dingle Gin this week! Gosford trainer Jake Hull challenged his major client to do so when his three-year-old filly Dingle Grey won her first race – and that happened at Wyong yesterday. Ridden by Newcastle apprentice Shannen Llewellyn, Dingle Grey ($4.80) was too classy for her 2 & 3YO Maiden Plate (1000m) rivals at only her second start. Dingle Gin is a premium Irish craft gin produced in the Dingle Distillery in Cou

NACIM Dilmi says Provincial-Midway Championships Final favorite Matcha Latte is ready to go following a “raceday experience” at Wyong on yesterday. The Wyong trainer took advantage of his home race club’s offer to gallop the gelding between races ahead of his attempt at history at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Matcha Latte took last year’s $1m Final (1400m) for fellow Wyong trainer Sara Ryan when she was Domeland’s head trainer, and no horse has won the annual feature twice sin

LIBERTY Smyth can lay claim to ‘riding the program” in just over three months of beginning her career as a jockey. The Gladstone born Central Queensland native, now indentured to Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle, won the first two races run at Tuncurry yesterday – and, as the saying goes, that was all she wrote. The remainder of the six-race TAB meeting was abandoned as a result of deteriorating track conditions. Tuncurry was downgraded early yesterday morning from a ‘Soft 6’ t