UNLUCKY weekend Group 1 runner-up Jedibeel is headed for a $5m mission in Western Australia. Leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup today revealed that the gelding’s connections have secured a slot in WA’s richest race, The Quokka, at Perth’s Ascot racecourse on April 18. The 1200m Quokka is run at weight-for-age along similar lines to Sydney’s The Everest. Jedibeel is raced by Mike Gregg, his grandson Lachie Sheridan and Gregg’s Mulberry Racing. The six-year-old gelding came

HAWKESBURY Race Club chief executive James Heddo was in the winning list at Orange yesterday with a filly he part-owns. The Biv, carrying the familiar colours (green and white diagonal stripes) of Gosford’s Cusick family, broke through for leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup in the Maiden Plate (1000m) at only her third start – and first since October. Ridden by Chad Lever, The Biv ($3.40) wasn’t the quickest away but quickly burnt through to share the lead on the inside w

FAVORITE Matcha Latte will trial at Newcastle’s Beaumont track on Tuesday, and Kerrin McEvoy has secured the mount on yesterday’s Kembla Grange Qualifier winner Midnight Opal. They are the latest developments in the lead-up to the $1m Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 11. Matcha Latte’s Wyong trainer Nacim Dilmi this morning confirmed he would trial the gelding at the Beaumont track rather than Hawkesbury tomorrow, whilst Newcastle train

DAMIEN Lane has created rather unusual Provincial-Midway Championships history by qualifying two “Oakfield” horses for a third time in the $1m Final. The Wyong trainer had already qualified last month’s Newcastle runner-up Oakfield Jupiter for the April 11 feature at Royal Randwick, and added Oakfield Saturn (widest runner above) to his Final team when she also finished second in yesterday’s Kembla Grange Qualifier (1400m). Oakfield Saturn ($8) finished strongly wide out on t

JOE Ible hoped he had secured a bargain with his only purchase at the 2024 Inglis Ready2Race sale. Now he knows he has. The Kembla Grange trainer burst back into the city winning list for the first time in just over two years when his talented three-year-old Barrengarry (Zac Lloyd) took the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1500m) at Rosehill Gardens yesterday at only his fourth start. Ible paid $10,000 for the now gelded son of Godolphin’s 2020 European Horse Of The Year Ghaiyya

KRIS Lees has placed a ‘Heavy 8’ limit on Lord Of Biscay chasing a second Provincial-Midway Championships Final berth, at Kembla Grange tomorrow. Runner-up to Wyong’s Matcha Latte in last year’s $1m Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick, Lord Of Biscay (who races in a tongue tie for the first time) can clinch a rematch by either winning or running second in the fifth Qualifier (1400m). “If it is no worse than the current Heavy 8 rating, he will run,” the leading Newcastle trainer s

DAMIEN Lane has confirmed Jason Collett’s booking for Oakfield Jupiter in Royal Randwick’s Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m). And whilst Collett will be chasing his third success in the $1m feature, to be run on the second day (April 11) of The Championships, the Wyong trainer is hoping to clinch a second qualifier at Kembla Grange tomorrow. Oakfield Saturn ($12 with TAB.com.au on Friday morning) will represent Lane in the fifth Qualifier (1400m), and stable appr

BLAKE Ryan has never had a runner in the Provincial-Midway Championships – and it wasn’t on the cards that would change this year either. However, the Hawkesbury trainer is ready to break his duck and “have a crack” with Strawberry Impact in Saturday’s fifth Qualifier at Kembla Grange. The first two placegetters in the 1400m event for eligible provincial-trained horses only will join eight others already guaranteed spots – courtesy of the first four Qualifiers at Hawkesbury (

KERRY Parker has delayed a decision as to whether his Wagga Cup winner Flying Bandit will chase another Cup at Albury tomorrow. But the Kembla Grange trainer is leaning toward keeping the gelding at home, and waiting another week for a feature race at the Sydney autumn carnival. Jay Ford, who has been partnered Flying Bandit in all six career wins including last May’s Listed Wagga Cup (2000m), has been booked for the $200,000 Listed Albury Gold Cup over the same distance. “I’

EVERY owner gets a huge “kick” when their horse wins his or hers first race. But those involved with Private Harry’s kid brother Lance Corporal will be absolutely “over the moon” – and understandably so – if he can break through in the coming weeks. He was purchased for $100,000 as a 2024 Inglis Classic yearling prior to “Harry” later that year launching his racing career and winning his first five starts, culminating with the Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens 12

MARC Chevalier is standing his ground! The Hawkesbury trainer’s second winner in six days has him in a buoyant mood to test lightly-raced filly Stand My Ground in Group 1 company at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday week. Chevalier followed his victory with Stand My Ground at Newcastle last Thursday by scoring with The Iron Star in the 4YO & Up Maiden Plate (1500m) at his home track today, with Everyone’s A Star’s excellent second at Rosehill last Saturday in between. With the sta

JASON Attard’s horses have been “in the pink” in recent months, and he’s hoping that good form continues at his home track tomorrow. The Hawkesbury trainer, enjoying a great season with 12 winners so far, has four runners and considers the lightly-raced Dwight (Peter Smith Memorial 3YO Maiden Handicap, 1300m) the best of them. But whilst the Unite and Conquer three-year-old, seemingly named after the late US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, will race in the same hot pink colou

ONCE bitten, twice shy! Kembla Grange trainer Paul Murray is taking no chances with Harry’s Bar, who qualified for the $1m Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 11 by finishing second in yesterday’s fourth Qualifier (1200m) at Gosford. Understandably, Murray would dearly love to emulate his legendary late father Bede, who won the inaugural Final in 2015 with Sure And Fast, and Harry’s Bar races in the same colours. Even more so as he was dev

WILL it be this year? Wyong trainer Kim Waugh’s victory with Mogul Monarch in yesterday’s fourth Provincial-Midway Championships Qualifier (1200m) at Gosford meant she has qualified at least one runner for every $1m Final since the annual race’s inception in 2015. Yet she is still to win one. Ridden by Wyong apprentice Anna Roper, Mogul Monarch ($19) ran right up a recent blistering home track trial victory by defeating Kembla Grange trainer Paul Murray’s gallant Harry’s Bar

BRAD Widdup will have both another Group 1 crack at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, and attempt to qualify his first runner for the Provincial-Midway Championships Final. The leading Hawkesbury trainer’s flag-bearer Jedibeel will contest the $1m Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m), whilst stablemate Hyperbolic will chase a PMC Final spot in the fifth Qualifier (1400m) at Kembla Grange. Whilst Widdup missed out on the Group 1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) at Rosehill yesterday with $4.20 favo

SYDNEY or the bush? Newcastle trainer Scott Aspery opted for the latter yesterday – and as a result he will be at Royal Randwick on the first Tuesday in November. The fact that the Armidale Cup (1400m) carried eligibility for the $3m Big Dance (1600m) at Randwick was enticing enough to head to the country with Uzziah rather than run in the Benchmark 88 Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens today. “I had never been to Armidale, but was aware it is a tricky track,” Aspery said t

PREMIERSHIP front-runner Kerry Parker said Well Timed’s last gasp victory at Kembla Grange yesterday gave him a “good feel”. It wasn’t only because the gelding returned to winning form, but also that he had won the A J ‘Bert’ Lillye Memorial Handicap (1200m) at his home track’s feature Kembla Grange Classic meeting. Lillye, the legendary Sydney racing journalist and Australian Media Hall of Famer, who died in February 1996 at 76 years of age, also served a lengthy period as a

KRIS Lees has switched gear on You Wahng for another Group 1 mission at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow. But the leading Newcastle trainer admits the barrier draw and apparent lack of pace in the $1m Coolmore Classic (1500m) has dulled his hopes of an upset victory. Dylan Gibbons will ride last year’s Queensland Oaks heroine, who has been freshened since a gutsy second to Snitzanova in another $1m feature, the Magic Millions Trophy (2200m) at the Gold Coast on January 17. Lees has

THE best laid plans went astray the first time – but not the second time! Hawkesbury trainer Marc Chevalier has travelled near and far to win a $100,000 Inglis Xtra Bonus race with lightly-raced three-year-old filly Stand My Ground, and was rewarded when she put the icing on the cake with a Newcastle Super Maiden victory today. And Chevalier’s Hawkesbury compatriot Steve O’Halloran followed later in the program by scoring with $26 roughie Benamera, sporting the well-known col

MULTIPLE premiership-winning Kembla Grange trainers Rob and Luke Price weren’t far off landing their home track’s fillies classic in 2024 with runner-up Our Gold Hope. Two years on the father and son team has taken a line through their subsequent Group 1 Queensland Oaks second placegetter to be in an excellent position to go one better tomorrow with Aisle Two in the $250,000 Group 3 Kembla Grange Classic (1600m). Team Price ran Aisle Two in the same lead-up race – a 3YO Filli