JOE Ible never got the chance to take a two-year-old filly named Shalidor he really liked to the races. Before she had the opportunity to strut her stuff, the Tassort youngster was kicked in a paddock, picked up an infection and died. Shalidor’s owners, having bred the filly and knowing how much the Kembla Grange trainer thought of her, gave him the younger full sister to train. Racing as Spice Baby, the three-year-old filly put the seal on Ible’s best week of the season so f

THEY’RE all entitled to an off day! Leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup was at a loss to explain Tequila Baby’s defeat at Warwick Farm a fortnight ago. But the four-year-old mare regained her best form at the same track today to post her fourth win from 10 starts. Ridden by leading apprentice Braith Nock – who has been aboard at her last three runs – Tequila Baby ($8) raced up on the pace and gamely overhauled Kimberley Secrets ($3.90) to take the Benchmark 72 Handicap (12

STEVE O’Halloran went back to basics – and it paid off! The skilled Hawkesbury horseman made a number of gear changes on a resuming Royalify, who burst back to winning form on Newcastle’s inner Beaumont track yesterday. Ridden by Winona Costin and starting at $8.50, Royalify upset Gosford trainer Jake Hull’s $2.20 favorite Lord Vettori in the Class 1 Handicap (1200m). To say the now five-year-old son of Justify has been something of an enigma is not telling an untruth. “Royal

SUCH can be a trainer’s lot! Between them Gosford’s Jake Hull and Hawkesbury’s Fabio Martino have covered plenty of territory in the last few days in search of a winner – and one each has been forthcoming. Hull went to Hawkesbury on Sunday, Kempsey yesterday and was at Newcastle today, whilst Martino also was at today’s Newcastle meeting after going south to Nowra on Sunday and west to Orange yesterday. The former landed his fifth success of the season (and career 38th ) when

BLAKE Ryan was doubly pleased. Both for his owners and his apprentice Emma Ly when Heaven Bound returned to the track in winning form at Hawkesbury today. Heaven Bound ($4.60), having her first start since late July, defeated Monty Be Quick ($21) and Bend The Knee ($14) in the Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (1500m). “Heaven Bound bled from one nostril in finishing second at Warwick Farm on July 30, and because of a mandatory ban, some of her owners didn’t want to continue w

AUTUMN’S Provincial-Midway Championships are definitely on Jason Attard’s sonar. The Hawkesbury trainer burst back into the city spotlight yesterday with his talented mare Oui Oui Oui, who clinched a metropolitan breakthrough at Royal Randwick. Given a positive ride by Tom Sherry because of her wide draw (13 out of 14) in the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1200m), the four-year-old daughter of Yes Yes Yes scored over the same course her sire had done in the 2019 The Everest. O

BRAD Widdup is not prone to hyperbole! But Hawkesbury’s leading trainer doesn’t hide his affection for Hyperbolic, who at Royal Randwick yesterday made it two city wins on end. Ridden by Tommy Berry, the New Zealand-bred mare justified her price in the market ($2.90 favorite) by taking the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1600m), run in memory of the late Newcastle trainer Sam Kavanagh. Hyperbolic was strong to the line to defeat Bella Montagna ($13) and Deal N Dash ($7). Widdup paid $

SEND in the clowns! Well-named filly Where’s The Circus (by Trapeze Artist) provided the perfect distraction to Paul Murray’s woes when she made a stunning debut at Royal Randwick yesterday. The Kembla Grange trainer clinched only his second win of the season when the $51 bolter ($151 was bet) – a $1250 yearling purchase online through Inglis Digital 15 months ago – beat a number of high-priced rivals in the $400,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m), giving her connections an immediate

WINNING any race is always special, but Wyong trainer Damien Lane’s victory in the closer at Scone yesterday bore an extra special touch. The reason being “family horse” Canamble was named after his home town of Coonamble in the NSW Central West. “I tried to get Coonamble, but had to settle for Canamble,” Lane explained today. “Irrespective, it’s always great to win a race with the mare.” Whilst Lane wasn’t surprised that Canamble got home in the Class 3 Benchmark 66 Handicap

JAKE Hull isn’t perturbed about putting Valilee’s unbeaten record on the line on a wet track at Hawkesbury on Sunday. The talented young Gosford trainer takes the sparingly-raced five-year-old there to begin a new campaign in the Happy New Year Benchmark 64 Handicap (1000m). Mitchell Bell has been the gelding’s rider in both his wins – a Provincial Maiden Plate (100m) at home on July 19, and Class 1 Handicap (1100m) at Hawkesbury on August 12 – and stays aboard, keen to clinc

HAWKESBURY trainer hopes to “star” at his home track’s final race of the year on Sunday. Chevalier resumes his thrice city winner Everyone’s A Star in the Happy New Year Benchmark 64 Handicap (1000m) after consideration was given to retiring the mare, and has booked Tyler Schiller to reunite with her. Schiller partnered the now six-year-old in those city victories last year as a four-year-old; two on the Kensington track in March, and a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1100m) tr

KRIS Lees says his chances of adding another The Ingham to his record at Royal Randwick tomorrow are weather dependent. The leading Newcastle trainer, who has won the Group 2 1600m summer feature twice (with Sense Of Occasion in 2016 and Loch Eagle in 2023), will be represented by three runners in this year’s renewal of the $2m feature. They are Loch Eagle (Jay Ford), Tavi Time (Dylan Gibbons) and You Wahng (Tyler Schiller). “Everything is going to depend on the track conditi

LAST year’s Provincial-Midway Championships Final winner goes back to the scene of his biggest triumph on Saturday – and with a new rider. Trainer Paul Niceforo has booked Tommy Berry for the gelding in the $2m Group 2 The Ingham (1600m) at Royal Randwick. And he has given Territory Express a glowing endorsement for his weekend assignment, saying he is “absolutely thriving”. “I was keen to get Tommy to ride him in The Ingham,” Niceforo said today. “You have to forget the hors

EVERY cloud has a silver lining! At least Kembla Grange trainer Paul Murray is hoping that metaphor rings true in the coming months. Alas Murray had to retire his talented mare Welcometobarbados (five wins from nine starts) with a tendon injury, which came on top of an earlier setback which ruled her out of the $1m Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Royal Randwick in April this year. A truly bargain buy at $700, the South Australian-bred daughter of Redoute’s Ch

JUPITER and Saturn are the two largest planets in the solar system. And owner Bruce Mackenzie’s pair of “Oakfield” mares bearing those names fittingly are aligning to become stars for their Wyong trainer Damien Lane. Only a few days after Oakfield Jupiter, successful at her last two starts in town, came back into work to be set for the Provincial-Midway Championships, Oakfield Saturn was the sole “scorer” for the local team at today’s Wyong Magic Millions meeting. The four-ye

THE Hong Kong “connection” continues to pay dividends for Adam Duggan. The Gosford trainer took three horses to yesterday’s Tuncurry TAB meeting – and won with two of them and the other ran third. Duggan’s victories with Call Me Basil ($2.35 favorite) in the Maiden Handicap (1300m) and Oh Deer ($2.45 favorite) in the Benchmark 58 Handicap (1200m) – both ridden by Lee Magorrian – continued his excellent start to the season. So much so that his nine winners in just over the fir

PETER Snowden wasn’t tongue-tied when discussing his prospects of snaring a third Magic Millions 2YO Classic at Wyong on Wednesday. But his horse is. The 30-times Group 1 winning trainer has total belief in his talented youngster Seeiaye, who will race in a tongue tie in the $200,000 feature to be run over 1100m. “Seeiaye is a bit of a lad and developed a habit of playing with his tongue,” Snowden said today. “He didn’t do it when he won the Max Lees Classic (900m) at Newca

WYONG trainer Nacim Dilmi went close to winning his first home track Gold Cup a few months ago. His well-bred import Salt Lake City ($15) wasn’t too far off preventing champion trainer Chris Waller from snaring his ninth triumph in the $250,000 Listed feature when runner-up to odds-on favorite Saltcoats. Now he has set his sights on capturing Wyong Race Club’s richest race – the $500,000 The Lakes (1600m) to be run at the Saturday metropolitan stand-alone meeting on January 1

TERRY Croft hadn’t even seen a yearling filly by first season sire Zousain until he came across her by chance at the 2023 Inglis HTBA sale in Sydney. “I was out the back chatting with another chap when we saw her, and both of us immediately liked her,” the Hawkesbury trainer said this evening. “When he didn’t want to buy her, I went back inside and put in one bid of $5000 and got her.” Fortune might have been on Croft’s side then, but he has harnessed all his lengthy experien

NEWCASTLE apprentice Shannen Llewellyn reunited with a “favourite” at home yesterday to move within a solitary win of a career milestone. Llewellyn’s victory on a resuming Aroha Stone ($3.20 favorite) in the Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1350m) on the Beaumont track was her 99 th success, and on the verge of “raising the bat” for a maiden century. En route to Hawkesbury races today, where she had two rides and finished third on Super Freds in the closer, the 24-year-old