BRAD Widdup needs just one winner at Hawkesbury on Sunday to claim back to back home track premierships. And he is confident he has a number of good chances amongst his team of six runners at the final meeting of the season. Widdup, who notched 15 wins last season to become the first local trainer in decades to beat all comers, is currently level with Chris Waller at 14 wins each as he strives for another title. However, Waller has withdrawn his two acceptors, leaving the doo

MENTION Grafton’s annual July carnival, and it’s a good bet Terry Croft will be a player! And for the third year in a row the Hawkesbury trainer hasn’t missed out getting a winner. Croft clinched his carnival “hat-trick” today when Tides Turning took on another giant-killing role in winning the Class 2 Showcase Handicap (1100m) at the Ramornie Handicap meeting. Superbly ridden by Alysha Collett, Tides Turning ($14) overpowered $1.95 favorite Storm Merchant to post the third

BRAD Widdup won’t rush into deciding whether to attempt to stretch Satono Jasmine’s winning streak to four at Royal Randwick on Saturday week. The rapidly improving three-year-old filly extended her “picket fence” to three with an impressive city debut at Warwick Farm today. A dashing Chad Schofield ride paved the way for Satono Jasmine ($6) to follow up recent provincial victories at Gosford and Hawkesbury to beat her own sex in the Benchmark 72 Handicap (1600m). Schofield m

ILLAWARRA Turf Club is bracing for a whirlwind finish to the 2025-26 season. Beginning tomorrow the club will host three meetings prior to the racing year’s end on July 31. “It’s going to be a busy time for sure, and we’re really looking forward to it,” ITC racing manager Zane Campbell said today. “Tomorrow’s meeting and Saturday week (July 25) will be run on the course proper. “Our final meeting on Thursday, July 30 will be staged on the Illawarra Grange (inside) track. “The

NEWCASTLE Jockey Club is confident its flagship race, the $1m The Hunter, will quickly regain Group status. In decisions announced by the Asian Pattern Committee, The Hunter (1300m) will carry Listed status when it is run later this year, but Illawarra Turf Club’s $1m The Gong (1600m) retains its Group 3 status. Both features were run for the first time in 2019 at new Saturday metropolitan stand-alone meetings introduced by RacingNSW. Newcastle’s Group 3 Spring Stakes (1600m

KRIS Lees has given the “green light” for Brudenell to run as he chases a Ramornie Handicap breakthrough at Grafton on Wednesday. The leading Newcastle trainer also nominated the gelding for the July Sprint (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, but Grafton got the nod when he drew barrier two today in a capacity field for the $200,000 Listed 1200m feature. “I would not have been keen to run Brudenell with a big weight (57.5kg) if he had drawn poorly,” Lees said this aftern

KRISTEN Buchanan was determined to stick to her guns! The Wyong trainer’s commitment to riding tactics led the way for a metropolitan breakthrough with Hellova Nature in Brisbane on Saturday, and very nearly gave her a two-State double. Before Hellova Nature ($10) stormed home at Doomben to take the No Metro Wins Handicap (1350m), stablemate Tambeloa ($4.80) was ironically edged out by a Brisbane visitor All Kinds Of Folk ($4.40 favorite) in the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1800m)

AS Private Harry prepares for a new career at stud, his kid sister Lady Lieutenant is showing she is ready to uphold the family tradition of winning. But not just yet. As with big brother, she won’t begin her racing career until she is three years of age. Lady Lieutenant, a half-sister (by Captivant) to Private Harry, won her first barrier trial at Wyong last Wednesday, showing pace in her 845m heat and comfortably defeating Wyong pair The Crusher and La Seeker. However, she

KEMBLA Grange trainer Paul Murray says Harry’s Bar is in great shape ahead of Wednesday’s $200,000 Listed Ramornie Handicap (1200m) at Grafton. Murray arrived in Grafton at lunchtime yesterday with three horses – two will race today – after an early morning start from his home base, and hopes to emulate his legendary late father Bede by winning a major race at Clarence River Jockey Club’s famous July carnival. Bede Murray won the Listed Grafton Cup in 1999 with Count Scenario

BLAKE Ryan was straight to the point. “If you do the same thing and expect a different result, you’re a mug,” was the Hawkesbury horseman’s blunt comment in relation to Serinda, a filly with a Group 1 pedigree who has recently joined his stable, and was a Gosford winner yesterday. “I haven’t got another horse who can keep up with her in her work, and I thought she could win at Gosford last month at her first start for me,” Ryan said today. “But she disappointed when last in a

THERE was a certain synergy about Powerful Tune’s Gosford victory yesterday. Making her provincial debut, the Kris Lees-trained filly at $7.50 clinched her second success from only four starts when she defeated stablemate Issy’s Star ($4.40) in the F&M Benchmark 64 Handicap (1100m) at the annual Family Of League race meeting. Powerful Tune is a daughter of French import Singing, with whom the leading Newcastle trainer won the 2018 Listed Gosford Gold Cup (2100m). Singing, a s

The Illawarra Turf Club is proud to announce that more than $45,000 has been raised through The Race Against Suicide Raceday 2026. The event, which was held at Kembla Grange Racecourse on Saturday 20th June, was embraced by the local community with more than 2,500 people coming through the gates. In just two years it has become the most impactful race meeting on The ITC calendar, combining the excitement of thoroughbred horse racing with a powerful message that conversations

THE wait was nowhere near as long this time! Not that he has a lot of city runners, but Tommy Wong’s victory with Desi Emperor at Canterbury last year was his first success in town since Seefu – a horse he also bred and owned - scored on the Kensington track in February 2007. Coincidentally, the Hawkesbury trainer’s triumph with Hostwin King yesterday was at exactly the same meeting as Desi Emperor 12 months ago. Ridden by Louis Beuzelin, Hostwin King ($12) defeated Elio ($9)

THE lure of eligibility for Royal Randwick’s $3m Big Dance has breathed new life into the South Grafton Cup. So says Clarence River Jockey Club chief executive Michael Beattie, who is thrilled with the interest from trainers who have nominated 36 horses for Sunday’s $80,000 feature on the second day of the Jacaranda City’s famous July carnival. The race will be run over the same 1600m distance as the Big Dance, to be run on November 3. “There is a good depth of quality in thi

SOME trainers have luck with barrier draws, others don’t! Put Jake Hull in the latter category, when it involves his lightly-raced four-year-old Red Spector this preparation. Thankfully though for the Gosford trainer, frustration turned to joy yesterday at Grafton’s opening day of the famous July carnival. Despite having to jump from the nine gate in a field of 11, Red Spector ($1.90 favorite) was up to the task in the Class 1 Handicap (1215m), and gave his young trainer his

IT wasn’t quite the “smashing” result expected! But Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle still rounded off a great week for Australian Bloodstock at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday. After favorite Smashing Time ($2.70), prepared at Kembla Grange by Rob and Luke Price, just missed clinching a city hat-trick when run down by Hawkesbury mare Dark Glitter in the Benchmark 88 Handicap (1200m), the boot was on the other foot with Doyle’s Silvanito. An $8.50 chance, Silvanito (Alysha Collett

JAMES Harding is probably better known as multi-premiership winning Ciaron Maher’s “beach trainer”. But he knows how to train a winner in his own right. And he says the experience he has gained working with the man who has built a racing juggernaut has been invaluable. Newcastle trainer Harding was in the winner’s list himself at Port Macquarie yesterday with a mare he bought online for $10,000 earlier in the year. Tesorino, a four-year-old daughter of 2018 Rosehill Guineas w

THERE was stability in his decision after all! Nacim Dilmi pondered whether he had made the right decision earlier this year to geld a young horse with an impressive pedigree who had cost plenty as a yearling. Domeland forked out a cool $550,000 to be exact at the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter sale to secure him. Understandably, the Wyong trainer was breathing easier when Stability broke through at his home track yesterday at his sixth start. Ridden by Lee Magorrian, the thre

WHO says all that glitters isn’t gold? Octogenarian Hawkesbury trainer Mike Van Gestel begs to differ, especially after his tough mare Dark Glitter hoisted him back into the city winning list at Rosehill Gardens yesterday. A $14 chance (double those odds were bet) and ridden by apprentice Anna Roper, Dark Glitter spoiled the party for favorite backers when she steamed past Smashing Time ($2.70) in the Benchmark 88 Handicap (1200m). That was her sixth victory and, coupled with

KRISTEN Buchanan has set her sights on capturing another feature race at Grafton’s famous July carnival. This time it’s the $200,000 Westlawn Finance Grafton Cup (2350m) on Thursday week with stable warrior Stylebender. And the Wyong trainer says the ageless gelding’s final lead-up at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow will top him off for the Listed feature. Buchanan, who won the 2020 South Grafton Cup (1600m) with Jazzland and 2024 John Carlton Cup (1195m) with Cecil Street Lad, has