ROD Bailey was straight to the point! “If I had trialled him, he would have started around a $2 favorite,” the popular Wyong trainer said today in respect to his first-up triumph with Classic Pocket at his home track yesterday. “He was going that well getting ready for his return.” Bailey’s decision to skip trialling the lightly-raced Hong Kong-owned four-year-old paid off handsomely as Classic Pocket went to the post as an $8.50 chance, providing his trainer with a terrific

KONASANA 2024 BELLE OF THE TURF WINNER THEY’RE back! Gosford Race Club’s feature Belle of the Turf Stakes and Gosford Guineas race meeting returns to home soil at The Entertainment Grounds on Sunday for the first time in two years. Wyong Race Club kindly hosted last year’s fixture as Gosford was out of action because of major renovation work on the track. Sunday’s card is the first of four programs to be held over the summer holiday period, which always prove popular with so

KRIS Lees says it’s difficult to separate stablemates Brave Call and Bestower at Royal Randwick tomorrow. It’s round three when the pair again oppose each other in the Benchmark 78 Handicap (2400m). It’s one-all, with Bestower (second) finishing ahead of Brave Call (fifth) in a similar grade race over 1800m at Rosehill Gardens on November 8, before they ran the quinella in another Benchmark 78 over 2000m at the Saturday metropolitan fixture at Kembla Grange on November 22 on

DAMIEN Lane has seen enough to give the go-ahead for Oakfield Saturn to seek a city victory at her maiden metropolitan attempt at Royal Randwick on Saturday. “The query was always going to be backing up 10 days after winning at home yesterday week,” the Wyong trainer said this evening. “But Oakfield Saturn is nice and bright, and happy. She is definitely ready to go back to the races.” Oakfield Saturn, a member of owner Bruce Mackenzie’s team, has won three of her eight start

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