Year: 2019

Yearning for elusive stakes win

Editor BOAY

Group Two performer Yearn. Photo: Trish Dunell Group Two performer Yearn (NZ) (Savabeel) will kick-off her six-year-old season in the Roger Gill Agriculture 1200 at Pukekohe on Saturday, beginning her mission to try and add an all-important stakes victory to her resume. The daughter of Savabeel has won six of her 31 starts and has been placed on three occasions at stakes level, including second in the Listed Legacy Lodge Sprint (1200m) and third in the Gr.2 Westbury Classic (1400m) and Gr.2 Easter Handicap (1600m). The Karen Fursdon-trained mare began…

Kameko powers to Trophy success

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Kameko has raced into history with an impressive win in the Futurity Trophy at Newcastle, the first British Group One event run on a synthetic surface. Originally due to be the centrepiece of last Saturday’s rain-abandoned fixture at Doncaster, the Group One event was swiftly rescheduled to be run on the all-weather track at Gosforth Park. The original field featured the Andrew Balding-trained Kameko up against five from Aidan O’Brien’s stable but another five horses went to the post after acceptances were re-opened. The heavily-backed favourite was the Ralph Beckett-trained…

Lor looks to the future with Furore and Dark Dream but first it’s the Purse

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Dark Dream scoring at Class 1 level with Zac Purton in the plate. Frankie Lor will launch his star sophomores Furore and Dark Dream at the Group 3 Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse Handicap (1800m) at Sha Tin on Sunday, 3 November. Furore (113lb) was Hong Kong’s standout four-year-old last term thanks to wins in the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) and Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m), while Dark Dream (118lb) was not far behind, posting close-up finishes in the three Classic Series contests and ending the campaign with a fine…

Exultant ready to roll, Time Warp bids for repeat in Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse

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Exultant wins the 2018 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase. Exultant starts out towards the defence of his Group 1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) crown with a weighty task in the Group 3 Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse Handicap (1800m) on Sunday, 3 November. Hong Kong’s star stayer is slated to shoulder 133lb in a hot edition of the historic race, which features stablemate and last year’s winner Time Warp (122lb), as well as Southern Legend (127lb) and BMW Hong Kong Derby hero Furore (113lb). Trainer Tony Cruz is satisfied with his…

Moreira booked for Constantinople in Cup

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HK-based Joao Moreira has been confimed as the rider of Melbourne Cup favourite Constantinople. Hong Kong-based Joao Moreira has been booked to ride favourite Constantinople in the Melbourne Cup with the owners deciding not to wait for the outcome of an appeal by Glen Boss on race eve. Boss had been booked for Constantinople in Tuesday’s $8 million race after the horse’s eye-catching fourth in the Caulfield Cup but the jockey incurred a six-meeting careless riding suspension at Randwick last Saturday. Boss lodged an appeal, with that appeal scheduled to…

Miss Siska peaking at right time for Group 1

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Trainer Grahame Begg believes Miss Siska is over the odds in the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes. Trainer Grahame Begg believes Miss Siska is peaking at the right time for the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington and is convinced the mare is well over the odds for the Group One race. A half-sister to multiple Group One-winning sprinter Hay List, Miss Siska went close to winning the Queen of the Turf (1600m) for fillies and mares at Randwick during the Sydney autumn carnival at odds of $41 when she was…

International riders hope for Golden touch

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Arc-winning jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot will ride Coolmore’s Never No More in the Golden Eagle. A stint with premier trainer Chris Waller whetted jockey Leigh Roche’s appetite for Australian racing and the Irishman is hoping to return with a bang aboard international raider I Am Superman in the inaugural Golden Eagle. Roche was apprenticed to Dermot Weld in Ireland and spent eight years working for the dual Melbourne Cup winning trainer before heading to Australia for a three-month stint in late 2016. He is thrilled to be back at Rosehill on…

Microphone out of Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes

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Godolphin will rely on Bivouac with Microphone (above) scratched from the Coolmore Stud Stakes. Group One-winning colt Microphone has been scratched from the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington with the Godolphin operation left to rely on favourite Bivouac in the $1.5 million race. The James Cummings-trained Microphone was ruled out on Friday afternoon because of an unsatisfactory result after a routine blood test. His withdrawal leaves a field of 14 for Saturday’s Group One 1200m-straight-track sprint for three-year-olds with Microphone’s stablemate Bivouac the $3.30 favourite. Bivouac won the Group One…

Baster to pull up stumps after carnival

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Stephen Baster is to retire from riding for a new career in real estate and more family time. After a distinguished 28-year career in the saddle, Stephen Baster is calling it quits at the conclusion of the Melbourne Cup carnival. Baster fronts up for his final Victoria Derby meeting at Flemington on Saturday with three rides including Chief Ironside in the Group One Cantala Stakes (1600m), a race he won in 2006 aboard Divine Madonna. A new career in real estate on the Mornington Peninsula beckons allowing Baster more time…

A guide to the $2m Group 1 Cantala Stakes

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Best Of Days won last years Cantala Stakes from Le Romain and Peaceful State THE CANTALA STAKES The $2 million Cantala is a Group One handicap race over 1600m at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse It will run as race eight at 4.35pm AEDT on Saturday, November 2 HISTORY First run in 1881 over 1600m and won by Courtenay Made a Group One race in 1979 Re-named and switched with the Mackinnon Stakes on Derby Day in 2016 NOTABLE WINNERS Carbine (1890), Phar Lap (1930-31-32), Aquanita (1960 -61), Wenona Girl (1963), Storm…