After 20 years training in Singapore, Stephen Gray is planning to weigh up his future lifestyle options within the next couple of years. Gray formerly trained in New Zealand with his father, Kevin, for 12 seasons from 1988-99, the partnership winning almost 400 races, including 10 Group or Listed events. But he saw the opportunity in 2000 to take the plunge and attempt to carve out a career training in Singapore and his move in April that year has seen him establish himself as one of Singapore’s leading trainers with…
Month: August 2020
Masks mandatory at trial and race meetings
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has updated its Level 2 and 3 directives to introduce a requirement for the wearing of face coverings at race or trial meetings. Face masks are required to be worn at all times in the weigh-room, birdcage, and starting gates. Riders are permitted to lower their mask during racing, after loading up in barriers and before re-entering the birdcage. NZTR said this change has been brought in line with updated Government advice, and specifically to help protect the wellbeing of jockeys, upon which the ongoing conduct…
Sandown Park track closed temporarily
GRV advises that the Sandown GRC racetrack is to undergo urgent remedial works. As such, the following race meetings have been cancelled:– Sandown Park Thursday 20 August– Sandown (SAP) Sunday 23 August Prize money for the Mixed 6/7 595m Final at Sandown on Thursday 20 August will be split between the eight finalists. Consequently some further changes have been to the racing schedule as per below: The meeting at Meadows (MEP) Wednesday 19 August has been transferred to Thursday 20 August (Twilight). Nominations have been extended to Tuesday 18 August…
Time for Straight Talk at Healesville
Prolific speedster Time To Talk will be striving to continue her brilliant return to racing in Sunday afternoon’s heats of the GCV Straight Track Championship (350m) as Healesville’s Racing Festival continues. Trainer Angela Galea has guided Time To Talk to an imposing 26 from 49 strike rate; however her career was put on hold in March when she was injured when leading in the early stages of the Horsham Cup. After four months on the sidelines she’s taken up where she left off, winning twice over 300m at Healesville in…
‘Prima’ Ballerina
Make no mistake… Star Ballerina is “adorable and a cutey”. But when it comes to racing, it’s fair to say she’s no ‘principal dancer’. However, she’s now ‘pirouetting’ in the right direction. And her young trainer, Loren Dalziel, 33, says it’s all thanks to coursing. “I put her improved form down to coursing… She was a bit timid and would pull back if another runner ranged alongside her in circle races,” Dalziel said. “But taking her coursing, where there’s only a ‘two-dog’ field, has made the world of difference… It’s…
Taking all ‘Betts’
Will Carlton fans jump on this enticing AFL/Greyhounds sports offer? You Betts-cha! And if it gets up, they won’t be ‘singing the Blues’. TAB is offering $6.50 about Blues idol Eddie Betts kicking 2+ goals against the Dockers and the aptly named Run And Carry winning at Warragul greyhounds tonight. Betts has kicked 10 goals from nine matches this season – an average of 1.1 goals a game, with Carlton sitting 13th on the AFL ladder. Fremantle are 14th, with both teams on 16pts and only separated by a percentage…
Spirit of ‘Ghosty’
‘Show stealer’ Catch The Thief was at his elusive best in a heat of the Group 3 Cranbourne Classic (520m) this afternoon. Trained at Briagolong by Matt Clark, Catch The Thief will now chase his third age-restricted group race final. He won the Group 2 WA Derby (520m) at Cannington in late May and the Group 3 Warragul St Leger (460m) last week. Engaged in Heat 1, Catch The Thief ($1.30F) jumped smartly from Box 6 and quickly turned the race into a procession leading all the way to defeat…
Whistling ‘Dixon’
May the ‘Brute’ force be with punters on this TAB cross-sports offer. The betting giant is offering $3.50 about key Port Adelaide forward Charlie Dixon kicking 2+ goals against the Geelong Cats tonight and the up-and-coming Brute placing at Geelong greyhounds. Dixon is equal third in the race for the Coleman Medal with 21 goals from 10 matches – an average of 2.1 goals per game. Port Adelaide (36pts) is the AFL ladder leader, with Geelong (28pts) third. Meanwhile, the Rebecca Gibbons-trained Brute – an all-the-way last-start winner at Warragul…
Javi to fend off Meadows rivals
Passionate Richmond fan Marlene Schmidt refers to her Meadows specialist Javi as ‘Dusty’ after superstar Dustin Martin and she’s hoping he can deliver a trademark don’t argue to his rivals when he returns to his favourite circuit on Saturday afternoon. Javi – kennel name Dusty – has an obvious love affair with The Meadows, with five of his six career victories coming at the track, and he’s TAB’s $3.60 favourite to boost that record in his heat of the Nestor/Schofield Memorial (race 3 at 4.10pm). “He grows a leg at…
Julius on track for Foxbridge Plate assignment
An eye-catching run at the Taupo trials last week has trainer John bell confident his stable star Julius is right on track for his first assignment of a new campaign. The lightly raced nine-year-old was slowly away in the 1100m trial but was seen to be making up good ground in the run home for regular rider Jason Waddell, finishing off strongly in behind eventual winner Avantage. Bell, who has the Gr.2 Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate (1200m) at Te Rapa on September 5 set down as the first up target…