Month: May 2021

Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr will saddle up Hezashocka (NZ) (Shocking) for the first time in the Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday. The New Zealand-bred son of Shocking has been in Brisbane for just under two weeks and Price has been relying on the help of former trainers Shaun and Emma Clotworthy to prepare the gelding for his first Group One assignment. Hezashocka will be lining up for start number four on Saturday and enters the Queensland Derby off a last start win in the…

Highview Stud stallion Wrote recorded his first New Zealand win as a sire when And We Danced (NZ) was victorious in the Yara Fertiliser 1100 at Hastings on Wednesday. The Bill Thurlow-trained two-year-old got back early after only being fair away for jockey Sarah Macnab. Turning for home they were met by a wall of horses, but a pocket opened with 250m to go and she was able to let down and get up by a short head over Express Desire. Highview Stud principal Brent Gillovic was pleased with the…

It’s not a misprint in your racebook, former top jumps jockey Clayton Chipperfield is dusting off his saddle and making his raceday riding return at Pukekohe on Thursday. The 41-year-old has been absent from the jockeys’ room for nearly 15 years, but a change in career trajectory earlier this year has led Chipperfield back on a path towards competitive riding. He had been training for the last few seasons, most notably as the conditioner of Catalyst, who he trained to win the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and travelled…

Eminent racing and breeding journalist, bloodstock agent, historian and renowned pedigree authority, Brian Russell, passed away peacefully in his family home at North Richmond on Saturday, 22nd May 2021, aged 90. Brian Thomas Russell was born on 21 September 1930, just six weeks before Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup. Along with his three sisters Joyce, Denise and Elizabeth, Brian was raised on his parents Fred and Florence Russell’s sheep and wheat property, near the small dusty western NSW town of Trundle. Brian developed a love for the horse at…

While there are still a couple of months to go this season, Kelvin Tyler has already comfortably retained his crown as Southland’s top trainer. The Riverton horseman, who trains in partnership with his daughter Aimee, has amassed 46 wins to date this season, surpassing his previous best of 39 victories in the 2018/19 term. The Tylers are just four wins shy of leading South Island trainers Michael and Matthew Pitman, and while racing in the deep south is taking a winter hiatus, they are intent on chasing down their northern…