A wonderful line-up featuring inaugural TAB Phoenix champion Wow She’s Fast will race in the $152,500 Group 1 Sapphire Crown Final (515m) at Sandown Park this Thursday night. After looking uncomfortable in two runs at Wentworth Park, The Watchdog was enamoured with the heat victory of Wow She’s Fast. “She returned to her best here at Sandown last week. 29.19 (seconds) coming from off the speed and the way she had to work through the field, and the determination she showed off the back was just wonderful.” Click HERE for…
Month: May 2022
Double Delight’s Derby bid still on
By Michael Guerin Harness Jewels star Double Delight is still rated a chance to make next week’s Northern Trotting Derby even after missing the obvious lead-up at Alexandra Park this Friday. The last-start Northern Oaks winner was fancied to give our best three-year-old trotter Highgrove a run for his money in the $70,000 Lone Star Sires’ Stakes on Friday as she was drawn to follow him throughout the 2200m mobile. But trainer-driver Tony Herlihy has been forced to pull her out of the Group 2 after she came down with…
Satono Aladdin filly stars on debut
A well-bred first crop daughter of Deep Impact’s son Satono Aladdin has made a dream start to her career with a stirring debut display on the Kensington track at Randwick. Koshu (NZ) was untroubled to win over 1100m for trainer John O’Shea and in the process credited her Rich Hill Stud-based sire with a victory on Australian soil with his first representative. Off the back of an impressive trial victory earlier this month, the filly was sent out a commanding favourite and never looked like letting her army of supporters…
Cunneen hoping for case of second time lucky
Riccarton trainer Meg Cunneen will make her second venture to the North Island this week with high hopes of turning her fortunes around. The experienced horsewoman will be represented at Trentham on Saturday by Group performer Seriously in the Listed James Bull Holdings Rangitikei Gold Cup (1600m) and Mamma Sans in the Speirs Finance Handicap (1400m). It was with the Tavistock mare Mamma Sans that Cunneen made her first trip north earlier this year only for circumstances out of her control to make it a forgettable exercise. “I took Mamma…
Laxon memorial on Thursday
Family and friends will gather to celebrate the life of New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame trainer Laurie Laxon on Thursday. The Melbourne Cup-winning trainer passed away last July, however, due to COVID-19 restrictions there has been no opportunity to mark his passing appropriately until now. The commemoration at 2pm on Thursday May 19 will take place fittingly at Takapoto Estate, 90 Finlay Rd, Karapiro, adjacent to the unique training grounds established by Laxon in the late 1980s. Laxon’s career began from stables on the banks of the Waikato River…
Multiple Group winner retired
Group One performer and Group Two winner Beauden (NZ) (Bullbars) has been retired from racing. The seven-year-old son of Bullbars was a model of consistency throughout his career, winning 12 of his 42 starts and placing on a further 12 occasions. His biggest win came in last season’s Gr.2 Awapuni Gold Cup (2000m) following which he headed south to Riccarton and won the Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup (2000m). The handsome gelding also placed third in the 2019 Gr.1 Zabeel Classic (2000m) where he was close-up behind True Enough, while he…
Fursdon holding Virtuoso Lad to high standards again
Karen Fursdon is excited about phase two of a three-step plan for Virtuoso Lad (Exceed and Excel) on Thursday when he lines-up in the Steriline Racing 1200 on the Riccarton polytrack. She couldn’t have been more pleased with Virtuoso Lad’s South Island debut run when he came from near last to score handsomely by 3-1/2 lengths under apprentice Sanu Toolooa on opening day a fortnight ago. “It was really great because it confirmed our thoughts that he’d just love a synthetic track – and he did,” Fursdon said. “He’d had…
English Gambler jumping into winter
To say that English Gambler (Casino Prince) has been a challenge for Cambridge trainer Lauren Brennan – and his riders – would be a massive understatement. But the seven-year-old’s talent is such that he could establish himself as a top-class hurdler this winter, starting with Saturday’s Manawatu ITM Awapuni Hurdle (2900m) at Trentham, and possibly earn a trip back to Australia. English Gambler showed enough in his first six starts on the flat for Brennan in 2018 that he was sold to head to Australia, where he never settled in…
Delbridge double delight?
Balliang trainer Mark Delbridge is hoping Jarick Bale https://watchdog.grv.org.au/greyhound/461066430 provides him with successive wins in the $262,500 Group 1 RSN Sandown Cup (715m) on Thursday night. Delbridge won Sandown GRC’s flagship staying event last year with Zipping Rambo. Jarick Bale was the fastest qualifier from five heats last week, registering a sensational 41.29sec – around 2L off the 41.16sec track record, set by Here’s Tears on January 30, 2020. It was his 26th win, including three of his past six, from 68 starts. “I was one of the ‘doubting Thomases’;…
Never ending story
History never repeats? Well, meet the sport’s perennial history maker – Jason Thompson. The champion Pearcedale trainer keeps turning history on its head – time and time again! It’s a proverbial ‘never-ending story’. And he’ll seize upon yet another opportunity to re-write the greyhound racing annals at Sandown Park on Thursday night. Thompson has a chance to go down in the chronicles as the only trainer to complete the G1 Sapphire Crown (515m) and G1 Sandown Cup (715m) double in the same year. Another feted trainer, Rob Britton, won the…