Month: September 2022

Sky Field (Deep Field) faces a weighty task in Sunday’s Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin when he makes his return at the first of 88 fixtures for the new season. Trained by Caspar Fownes, the classy chestnut who was purchased out of Trelawney Stud’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling draft, has been allotted 135lb against nine opponents in the HK$3.465 million feature with six of these handed 117lb or less. However, this challenge has left jockey Karis Teetan nothing short of excited as he…

Michael Kent Jnr has Victoria Derby favourite Cadazio (NZ) (Tarzino) running at Flemington this Saturday but the Cranbourne trainer hopes that on Wednesday one of his stablemates will demand he also be directed towards the A$2 million staying Classic. Artzino (NZ) (Tarzino) gets the chance to put himself on a Derby path when he contests the Ladbrokes Market Control Plate (1500m) that kicks off the Sandown card. The Australian Bloodstock-raced gelding is a son of Tarzino, who Kent’s training partner Mick Price won the Derby with in 2015, and this…

The racing career of promising filly Koshu (NZ) (Satono Aladdin) is over. The New Zealand-bred filly carried the colours of her breeder-owners Trelawney Stud to victory in her sole raceday start over 1100m on the Kensington track at Randwick. She was making pleasing progress in her spring preparation, but injury has curtailed her racing career and she will head home to Cambridge to begin her new career as a broodmare. “Unfortunately she has gone amiss,” trainer John O’Shea told RacingHQ. “She developed a spiral fracture in her off-hind (leg) and…

Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor welcomed his fourth stakes winner overnight when promising two year-old filly Around Midnight won the Listed Criterium de l’Ouest (1650m) at Craon. Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, Around Midnight made it two wins from three starts when she scored a neck win in her first attempt at black-type. Around Midnight is Almanzor’s third stakes winner in the northern hemisphere, with Dynastic flying his flag in the south, winning the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) and runner-up in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) last season. Almanzor shuttles from Haras…

Trainer Brad Widdup has confirmed that last year’s A$2 million The Invitation (1400m) winner Icebath (NZ) (Sacred Falls) is being readied for a defence of her crown after connections accepted their place in the fillies and mares feature run at Randwick on October 22. Widdup has set a similar path to last campaign for the six-year-old, with the daughter of Sacred Falls set to tackle the Gr.1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) three weeks before coming back to the 1400m trip of The Invitation. “I’ve got the blueprint there for her for…

Haunui Farm are hosting their annual stallion parade this Sunday at 10.30am. They will showcase their two shuttle stallions Belardo and Ribchester, as well as a selection of youngstock of interest. Belardo, sire of recent American Group Two winner Golden Phoenix, has sired six black type performers to date in Australasia, twice that of his sire Lope De Vega at the same stage in his career. Ribchester has returned for his third season at Haunui Farm after his first two seasons were spent in Australia. His first crop of New…

Last season’s Champion two-year-old Maven Belle (NZ) (Burgundy) has been ruled out of the spring care of a chip in a fetlock. The Mark Walker-trained daughter of Burgundy won four of her five starts as a juvenile including the Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m), and the Gr.3 Platinum Homes 2YO Classic (1200m). “It had been there for a while and we have decided to take it out,” Walker said. “She will miss the spring, but she will be back around Christmas time racing.…

Promising gelding Regazzo (NZ) (Tavistock) broke through for his maiden win at Te Rapa on Sunday when victorious in The Patron’s 1400. The Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray-trained four-year-old pleased his conditioners last season when runner-up in the Listed Gingernuts Salver (2400m) at Ellerslie and they were happy to see him go one better last weekend. “He’s a magnificent looking horse, he’s certainly very handsome,” Ritchie said. “He showed plenty of promise as a three-year-old, he ran second in the Salver to White Noise. “We considered him as a horse…