Month: August 2024

Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray scooped the major Cups last season with Mahrajaan (Kitten’s Joy), and with the ultimate two-mile contest now on their radar, he will appear for the first time this season at Ruakaka on Saturday. After being purchased out of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale in 2022, Mahrajaan more than proved himself on Kiwi soil last season, winning both the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) and Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m). His Cambridge trainers opted to contest the Gr.1 Sydney Cup (3200m) after his phenomenal form…

Melbourne’s weather gods might have a strong hand to play if winning machine Rhapsody Chic (NZ) (Sacred Falls) is to extend his winning run to five straight at Caulfield on Saturday. Anthony and Sam Freedman’s galloper has won his past four starts and another victory would put him in select company. “I think Steel Prince might have been the last horse we’ve won five in a row with, it’s never easy,” Sam Freedman recalled. “The funny thing is he is a horse who requires luck too, because he is not…

Champion mare Imperatriz will be mated with emerging young sire Pierata this spring, Yulong has confirmed. In May, the breeding and racing giant won the battle to secure the world’s highest-rated sprinting mare at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for a Southern Hemisphere record of $6.6 million. The daughter of I Am Invincible won 10 Group 1 races and almost $7 million in prizemoney during a glittering career on the racetrack. Several of Yulong’s resident sires were under consideration to be the first to cover the mare but Pierata,…

A special milestone is beckoning for New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock and he hopes a strong team of representatives can deliver his 1000th domestic winner at his home track on Saturday.   Sharrock has been training since the late eighties and has continued to be a consistent, successful presence in the domestic scene, with his most recent of 18 Group One wins coming in the Livamol Classic (2050m) with Ladies Man last season.   Ladies Man will not appear at the Taranaki meeting, but another high-performing member of the stable in Justaskme has…

Cambridge trainer Maxim van Lierde dreamed of campaigning a horse in Melbourne when he spent time at Lindsay Park last year, and now that has turned into a reality. “Last year I took a horse called Henry Robin over to Lindsay Park and I spent over two weeks with them,” van Lierde said. “I got on quite well with Will (Hayes, co-trainer) especially because I did quite a lot of track work with him. We have become good friends over the last year and the knowledge that they have got…