Year: 2019

Zoutori will meet stiff opposition in the Gilgai Stakes and also have to cope with a big weight. Co-trainer Simon Zahra acknowledges impressive first-up winner Zoutori faces a mammoth test when he races in the Gilgai Stakes at Flemington. Zoutori won the Group Two Bobbie Lewis Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on September 14 but lines up against tougher opposition in Saturday’s Group Two race over the same distance. Carrying 53kg first-up, Zoutori raced to a two-length victory but on Saturday rises to 59kg in the set-weights plus penalties race where…

Dual Arc winner Enable will jump from barrier nine as she bids for an historic third win. Enable has barrier nine of 12 as she bids for an historic third victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The John Gosden-trained mare became the eighth dual winner of Europe’s premier middle-distance contest last season, and was kept in training as a five-year-old with the chief aim to become the first horse to win the race three times. While she endured a troubled preparation last year, her current campaign has been…

Trainer Mark Newnham will have two runners in Sydney’s first 2yo race of the season, the Gimcrack. As the right-hand man to Gai Waterhouse for many years, Mark Newnham learned a thing or two about preparing two-year-olds from the six-time Golden Slipper-winning trainer. It is hardly surprising then that Newnham, now a successful trainer in his own right, will saddle up two runners in the first juvenile race of the Sydney season at Randwick on Saturday, the Darby Racing pair of Every Rose and Ashra Jahre in the Listed Gimcrack…

Owner Bob Peters has announced the retirement of Enticing Star with an Everest slot now open. Enticing Star has been retired with trainer Chris Waller’s slot in the $14 million Everest now vacant, opening the way for Nature Strip to get a start. One of two mares sent to Waller from leviathan West Australian owner Bob Peters, Enticing Star ran below par in Saturday’s Golden Pendant. The Peters-owned Arcadia Queen remains in the Everest mix and runs in the slot owned by The Star but Peters announced on Thursday her…

Hawkes Racing have sent Supernova to Melbourne to chase a free ticket to the Melbourne Cup. Supernova is out of the Metropolitan Handicap with co-trainer Michael Hawkes confirming the horse will instead chase a Melbourne Cup berth via the Bart Cummings at Flemington. The winner of Saturday’s Bart Cummings (2520m) is exempt from a Melbourne Cup ballot and Hawkes says the Flemington race has always been the preferred option. With acceptances for the Metropolitan taken on Tuesday and the final field for the Bart Cummings not released until a day…

Jess Taylor is excited to have two rides in Group One races at Randwick in the Epsom and Flight. What began as a job for extra cash during a gap year has turned into something quite extraordinary for Jess Taylor as she prepares for two Group One rides on Sydney’s most significant race day of the spring. It will not be the 28-year-old’s first experience in the Group One arena – she ticked that box aboard Cambage in the 2017 ATC Australian Oaks – but having a brace of big…

Co-trainer Michael Hawkes is hoping Rock can give the stable a second major mile in the Epsom. Bart Cummings famously declared patience the cheapest thing in racing and Team Hawkes has abided by the same theory with Epsom Handicap candidate Rock. Rock showed above average ability from the outset but was immature so the family training partners adopted a long-term view and took their time. “We’ve had Slipper winners and so forth but you’ve got to let your horse tell you and do the talking,” co-trainer Michael Hawkes said. “We…

Early money in the Epsom Handicap favours Kolding EPSOM HANDICAP $1 million 1600m handicap HISTORY First Epsom Handicap event in 1863 won by Dundee Named after famous Epsom Downs racecourse in the South of England where Epsom Derby has been run since 1780 The race has been run at 1600m since 1885 – following a short-lived decision to change to 1800m in 1879 In 1987 11-year-old jockey Jim McHugh won the event with his second ever race ride The Lee Freedman-trained Super Impose won four straight ‘big miles’ in 1990…