Day: 18 May 2025

Liberami (NZ) (Turn Me Loose) opened up more options for his trainer Robbie Griffiths when he stretched out beyond 1600m for the first time in his career and took out Saturday’s A$130,000 Murray Cox Handicap (1800m) at Flemington. The New Zealand-bred gelding brought a rich vein of autumn form into the Benchmark 84 handicap, with his four previous starts producing second placings over 1300m and 1500m at Sandown, a third over 1600m at Bendigo, and a last-start Benchmark 70 victory over 1600m at Sandown. He looked well placed at the…

The Queensland Winter Carnival is proving to be a happy hunting ground for Imperialist (NZ) (Churchill), who collected his second Brisbane black-type prize in Saturday’s A$250,000 Gr.3 HKJC World Pool Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben. The New Zealand-bred son of Churchill opened his winning account in the Listed The Phoenix (1500m) at Eagle Farm last June, which was only the third start of his career. The Chris Waller-trained gelding had gone winless in nine races since then, but collected three placings earlier in his three-year-old season, including the Gr.2…

Emma-Lee and David Browne’s victory in the A$300,000 Listed Lexus Andrew Ramsden (2800m) at Flemington on Saturday was enormously valuable in more ways than one for the Kiwi couple. A first black-type success for their homebred mare Basilinna (NZ) (Staphanos) carried plenty of value in itself, but the Andrew Ramsden also guarantees its winner a ballot-free spot in the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) in November. “I’m a bit overwhelmed actually,” Emma-Lee Browne said. “Now we just have to wrap her up in cotton wool, and then we can be back…