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The aptly-named Easy has been billed as one of the star attractions to Monday's Sceptre Sessions at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale and Brian Slattery says that the Listed-winning daughter of Kodiac boasts “international appeal” and a successful sale would put the cherry on top of what has been a dream year for his brother and trainer, Andy. The landscape of Irish racing has changed even in the past few years alone. The bigger trainers have become behemoths and it has become harder and harder for the middle to lower tier handlers to remain competitive. By attacking the yearling sales and identifying talent on a budget, the Slatterys have not just remained relevant, they have thrived in one of the most competitive jurisdictions there is. This year's tally of 28 Flat wins on the turf is the best-ever for the stable. So, too, is the €541,500 amassed in prize-money. What's even more impressive is that the jumps arm of the County Tipperary yard has been humming along sweeter still; there are 17 wins on the board with the National Hunt season only in its infancy. Again, that's a personal best for Andy. There are not many stables that can boast such numbers over both codes and, in many ways, it all comes to a crescendo on Monday. Brian Slattery said, “We do an awful lot of breeze-up horses as well as racing them on the track but we are sellers. In order to survive in Ireland, you need to be selling and, I suppose, for the money we spend at the yearling sales, we've had a phenomenal year. Jamie Osborne's horse, Heart Of Honor (Honor A.P.), is probably the flag-bearer for the breeze-up operation, Meadowview Stables, but thankfully we've managed to have a good time of it on the track as well. We genuinely get as much of a kick out of a horse we sold winning a big race as we do when we win one ourselves.” He added, “We sold a very good horse to Hong Kong, Fiach McHugh (Belardo), whose name was changed to Red Lion. He ended up winning a Group 1 down there. Then there is Almendares (Havana Grey), who we also raced and sold to America. He's going for a Grade I in the new year so that's extremely exciting. I suppose this is a different type of excitement with Easy and, to be a part of the whole Sceptre Sessions is special, really.” Easy | Racingfotos.com Easy will be offered for sale as part of the Sceptre Sessions in foal to Mehmas. A Listed winner when successful for the Slatterys at Cork last season, she reached a career-high rating of 102 for that outfit. Not only did she win her Stakes race last season, but she came close to bagging a Group 3 victory earlier this year, only finding Copacabana Sands too good in the Barberstown Castle Stakes at Leopardstown. Slattery said, “To be selling Easy on behalf of Team Valor and Gary Barber, sure it doesn't get much better than this. Listen, we always knew how good Easy is and, if we can end the story on a good note for our owners, it would be brilliant. She started out with us and, although she had a little bit of a hiatus after she won her maiden, we enjoyed some brilliant days with her and I think she showed people what she could do when she won her Listed race at Cork. I still believe that we never actually saw the best of Easy on the track. The ability that she had was frightening but, she's such a big filly and she put so much into her work, she used to go weak. That's one of the main reasons we didn't see the best of her. She always had a lot of brilliance and you don't name a horse Easy for no reason.” The Mehmas cross with Kodiac has produced a massive 74% winners-to-runners strike-rate. The headline acts within that impressive statistic are Group 1-winning sprinter Believing, Group 2 scorer West Acre and Group performer Diego Ventura. Slattery is in little doubt that his mare, who hails from the family of Cassandra Go, boasts international appeal. He concluded, “It's the old cliche, but she's a queen. She's absolutely gorgeous. She's selling in foal to Mehmas and it's a very good cross. What Tally-Ho has done with those stallions, particularly in the past few years, is amazing. There are a lot of top stallions in Easy's page and, I know I am biased, but she would be an addition to any breeding operation in the world. She has international appeal and we've literally had people from all over the world looking at her today. For a period of about three hours, she wasn't in her box. She was seriously busy showing. The footfall is amazing and, like I said, it's fairly special to be a part of it all. We just want to end the story on a good note and, please God, we can make that happen on Monday.” The post ‘Easy Has International Appeal And We Can’t Wait For The Sceptre Sessions’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The Jockey Club has donated HK$70.2 million to the victims of the Tai Po fire after a subdued afternoon of racing at Sha Tin on Sunday. A minute’s silence was observed before Sunday’s closed-door meeting, which was restricted to owners, stewards, voting members and their invited guests, and there was none of the colour and buzz of a normal Sha Tin meeting. “I want to express my deep condolences to all of those who have been affected by this tragic fire,” said Jockey Club chief executive Winfried...View the full article

Dazzling Fit enhanced his Classic Series claims with a herculean performance and Colourful King came from the clouds in a sensational display as David Eustace celebrated a double at Sha Tin on Sunday. Despite facing tough draws in their respective races, Colourful King exploded from last to smash his rivals in the Class Two 1,000m Turf Handicap before Dazzling Fit sealed Eustace’s brace with a gutsy victory in the Class Three 1,600m Turf Handicap. “You’re hopeful when you go to the races with a...View the full article

The world's top-rated horse, Calandagan, was all out to defeat Japan's best, Masquerade Ball, by a head at the end of the 1 1/2 miles of the Japan Cup (G1) Nov. 30 at Tokyo Racecourse.View the full article

Libertad produced the biggest performance of his career and one of the most dramatic finishes of The Pinnacles when the 5-year-old entire lunged late to deny Overpass the Winterbottom Stakes.View the full article

Otaki would set the fee so, if you think venue hireage is too low maybe have a chat to them. I don't know which clubs you are comparing with for fairness. I note Masterton pay $8K venue hire. Funding is made up of many aspects. I'm picking the $17K is for being a part of the Christmas at the Races model for one of the meetings. The other amounts allocated to funding have been negotiated over the years, you'd have to thrash it out with whoever is looking after that now at club and/or NZTR level, if you are concerned Levin is receiving more than their share. Until recently the LRC ran a Group 1 and two listed races, probably deserving the level of funding received.

Hong Lok Golf could be heading for Group One targets after getting back on track with a game performance to win the Class Two 1,600m Turf Handicap at Sha Tin on Sunday. Chris So Wai-yin’s galloper won six of his seven starts in a breakout first campaign, but had kicked off this season with a pair of defeats, most recently by two and a half lengths in disappointing fashion. Sent off the $4.6 joint favourite under Harry Bentley, there were some anxious moments for his backers when he turned into...View the full article

TOKYO, JAPAN — It turns out that it takes the world's best horse to win what what will surely be judged for the second time in three years to have been the world's best race. For 20 years the Europeans have come and failed to conquer but Calandagan (Gleneagles), already at the summit of the world rankings for 2025 and with Mount Fuji as the backdrop for his most towering challenge to date, lowered the record of the great Almond Eye when outbattling race favourite Masquerade Ball (Duramente) to win the 45th running of the Japan Cup. They say that two out of three ain't bad and, in a pinch-me year for trainer Francis Graffard and the team at the Aga Khan Studs, they have combined to have two of the top three horses in the world rankings. This week the name of the Arc winner Daryz (Sea The Stars) has been mentioned more than once in press conferences by racing manager Nemone Routh and then by Princess Zahra Aga Khan after Sunday's victory, but this particular day was owned by Calandagan, a reformed character from his juvenile season whose only tearaway characteristics now are in streaking home to glory. Mickael Barzalona, too, was a flamboyant youngster, notably when standing in his irons to salute the crowd at Epsom before he was even over the line in the Derby, but the jockey's transition into a calm and collected professional is now complete, along with that of his horse. In a dramatic start to the race which saw Yuga Kawada ejected from the stumbling Admire Terra on leaving the stalls, Barzalona had Calandagan switched off towards the rear of the remaining 16 runners, travelling smoothly, eyes presumably fixed on the imaginary target on Christophe Lemaire's back aboard Masquerade Ball. Moving up on the outside of the favourite mid-stretch, Barzalona temporarily had Lemaire pinned for room as Shin Emperor weakened in his run, but the looming pair shifted out just enough for both to pass last year's runner-up with ease. From there the battle commenced, with Calandagan and Masquerade Ball locked together to the line. Only the grey Admire Terra could pass them, and he was unencumbered by the weight of a rider. “We were a little bit caught for speed in the early part of the race but Mickael caught a good lead behind Christophe Lemaire,” said Graffard. “He travelled the whole way behind the right horse in the race so that gave me a lot of confidence, and then we then never had any trouble in running especially into the last bend, and the horse after that has been really brave.” The trainer still has some important work to be done in Hong Kong in a fortnight's time, but with the year he's had already – winning Classics, a Breeders' Cup and three Group 1 races with Calandagan alone prior to today – it could have been imagined that the pressure may be off a little when it came to this challenge at the end of a long season for the four-year-old. One look at Graffard's face before the race told another story, however, especially with a recently earned title to uphold. “I was really stressed today. I knew I was bringing the best horse in the world and I was re-exposing him in a race that is almost impossible to win,” he said. Almost, but not quite. And in achieving the near-impossible Calandagan collected the equivalent of $3.3m in prize-money, with a further $3m bonus as the winner of a selection of Group 1 races in Europe this year. Just one would have done but he had three to choose from. “I said to myself it wasn't really fair on the horse to ask that of him and I really felt that pressure today. I thought to myself it would be awful to have take him back home to his box where there would be a plaque saying best horse in the world and for his year to end in disappointment,” he continued. “We were asking him to do something quite incredible after he had already proved he was the best, so I felt an enormous weight on my shoulders. I love taking on the big challenges but this morning I was really wondering why were putting ourselves through it.” For Princess Zahra, there must also be pressure in striving to uphold the standards which have been set down over the last century by three generations of her forebears. The Aga Khan Studs, founded by her great grandfather Aga Khan III, have become a byword for excellence in Thoroughbred breeding. Her father's long tenure ended only with his passing in February. Racing in Japan has existed for almost the same amount of time that the Aga Khan Studs have been in existence, and the leaders in this nation have steadily amassed a national broodmare band whose offspring have become the envy of the old world order. This emergence of Japan as one of the global leaders in bloodstock has of course not been lost on Princess Zahra, who on Saturday inspected the impressive line-up of sires at Hokkaido's Shadai Stallion Station. It surely won't be long before one or two of them are visited by mares from the Aga Khan Studs. “It has been a very good year thanks to the people sitting next to me and to the rest of the team,” she said, positioned between Graffard and Barzalona after a lengthy presentation ceremony during which she looked almost embarrassed to receive gift after prize after medal and then, best of all, the Japan Cup itself. “It's the best year we've had in a very long time. Of course I miss my father very much. He was very involved, but in terms of the operation, I think we continue to do what we do and with our new training policies, thanks to Francis and the collaboration with Mickael, we've had a very good year.” She continued, “Calandagan has shown himself to be an improving horse throughout the year and I think both Francis and Mickael have learned how to read the horse and to bring him to the best place on the right day at the right time. “Calandagan, as Francis said from the beginning of the year, was the horse for this race and he had planned this for a very long time. I wasn't sure in March that we were going to get here.” Of her visit to Shadai with her team of Pat Downes, Nemone Routh and Pierre Gasnier, she added, “As a breeding operation it is fascinating to see the bloodlines that exist in this country that are actually remote from the European bloodlines that we have today. It is very interesting to me to see what Japan has produced in terms of stallions, in terms of bloodlines, and I think it is going to be fascinating to see what those bloodlines produce in the future.” The development of those bloodlines has indeed been seen to increasingly devastating effect around the world. At home, the development of the sport of racing is equally impressive. Under a spotless blue sky 77,029 fans crammed into the vast Tokyo grandstand, lining the parade ring ten deep at least and creating a wall of sound as the race reached its climax that is surely unmatched at any racecourse. It was clear that for many professionals involved in the Japan Cup that there was a sense of pride that the race had this year attracted the top-rated Calandagan. The local racing fans may have preferred their favoured Tenno Sho winner Masquerade Ball to prevail – and he only went down by a head at the line, with the last two Derby winners Danon Decile (Epiphaneia) and Croix Du Nord (Kitasan Black) filling the minor places – but they know a good horse when they see one. Calandagan was duly afforded the hero's welcome that he deserved as he was brought back out to the track for the presentation ceremony. “He's a real champion, as everybody saw today,” Graffard said. “Mickael has so much faith in this horse and he's never let him down.” Calandagan, only the second French-trained horse to win the Japan Cup since Le Glorieux in 1987, was serenaded after his triumph by the on-course band playing Land of Hope and Glory. At first it seemed an incongruous anthem but, for his own Last Night of the Proms, a quest that began in hope and some trepidation for Calandagan's connections had indeed ended in unforgettable glory. The post ‘A Real Champion’: Calandagan Wows Japan With Record-Breaking Cup Victory appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Considering the funding that Levin gets for their 3 racedays do you think a rental of $10,000 per meeting for the Otaki track and facilities is fair and reasonable? To Otaki?

Carter champion 🏆

According to the performance report on the Incorporated Societies website course rental for 2024 and 2025 are both the same at $30,000. With 3 meetings, each one cost $10,000. Like every other cost in New Zealand those fees are destined to increase.

Its not hard to impress you @Chief Stipe

Sorry but we are nearing the point of waiting for it to cave in on itself. Rest assured ...I'll always have my paintbrush .

the low grade average country sunday harness meetings up until 12-18 months ago, used to normally have higher tote pools than the average friday night races at addington and way more than an auckland friday meeting.It had been like that for many years. but,looking at the tote pools recently,sunday turnovers have dropped and seem to have been significantly impacted by the decision to run nz galloping meetings on sundays.Now sunday turnover seem to be about the same as an addington friday night meeting and the early sunday races have poor turnovers. In november 2023 there was only 2 sunday galloping meetings in nz,this year there was 8. i don't know whether HRNZ had any imput in that decision making,but from a harness perspective,that seems to have been a real negative.I assume the same applies to the ff. so really,even the sundays,which still seem to be the profit making meetings,aren't going as good as they used to. the sunday turnovers always used to prove what most of us had always said,the average punters don't bet on the quality of the horses,they bet on the quality of the betting product. And sundays had and actually still do provide a superior betting product. of course,friday nights have no nz gallops meetings to compete against.

Seemed to be a well run Juniors Championship, with a good group of Juniors competing. Certainly need s lot more Juniors to be coming through, but are there many in the wings? Well cone go Carter Dalgety for winning the Championship for the first time and great to see a male win it for a change. Surprised at how well Monika Ranger did, but congratulations to her and all the others.

If it attracts a lot of new participants to the racing industry then that is a positive for having the show! Think it is not a great look the way they are not betting responsibly despite what the TAB advertises! When they put on $500 and it loses, they always say it was only a little bet or something along those lines, as if it is a pittance and doesnt matter!! And yet the TAB is restricting some punters to amounts of 20% of that amount as a maximum bet??? It is total hypocrisy and needs to be seriously addressed, as it is blatantly WRONG!

How much do they pay?

No I'm saying that the Levin Racing Club (an Incorporated Society) has formed three Trusts two are registered Charitable Trusts the status of the third is not clear.

Answer the question please.

What a bad idea to have the Levin Classic running at Trentham in early January. Numbers being low today is no doubt a hang over from running the "Classic" day on a Thursday or Friday. Sunday is a great day for the club, and one they can build on.

So, it's an unincorporated charitable trust you are saying?

They pay a rental which will be found on the club's financials. They wouldn't be expected to fund the Otaki club over and above that.

Don't they race at Otaki?

What do you mean?

How much do they fund Otaki?