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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Lindsay Park is rarely without a cult horse in the stable and the gelding who has put up his hand as potentially the Hayes family’s next crowd favourite will chase a fourth-straight win this Saturday at Flemington. Touchdown (NZ) (Almanzor) is set to start odds-on favourite in the $130,000 Honouring Our Jockeys Plate, which is the second race on the card. It will be the first start at 2000m for the four-year-old, who has put together a hat-trick of wins on the Caulfield Heath track, and Will Hayes can understand the affection for the son of Almanzor. “A good name and a picket fence often gets you a cult following,” Hayes, who trains in partnership with brother Ben and JD, said. “He’s very well-liked by the punters and he’s an incredibly consistent galloper. “This preparation, you could mount a case that he should be unbeaten, so he’s very consistent and looks to be quite progressive.” Like Lindsay Park’s biggest cult horse of all, Mr Brightside, Touchdown started life in New Zealand, which is where he returned after failing to reach his $100,000 reserve when offered at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale in 2023. A soft win in a 1000m trial at Taupo in November 2024 for Matamata trainer Glenn Old prompted a flurry of offers and it was clients of Lindsay Park who won out, with Touchdown taking up residence at its Euroa property early last year. Second in a 1400m Cranbourne maiden at the only start of his initial campaign, Touchdown broke his maiden first-up on September 14 before a luckless second placing at Ballarat, which preceded his past three wins. Although Touchdown has been in work since midway through last year, Hayes said he was holding together well and signs were positive ahead of this weekend’s benchmark 78 contest, in which he will carry 60kg. “He thrives at the property at Euroa, he’s a country boy, and he just gets out in the water walker and the day paddock,” he said. “He’s maintained a very long preparation and he’s still bucking his brands off.” Luke Currie, who was aboard for the first two Caulfield wins but surrendered the seat to claiming apprentice Jackson Radley last start, returns to the saddle this weekend with the pair to jump from barrier six in the field of 10. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The decision to bench Luke Ferraris from My Wish ahead of his tilt at the Group One Stewards’ Cup (1,600m) later this month is one that I cannot wrap my head around, but once again highlights the brutal reality riders can face in Hong Kong. Ferraris has been on board My Wish for 13 of his 15 starts, winning on him five times, including a poignant success in the Classic Mile to give himself and trainer Mark Newnham their first feature wins in the city. The pair teamed up for Group Three glory on...View the full article -
just to emphasis my point. if you look at the munber of drivers who drove in nz races in 2019. There were 236. in 2025, there was only 196,and 9 of those were only here for the world drivers champs. so the figure really is 187. so hrnz have introduced all these so called clever penalty junior initiatives to keep people in the sport, yet in just 6 years,there has been a 20% drop in the numbers(49 indivuidual drivers) who drove. hrnz say their concession and penalty free system is designed to keep people in the sport.Who are they fooling? -
i see where your coming from.Thats where good programming and handicapping should come into play. Horses whose first win is in a weak non win race and subsequently prove uncompetitive in the 1 win grade,unfortunately are considered of no value by the handicappers and race programmers. i've made that point myself a few times in the past,but thats the reality. Its a handicapping and programming issue,not a penalty free win issue. also,if they made the manawatu races penalty free races like you suggest,then theoretically you could have a horse start each week over 2 1/2 months,have a win in a junior drivers penalty free race,then the manawatu penalty free race you suggest,as well as win 2 half points junior driver wins and be given quiet runs in the other 6 races and be unplaced,and that horse would still be rated the same as it would be had it not started.in other words instead of 3 wins and ending up back at square 1 you are suggesting they get 4 wins and end up back at square 1. HRNZ have already gone totally overboard in how they prioritise the junior drivers over other participants. LIke ,why does hrnz have a policy that will pay for the juniors licences,their gear,give them oopprtunities to get drives due to the penalty free wins and half penalties,yet say to everyone else who battles away to make a living that they are entitled to no help.Also have the dumbos at hrnz not realised that many of the people losing their drives to the claiming juniors will be the ones who were juniors up until a year or two prior. The ex juniors who struggled getting drives receive no support from anyone when they lose their junior driver status. Anyobne who thinks they do is kidding themselves. Why would anyone put them on when they can use a current junior who will get them half points and penalty free wins. Just go look at the juniors who struggled for drives 5 years ago and you will see what i mean.You never hear of them again. and as i pointed out in a post last year,the juniorsin the bottom half of the premiership are not benefitting fro0 the cureent system one bit. They are not getting any extra drives at all. the stats show that. neally i think the whole penalty free system is stacked in favour of and against certain sectors of the industry. HRNZ know it,everyone knows it,but they simply don't care about that sector. HRNZ focus is very much on prioritising some sectors of the industry over others. Its very much illustrated in the penalty free,half penalty system ,whetehr it be junior drivers or 2 year olds or 3 year olds. i
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Many of those maiden trots with only 6, some only win by default, look at Palmy today, Nelson tomorrow.
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