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NZ Racing and Breeding News – 21 September 2020
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Another bumper Saturday for Te Akau
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Versatile sprinter on Railway path
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NZ Racing and Breeding News – 20 September 2020
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By George, Kolding back in winner’s stall
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Audio: John Bary
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Locals land massive upset in Tarzino
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Kerrin McEvoy breaks duck aboard Probabeel
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Kerrin McEvoy breaks duck aboard Probabeel
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Big Fish, Little Fish – Cambridge 20 September
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Meadows ‘Fix’ for Langton youngsters
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Gizmo and Demons…
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Selections | Oamaru, Sunday 20 September
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Hannon to clear murky NZ Cup waters
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Selections | Cambridge, 20 September
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All Saints’ Eve explodes in Tibbie
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Cameron Lammas Not Riding at Hawke’s Bay
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Vics MDC blitz
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New hoop for Jennifer Eccles
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Fashionable maiden win by Savabeel filly
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Needless to say, Dornoch didn't look as shocked as Jayson Werth had felt when someone once said much the same to him. But somehow he got the message, because next day he went out there as a longshot and came back the winner of the GI Belmont Stakes. It had just been the two of them, in his stall, Werth literally giving the horse a pep talk. So he wanted to be a stallion, a lot of pretty mares lining up? Wanted to be somebody in this game? Well, here's how it was. “This,” Werth told him, “is your last chance in horseracing.” A heartless phrase that went back to a time when he, too, had been written off; when nobody wanted to hear excuses–like Dornoch getting stranded by the rails draw in the Derby–and perhaps even suspected that he was malingering. After a superb debut season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Werth was hit by a fastball on the first day of spring training in 2005. He holds up the wrist, the bone still pretty messy even now. The medics gave him some routine treatments, including surgery when it stubbornly wouldn't clear up, and told him time and again that he was good to resume. “Except I couldn't even open a door,” he says. “It was that painful. And they're trying to tell me there's nothing wrong with me. Because all I had to do was get on the field for one inning, and they could send me down to the minor leagues and not pay my insurance. It was a time of ultimate turmoil, just bad, bad juju, bad vibes. People thinking that I was just trying to collect unemployment, essentially. When all I wanted to do was play.” He played a little in 2005, not at all in 2006. Finally he was released by the Dodgers. For an athlete in his prime, on the brink of stardom, it was purgatory. At one point, Werth had flown over to consult yet another doctor in Atlanta. On the way, he called home: his high school sweetheart Julia was raising their young kids, suffering in her own way from the whole saga. But it was only because he happened to visit that day, and went to the mailbox when he did, that he spotted the father of a boyhood teammate walking his dog over the street. Werth called out a greeting. Jayson Werth touches them all following a 2-run home run in the 2009 NLCS | Getty Images “Hey, Jayson, what's up? What are you doing here?” Werth explained about his wrist. “Man, you're still having problems with that?” “Yeah, I'm going to go see another specialist. This is like my eighth.” “Have you been to the Mayo Clinic?” “Never even heard of it.” Werth now remembered that this guy was an orthopaedic surgeon. “Their hand department up there is amazing. You should call them.” He gave Werth a name to ask for. Werth ran straight in and dialed the number. “I don't want to call back. I'll wait. Tell him this is important.” He was three hours on hold, in total, the first doctor having redirected him to a more relevant specialist. Finally he was talking with Dr. Berger's assistant. “Okay,” she said. “Let's make an appointment. How about Aug. 16?” This was May. He thought the Dodgers might get him moved up, but they didn't. Finally the day came. “Well,” Dick Berger told him. “You've got one of two things. One, I can fix it. If it's the other, you'll never play again.” So they did an MRI, and Werth braced himself for sleepless nights of waiting. But as he left the scanning room, there was Berger in the doorway. “Surgery tomorrow. I'll get you in early, be there at six. I got you. I can fix this.” Nearly 20 years later, Werth still chokes with emotion. Julia, too, has her eyes brimming. “We literally just sat on the phone and bawled our eyes out until six o'clock the next morning,” Werth recalls. “This was the only guy in the world that was doing this surgery, that was identifying and repairing what I had [an ulnotriquetral split.] Oh, man. I mean, I was done. My career was over before it started.” Not that his comeback was easy, even then. The Phillies had taken him on, but he was rusty and it was only because two of his new teammates got injured right at the trade deadline that he got his chance. The GM called him in. And that's when he heard those words: “This is your last chance in professional baseball.” Getty Images “And I'm like, my last chance? What the ****! I mean, I was just almost Rookie of the Year. I get hurt, and now this is my last chance?” He shakes his head, still incredulous. “So I get two hits that night. Four hits the next night. I end up hitting .420 for August. We run down the Mets in '07, we win the World Series in '08. I don't come off the field for 10 years. And that was my last chance.” Hence his words to this uncomprehending Thoroughbred, soon after discovering a surprising new stimulus for his retirement. There's a parallel, after all, between what he did during his own career and the preparation of Dornoch: endless, repetitive honing and rehearsing, all coming down to a fleeting moment of performance. “That part, I totally get,” Werth says. “They're the athlete. They're the pro. How much work you put into something. Plus the fact that he was pigeon-toed like I was! But yeah, the blood, sweat, and tears goes into it. You get so invested, owning these horses, it's crazy. It becomes as big a deal as when I was playing.” He had first become intrigued through golf buddies in Florida, who raced the occasional state-bred. “It's the same, whatever level you've played sports,” he says. “When you stop, you miss that competition. So having a horse leave the gate, it's like you're back on the field. I kind of tiptoed into it, at first, with a piece of some fillies. But all of a sudden it's Tuesday at Tampa Bay Downs, a $16,000 claimer I own a leg of, and I'm as fired up as I get. I'm alive again. I didn't even realize that there was a void to fill, that there was a huge piece of me missing.'” He was soon raising the bar with R Calli Kim (Revolutionary), whose thrilling off-the-pace style won two graded stakes. And then he walked into a bar at the Keeneland September Sale of 2022. “Could have gone left, could have gone right,” Werth recalls. “But I saw Danny [Gargan, trainer] and Conor [Foley, agent] and all those guys, who I knew, so I went over and talked. And next thing Danny's convinced me to take 10% percent of a Good Magic yearling they just bought [for $325,000]. First colt I ever had. Looking back, Danny was so full of it! And I was so green. I mean, like we're going to buy one colt and chase the Derby dream? But he even said, 'It'd be cool to have a guy like you in the game, get a celebrity involved. If this horse turns into something, it could become…' Really, become what it has. So he had a vision, and he was right.” And so the mutual attraction between horseracing and this usefully conspicuous convert–all that hair, all that open, buoyant engagement–began to intensify. Hoisting the Belmont Stakes trophy at Saratoga | Getty Images “Fountain of Youth day, I brought Max Scherzer, a first-ballot Hall of Fame pitcher, and some other baseball buddies,” he recalls. “We get a suite at Gulfstream. And R Calli Kim wins a Grade III, and then Dornoch wins, and it's starting to hit me: 'All right, guys. The dream is on.' I've won the World Series, I know what it's like, I get it. And I'm playing big games again.” The Derby itself proved an anti-climax, but the experience–the walkover, all the rest of it–was indelible. Going into the Belmont, Werth was affronted to see how quickly Dornoch had been forgotten. “We really, legitimately thought he was going to win the Derby,” he says. “But that one post, he's dead before it starts. Never had a chance. And now he's 17-1, the outcast. 'Come on, this is my guy. Don't trash my guy.' I knew how good this horse was. I believed in him. And I mean, he's like a family member. So that's when I go in and give him a full pep talk. Tapped him on the head, told him, 'This is it, dude, your last chance at horseracing.'” The delirium he shared with a watching nation, during and after the race, measured the revelation that horseracing had become. If anything, however, too much of a revelation. “As it started coming together, we thought, 'This is remarkable,'” he says. “My wife's fallen in love with it, too: the dresses, the hats, the big days, events before and after. And we were like, 'This is such a cool sport. How does nobody know about this?' “I mean, we lucked into this whole thing. I don't think the average American fan has any idea how cool this can be, above all from an ownership side. Because that's where you can differentiate: you're not just sports fans, but sport owners. That's where horseracing's missing the mark. That's how to change and grow the sport, through ownership. Because now these horses become your story, your reality. And you start peeling back the layers.” For too long, he suggests, ownership has been the preserve of the privileged few. “No offense, because it's these people, these families, that have stood the sport up to this point,” he acknowledges. “But the sport isn't growing. Why? Not because it hasn't evolved, started to do great things for the people and horses involved, to erase the stigmas. I mean, it's a way better sport than 20, 30, 50 years ago. And my challenge has been explaining that to people. So why is little old me having to tell them all this stuff? “The industry's done a poor job of storytelling, explaining, outreach. Granted, we've had unbelievable luck in what we've done. But without that success, I wouldn't be here. So that's driven me to see this soft spot: to share the experiences we've had, bring people in. Everybody I've invited to the track, to see a day through the lens of an owner, straightaway it's: 'How do I get involved?'” Werth is not naïve. He knows that many a novice has had a bad experience, maybe been taken for a ride. But as one who thrived because baseball cleaned up its act, leveling the playing field for those who had always played straight, he implores us to recognize the stakes. “Without new people coming in, I don't think the sport can sustain itself,” he says. “Look at the industry right now: it's addition by subtraction. We should be gaining tracks, not losing them. Yes, there's stuff that needed sorting, that people are doing a great job to get rid of. But you can talk about the bad parts of any industry. You want to talk about the low levels of minor league baseball? I mean, it sucks. And we're talking about human beings that can talk. So, of course we need to protect these horses that can't stand up for themselves. But if Aunt Tammy, Aunt Sally and Uncle Chad owned a piece, fewer would fall into the hands of people that don't care.” So what does addition by addition look like? Well, a lot like Icon Racing. While Werth admires the impact of fractional ownership entities, his evolving partnership is pitching a higher level of risk and reward. So far they've raised over $3 million from a typical stake of $100,000. “But I tell people not to look at it as an investment,” he says. “This is like buying season tickets, and taking your family to Disneyland, and going to Vegas, and buying Lotto tickets, all in one. With season tickets, you have your memories–but that's it. You own nothing. With this, you have all that, too, the great times with your families, the winner's circle pictures. But sometimes–not always, but sometimes–at the end you also have an investment that has value. “You don't need to own 100% of a horse to get 100% of the experience. I own 10% of Dornoch. Like, it was enough. I mean, it was life-changing. People will say, 'What a joke, the dude acts like he owns the whole thing.' I'm here to tell you that if I owned one percent, I'd have acted the same. That's the point.” Werth recognizes the challenge, even with $100,000 investors, in competing against the superpower programs. Werth at last year's Keeneland September Sale | Keeneland “But so what?” he says. “That's what's fun. We can still play the same game as the billionaires. Sure, there's going to be more people in the winner's circle, in the paddock. So what? Where's the hang-up?” Werth grabs his phone and holds it aloft. “This thing should be revolutionizing horseracing,” he says. “You can be anywhere in the world, in a meeting, at work, whatever. 'Excuse me. One second. I got a race.' I want to put cameras in the stalls. So any time of day you can go on your phone and, 'Hey, look at this. There's my guy.'” This zeal is now being infectiously communicated through a podcast with fellow MLB veteran Shawn Kelley, Off The Rail. Meanwhile Icon recruited six yearlings at Keeneland last September and have further capital for the juvenile sales. That's their trading window, that's putting a team together: horses, trainers, riders, above all partners. Because Werth always relished how a gladiatorial showdown between individuals, pitcher and batter, derived its meaning from the teams around them. “Oh yeah, that camaraderie,” he says. “I played on so many good teams. There was only one that wasn't, and the difference was obvious: chemistry. We had good players, but didn't win because the inside was toxic. “And that's the thing about horseracing that's so unique. This whole industry is a team. Yes, everyone's trying to win purses. But we're all pulling in one direction, to not let our sport die. It's been going the wrong way for so long. That's not where I'm going.” Werth's own journey remains in its early stages. He has been involved barely as long as those cruel three years when he was all but lost to baseball. But this time everything–the emotion, the intensity, the high stakes–have all been positive. “This is an incredible sport,” he says. “And I believe in it. I think we can grow the sport, despite itself. That's why we're going forward with this whole thing. To show people how amazing, how compelling, it can be. How it can rip your god-damned heart out of your chest.” The post Jayson Werth: A Home Run For Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Tickets for the 42nd running of the Breeders' Cup World Championships will go on sale to the general public April 23, with the event returning Oct. 31-Nov. 1 to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Tickets for the 42nd running of the Breeders' Cup World Championships will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, Apr. 23 for the two-day event scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2025, at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Fans may click here to enroll for special pre-sale ticket access. Beginning in 2025, fans must have an account on SeatGeek in order to purchase tickets to the Breeders' Cup. Accounts may be created free of charge by clicking here. More than $34 million in purses and awards will be distributed across the 14 Grade I events that comprise the Breeders' Cup. Del Mar, which also hosted the 2024 championships, will be staging the event for the fourth time. Breeders' Cup Experiences is the official ticket, hospitality, and travel provider for the 2025 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar. For more information, visit BreedersCupExperiences.com. The post 2025 Breeders’ Cup Tickets On Sale Apr. 23 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Following a couple of notable performances in the last seven days, the time has come for a long overdue trip to France and a dive into an all-weather scene which is just as vibrant nowadays as that on this side of the Channel. For every Notable Speech (GB) there's been an Ace Impact (Ire), who made a successful debut on the all-weather at Cagnes-Sur-Mer in January 2023, before retiring at the end of that year as the unbeaten winner of the Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. It was on the polytrack at Deauville that last year's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine, Rouhiya (Fr), registered her first career victory the previous November, while fellow Classic scorers Castle Lady (Ire) and Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Ire), as well as dual Group 1 winner Junko (GB), feature among the star names to have shed their maiden tag on the polytrack at Chantilly. It was at the last-named venue that we witnessed perhaps the most striking display on the all-weather last week, courtesy of the Carlos and Yann Lerner-trained Godspeed (Fr), a six-length winner of the one-mile heat for unraced fillies on Friday's card. Settled in mid-division in the early stages, the daughter of Hello Youmzain (Fr) was still hard on the bridle as the 14-strong field turned into the straight. From there she made serene progress to challenge the long-time leader entering the final furlong, before drawing right away for an effortless debut defeat of the well-touted, Juddmonte newcomer Temptable (GB) (Kingman {GB}), the second foal out of the GI Natalma Stakes heroine Capla Temptress (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). An €80,000 purchase at the Arqana August Yearling Sale, Godspeed is the fourth winner from five runners out of Listed scorer Mary's Precedent (Fr) (Storming Home {GB}), a half-sister to Lovemedo (Fr) (Zafeen {Fr}), the Listed-placed dam of the G3 Prix Cleopatre winner and G1 Prix Saint-Alary third Crown Princesse (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}). Mary's Precedent's other winners include the Listed-placed Mary's France (Fr) (Acclamation {GB}). Last year the Lerners tasted Classic success for the first time as a training duo, with their Prix du Jockey Club winner Look De Vega (Fr), and they're entitled to be thinking of a trial now with this filly, ahead of a potential tilt at the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. It would certainly be another feather in the cap of Hello Youmzain if she can make that step up, after the Haras d'Etreham resident was crowned the leading first-season sire in France in 2024. 'The Little Princes' Makes Big Impression Around 600 miles south of Chantilly at Cagnes-Sur-Mer, Les Petits Prince (Fr) was also being talked about in Classic terms after his last-to-first victory in the one-mile maiden on Monday's card, with his trainer, Nicolas Perret, reporting that the son of Bated Breath (GB) is likely to be given an entry in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains. Admittedly, it probably wasn't the deepest race of its type, but the runner-up was a solid yardstick, having finished placed in each of his four previous starts. Les Petits Prince ultimately took care of that rival in relatively straightforward fashion after fluffing the start, hitting the front entering the final furlong and just needing to be kept up to his work from there to land the spoils by a length and a quarter. Bred by Haras du Mont dit Mont, Let Petits Prince is one of three winners from six runners out of the unraced Hurricane Run (Ire) mare Hurbling (Ire), from the family of the multiple Group 1 winners Hermosa (Ire) and Hydrangea (Ire), both by Galileo (Ire). Their dam is the G2 Prix du Gros-Chene heroine Beauty Is Truth (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), a half-sister to this colt's winning grandam. The three winners out of Hurbling to date include a full-brother in Summiter (Ire), who was Group 3-placed as a three-year-old when he finished third in the Prix de Fontainebleau. That race, won in recent years by the subsequent Poulains winners Brametot (Ire) and Persian King (Ire), would look a suitable target for this colt if his connections feel like putting his Classic credentials to the test. Either way, the €14,000 it cost to secure Les Petits Prince at the Arqana v.2 Yearling Sale already looks a very shrewd piece of business. He's also a potential flagbearer for Perret who, in just his fifth year with a licence, leads the trainers' championship in France at this very early stage with 13 winners and nearly €290,000 in total prize-money won. Powerhouse Stables Lock Horns Back in Britain, Tony Carroll has been by far the most prolific trainer since the turn of the year, with his tally of 29 winners putting him well clear of Andrew Balding (16) and Karl Burke (13) in the podium positions. The last-named pair have both enjoyed their fair share of success in recent days, but it was Balding who had the final say in what was arguably the most interesting race run on the all-weather in Britain last week, namely the class 2 handicap run over six furlongs at Southwell on Friday. Burke was responsible for the 10/11 favourite in the hitherto unbeaten Rebel's Gamble (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) but, in the event, the concession of 15lb to Balding's Humam (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) was simply too much on their respective handicap debuts. Humam dominated from the front and kept going well to win by a length and three-quarters from his chief market rival, who was held up before making late headway to snatch second in the final strides. Both horses had received positive mentions in previous editions of Winter Watch and it's fair to say that they each enhanced their reputations with the way that they performed at Southwell. Humam, who opened his account in a seven-furlong maiden at Lingfield on his previous start, seems to be improving with every race and should be up to winning again from a revised mark of 86. Certainly, his pedigree is an ongoing recommendation, as a half-brother to three black-type performers, headed by the G3 Bengough Stakes and G3 Palace House Stakes winner Vadream (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}). As for Rebel's Gamble, this was the first blemish on his record after a pair of victories at Southwell and Newcastle, but he didn't lose much in defeat from a lofty opening mark of 95. He remains one to be positive about, already not too far off the sort of level required to make him competitive in minor stakes company. Baker's Dozen Up for Burke Burke went on to saddle his 12th and 13th winners of the year with an across-the-card double in the space of around 20 minutes on Saturday, with Nordic Norm (GB) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}) making a winning debut in the one-mile maiden at Newcastle, before The Watcher (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) maintained his unbeaten record with a smooth success in the seven-furlong novice at Wolverhampton. The Middleham trainer is likely to saddle few easier winners this year than The Watcher, who simply did what was expected of him as the 1-5 favourite, ultimately winning by five lengths, having dictated a steady gallop in the early stages. He now finds himself in the same boat that stable-mate Rebel's Gamble did before his Southwell run on Friday, with handicaps now an option after he was allotted an opening mark of 89. He's clearly a promising sort, but stiffer tasks lie ahead for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum's homebred, the third winner from as many runners out of an unraced Lope De Vega (Ire) mare. As for David and Yvonne Blunt's homebred Nordic Norm, he's the first foal out of an unraced Exceed And Excel (Aus) mare. His second dam is the multiple Group 2 runner-up Fraloga (Ire) (Grand Lodge), a half-sister to a pair of Group 1 winners by Linamix (Fr) in Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud scorer Fragrant Mix (Ire) and Prix Jean Romanet heroine Alpine Rose (Fr). The official winning margin for 10-11 favourite Nordic Norm was just a head, though he always looked like he was doing enough once hitting the front inside the final furlong. He is open to more improvement and looks a likely candidate for another novice on the all-weather if Burke wants to give him more experience before the start of the turf season. Tremorgio Takes Care of Business Of the trainers who have saddled 10 or more runners on the all-weather in Britain in 2025, seven of them have a strike rate of at least 30% at the time of writing. Burke is one of them, having saddled his 13 winners from 42 runners (31%), but you won't be surprised to hear that it's Charlie Appleby who leads the way by that metric with six winners from 12 runners (50%). The latest winner for Appleby was Tremorgio (GB), who made it two from two for the Godolphin team when sent off the 1-7 favourite for the novice run over a mile and a half at Southwell on Friday. Admittedly, champion jockey Oisin Murphy didn't enjoy an entirely stress-free outing on the son of Dubawi (Ire), briefly facing a wall of horses entering the final two furlongs, but his mount responded well once getting clear sailing as he lengthened away to win by three and a quarter lengths under his penalty. In truth, we probably didn't learn anything new about Tremorgio in what was a thin-looking contest, but he got the job done in a professional manner, not necessarily a given for a horse who was gelded before his debut at Newmarket in October and has now worn cheekpieces in both of his racecourse appearances to date. At Newmarket he'd been very weak in the betting, doubling in price from 9-2 to 9-1, with stable-mate Arabian Poet (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) clearly expected to fare better as the 15-8 favourite. The first foal out of the winning Invincible Spirit (Ire) mare Spring Of Love (GB) who, in turn, is out of the G2 Rockfel Stakes third Desert Blossom (Ire) (Shamardal), Tremorgio almost certainly isn't one of the leading lights at Moulton Paddocks, but he should at least make up into a useful handicapper for his powerful connections. He's been given an opening mark of 89. More to Come from Crack On Boys Les Petits Prince wasn't the only bargain buy to impress in recent days, with the Tom Clover-trained Crack On Boys (GB) also deserving a mention after his wide-margin victory in the one-mile maiden at Newcastle last Tuesday. The son of Cracksman (GB) went unsold at 8,000gns when first offered at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale, before being purchased for €35,000 at last year's Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-up Sale. That already screams value for the group who now own Crack On Boys, The Galivanters, as he looks a colt with the potential to give them plenty of fun days out in the coming months judged on the style of his Gosforth Park success. Held up last of the five runners in the early stages, he made smooth headway to lead entering the final furlong, before drawing right away to beat the subsequent winner, Orangesandlemons (GB) (Mayson {GB}), by four and a quarter lengths. Beaten just a length when finishing fourth on his debut at Lingfield in December, Crack On Boys also became the third next-time-out winner to come out of that one-mile maiden, after the runner-up Solar Pass (GB) (Phoenix Reach {Ire}) and third Mdawi (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). Their subsequent exploits all pay a handsome compliment to the narrow winner on the day, Baridi (GB) (Sergei Prokofiev), who sprung a mild surprise at odds of 14-1 and was later bought by bloodstock agent Alessandro Marconi for 100,000gns at the Tattersalls February Sale. What Crack On Boys is worth now is hard to know, but he's certainly bred to do better still when he steps up in trip, for all that he didn't look short of pace at Newcastle. He is a half-brother to Eagle's Foot (GB) (Free Eagle {Ire}), a dual winner over an extended two miles, while his unraced dam is a half-sister to the G3 Prix du Prince d'Orange hero and Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Best Name (GB) (King's Best). Winners in Waiting Dancing Teapot (Ire), runner-up at Dundalk (November 22) since publication Padua (Ire), seventh at Kempton (December 4) since publication Marhaba Ghaiyyath (Ire), winner at Lingfield (December 3) since publication Safe Idea (GB), third at Wolverhampton (December 21) since publication Indian Springs (Ire) Spanish Voice (GB) Noble Horizon (GB) Dixieland Blues (GB) City Of God (Ire), winner at Southwell (January 17) since publication War And Love (GB), runner-up at Chelmsford (January 11) and fifth at Newcastle (February 4) since publication Cupola (GB) Lady Lilac (Ire) The post Winter Watch: Godspeed on Road to the Classics appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
By Renee Geelen It was revealed on Thursday by 7news.com.au that Anthony Cummings has been given an eviction notice by the Australian Turf Club (ATC) from Leilani Stables. Additionally, he has had his training licence revoked by Racing NSW and this is going through an appeals process which is understood to be concluded on Friday by the Racing Appeals Tribunal. These are two separate issues but are related to each other, as only a licenced trainer can hold a lease on ATC-owned stables. Australian Racing has a couple of rules around bankruptcy, but they don't necessarily apply to Cummings, as it is his business which is in liquidation, not himself as a person. In October 2024, Racing NSW issued a show-cause notice to Cummings with regards to his business, Rosscarbery Holdings, being liquidated, and the process around his licence has been ongoing since then. When Racing NSW revoked his licence last Friday, this triggered a clause in his lease from the Australian Turf Club for Leilani Lodge. Cummings now awaits the outcome of his appeal to the Racing Appeals Tribunal. “As it stands, Anthony has issued an appeal notification to the finding and sought a stay of proceedings which will likely be decided over the weekend or on Monday,” said Cummings' son Edward. “In the meantime, both of us have asked the ATC to give permission for me to take over the lease at Leilani so the horses' preparations aren't interrupted by this. “It's a little bit chicken and egg because only a licenced trainer can hold a lease, and I'm a licenced provisional trainer, not metro. I need Racing NSW to upgrade my licence to metro so I can take over the lease on Leilani Lodge, and we need the ATC to agree to this as well. “What I've been able to achieve on my own over the last few years is worthy of the upgrade, and the lease at Leilani. I'm an excellent candidate to take over the stables given our results on the track. We currently have a full barn with a full suite of staff and highly skilled riders, and owners who are supportive of our process.” The famous stables on High Street in Randwick have been occupied by a member of the Cummings family for over 40 years. Bart Cummings trained there until his death in 2015 when his grandson James took over. When James was given the opportunity to become head trainer at Godolphin in 2017, the stable lease was transferred to James' brother Edward and father Anthony. Anthony and Edward trained in partnership from Leilani Lodge until Edward formed Myrtle House at Hawkesbury Racecourse in 2019 where he trained on his own until August 2024. The post Cummings’ Training License Revoked, Given Eviction Notice from Leilani Lodge appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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