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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The resurgence of a former superstar of Perth racing continued when Western Empire (NZ) (Iffrraj) lived up to his $1.85 favouritism in Saturday’s Gr.3 Furphy Belmont Sprint (1400m). The son of Iffraaj won seven of his first 12 starts in 2020 and 2021, including a stunning four-length romp in the Gr.1 Railway Stakes (1600m) and victory in the Gr.2 WA Derby (2400m). Western Empire was trained through those glory days by Grant and Alana Williams for powerhouse Perth owner Bob Peters. The gelding subsequently had two campaigns in Victoria, finishing fifth in the Gr.1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) and Gr.1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) for Danny O’Brien and finishing outside the placings in five appearances for John Leek Jr. The Williams team jumped at the opportunity when Western Empire was placed on an Inglis Digital Sale last October, purchasing him for A$150,000 and bringing him back to their Karnup stable. Western Empire immediately showed some of that old spark with a placing in the A$200,000 The Joey (1200m) in his resuming run at Ascot on April 20. His second-up appearance came in the Gr.3 Northam Stakes (1300m) on May 5, where he snapped his two-year win drought with a dominant victory by two and a half lengths. Saturday’s Belmont Sprint brought more of the same. The six-year-old dropped a long way off the speed and was caught wide for a large part of the race, but rider William Pike brought him to the outside at the top of the Belmont straight and let him rip. Western Empire showed a top-class turn of foot and rattled home from the back, drawing up alongside Searchin’ Roc’s (Awesome Rock). That rival refused to surrender, however, and the pair fought out a desperate battle to the finish with Western Empire winning by a nose. The third placegetter finished almost three lengths behind the first two. “That run was full of merit,” Pike said. “I wasn’t sure he’d earned that price today, going up in weight and from a wide barrier. We were back and wide and had quite a lot to overcome, but he’s done it really well.” From 23 starts, Western Empire has now recorded nine wins and six placings, earning more than A$1.76 million. “He’s done well today,” Grant Williams said. “He obviously had a bit to do, he had a wide run, so it was super. He had to really stretch his neck out to get the win. “Looking at him in the yard today, it looked like he needed the mile already. Hopefully he might draw a bit better next time and have an easier time of it. “The plan is to go to the Hyperion (Gr.3, 1600m) next in two weeks’ time, and then the Strickland (Gr.3, 2000m) another two weeks after that. We want to get to the Strickland if we’re going to think about taking him back east. “But we’ve always got to put the horse first. I think we’ve been pretty lucky to snag him, so we’re going to have to make it work for us.” Western Empire, who was born at Haunui Farm and cared for on behalf of breeder Bob Peters, is one of 38 southern hemisphere-bred stakes winners for former Haunui shuttle stallion Iffraaj. That list also includes fellow Group One winners Turn Me Loose (NZ), Gingernuts (NZ), Jon Snow (NZ) and Wyndspelle (NZ). The dam of Western Empire is the Group Two-winning Jeune mare Western Jewel, who also has the Listed winner Western Temple (Dream Ahead) among her five winners from seven foals to race. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Accomplished Savabeel gelding Milford (NZ) took his career earnings past A$700,000 with a powerful come-from-behind win in Saturday’s L.V. Lachal Handicap (1600m) at Flemington. It was the fifth win from 32 career starts for Milford, and his first since the Gr.3 Eclipse Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield in November of 2022. He has earned A$746,021 for Elsdon Park’s Lib and Katrina Petagna along with co-owners Greg Clarke and David and Nicki Wilson. The six-year-old settled second-last among a strung-out field on Saturday, with Bank Maur (Maurice) setting a solid speed out in front. The field bunched up coming up to the home turn, and Milford’s rider Declan Bates was able to pick a path between horses to lodge his claim in the final 300m. Milford lengthened stride and charged home in between Green Fly (Frankel) and El Soleado (Toronado), getting up to win by a neck in a $31 upset. Trainer Mike Moroney is still recuperating after being hospitalised with illness last month. He was represented at Flemington by assistant trainer Glen Thompson. “I thought he could sneak into a place, but I didn’t think he was a winning chance,” Thompson said. “He’s been going well. His first-up run was okay. He got back, but didn’t really have any luck. “It was a nice patient ride by Declan (Bates). He needed that in that class. He’s won better races than this before, so hopefully it’s a good sign for the remainder of the prep. “It’s good to get a winner for Mike. He was watching and I spoke to him after the race, and that will give him a good uplift today.” Milford began his career with Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh and won the Listed Gingernuts Salver (2100m) during his three-year-old career, while he was also runner-up in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) won by Rocket Spade (Fastnet Rock) before joining Moroney’s operation. Bred by Waikato Stud, Milford was a $360,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sale purchase by agent Bruce Perry on behalf of Lib Petagna’s JML Bloodstock. He is out of the unraced O’Reilly mare Etiquette (NZ), who is a sister to the four-time Group One winner and ill-fated sire Sacred Falls. Milford’s Flemington victory came one week after his brother Savoir Faire (NZ) captured a 2000m Benchmark 78 handicap at Caulfield on May 11. View the full article -
By TAB For Ever · Posted
Been watching a bit of Harness lately , up close and live , so will put my tuppence in re the Purdon domination which has been obvious and outstanding for decades. Of late ,Barry Purdon has enjoyed outstanding success and as well as heaping praise on his co-trainer Scott Phelan he admits that he now has the owners who will pay the big money to get the best horses from the yearling sales. He said this has made a big difference to his results and again in 2024 his stable and clients have been among the top buyers. Of course Dean Shannon is among the biggest , and he has others as well[some paying $200k plus in 2024]. He is also getting some of the hghest priced trotters as well. Last nights Auckland trot for 2 yr old [Group 3] was won by Higher Power [ $120k as yearling in 2023] from Mean't To Be [$145 k yearling]. This syndicate incl Barry also bought the top lot in 2024. Of course Mark Purdon has always had big spending owners who have enjoyed amazing success incl Aussie June Feiss and one buyer who only buys one horse a year with amazing success. Some of his big owners have ,I believe seen the downside of one-stable domination and in past few years spread their horses around more ,plus Mark declines some ! I doubt the sons can achieve their Dad's success. He had an eye for a horse , was a master horseman and is a great driver. When he joined with Natalie their firepower and qualities doubled cos like him she too had master qualities , possibly even a better driver and they both worked incredibly hard. That team can't and won't be matched. In recent years they decided to concentrate on horses who could achieve results at Premier and Group meetings and they ruthlessly cut any horses who did not meet these standards. These would be the years of their standout UDR. I know this cos a couple of my syndicates got horses into the stable and even before they had trialled they were sent packing. One well bred horse won a trial and raced at Addington for a handy second but was sent packing even though the main owner had a few in the stable. Their standards were high. That horse won about 4 races from 40 starts afterwards! Years ago I had been in Syndicate horses with the All Stars which made the original cut. One raced in early 2yr old races ,when clearly not in their top two cos it driven by David Butt or Jim Curtin and it won a big Group 1 race. Then as a 3 yr old it won another G1,Mark took a liking to it so even when it got a very serious structural injury he rehabbed it and it came back and won a few more races before being cut loose !. Then another syndicate horse who I liked , Mark won 4 races quite quickly and it could run 4th or 5th in group 1 races. Mark said "I recommend you sell it" .The Syndicate voted 'no way'.....over about 3 more seasons it won one more lowly race. Mark had said at the time he had 6x better horses same age in his stable......he was right ! Master horseman ! -
thanks for your reply. sorry, i have no intention of offending you,but your reply hasn't enlightened me at all. as to live streaming,theres 80 meetings run today that i could bet on with entain from many countries. theres probably somewhere i could live stream the first from Uruguay as well. Then again maybe not. I have an active tab nsw account,yet i have never been able to see the live racing video part on the website as it says i have no access to protected content. their website says access is limited to being in australia. so the obvious question is,if i was in australia could i live stream ournz trackside coverage. You sound like your in aussie,so can you? anyway,even if it were possible,being able to live stream a nz harness race will do next to nothing to encourage nz harness betting,from the australian punters watching the sky racing channels at home or the pub or the tab's. what does interest me is your saying nz harness is on sky racing 2. That does help ,but we need specifics as to the lead in times and what does sky racing 2 prioritise. Tomorrow rangiora is on sky racing 2,but so are 16 other meetings. how do you explain the wednesday addington races last week having win polls averaging over $6,000 per race and this week averaging only just over $2,000. so what i'm saying is its very obvious from tabcorp betting pools that nz harness is getting very inconsistent sky racing coverage. I have seen a 7 horse non win race at manawatu with no form get a win pool turnover of over $10,000 and i have seen several full field quality races at premier meetings hardly reach $1000 turnover. so generalising and saying harness racing is on sky 2 ,well unfortunately it doesn't help. -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
Trialled at Menangle this week. Ran 1:50 for the mile so not too far away from a come back.
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