Chief Stipe

Trainer James Cummings to train in Hong Kong from 2026-27 www.racenet.com.au James Cummings has withdrawn his application for the famous Leilani Lodge stables at Royal Randwick after accepting an offer to train in Hong Kong. Cummings flew to Hong Kong on Tuesday to front a press conference this morning in which the Hong Kong Jockey Club confirmed the trainer would move there for the start of the 2026-27 season. It's a real coup for Hong Kong racing to secure one of Sydney's most outstanding trainers. Cummings' tenure as Godolphin's private trainer comes to an end on July 31. He will take a "sabbatical'' from training before he moves to Hong Kong next year. Clinton Payne - Last 28 Days • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! "This wasn't a decision I made lightly. With the upcoming conclusion of my exclusive role at Godolphin, I have carefully considered the right path forward,'' Cummings said. "While continuing to train in Australia was my intention, the opportunity in Hong Kong presented a unique and respected environment to challenge myself and grow further as a trainer. This is a progression to the next stage of my career in a new jurisdiction.'' Cummings said he was privileged to lead a "talented and committed team" at Godolphin since 2017. "In deciding not to train next season, I also wanted to be fair to my staff by giving them the opportunity to commit to a long-term role with another stable,'' he said. "To the owners who had already been forthcoming in their support, I want to express my sincerest appreciation. "I felt it would be unfair to continue, only to step away and leave the team and yearlings without guidance during a pivotal stage in their development." Cummings has been reconsidering his future since Godolphin Australia recently made a bombshell announcement that it was moving to a public training model from August 1. The trainer had lodged an application to take over the vacant Leilani Lodge stables at Royal Randwick. The Australian Turf Club's board of directors is due to meet this week to discuss which trainer will be allocated the 60-boxes at Leilani Lodge where Bart Cummings trained so successfully for more than 40 years. An original Hall of Fame inductee, Bart Cummings prepared some of his greatest champions out of Leilani Lodge including Saintly, So You Think, Beau Zam, Shaftesbury Avenue, Sky Chase, Campaign King, Dane Ripper and many others. The nation's leading trainer, Ciaron Maher, and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott team are the clear favourites to be given the keys to the Randwick stables which have been vacant since the licence of James's father, Anthony Cummings, was revoked earlier this year. The famous Leilani Lodge stables at Randwick. • Comeback star can give Cummings a Golden send-off in Stradbroke James Cummings is only 37 years of age and has already trained 52 career Group 1 winners including two with his legendary grandfather, Bart. To put this achievement into context, Bart Cummings and Tommy Smith didn't train their 50th Group 1 winner until they turned 45. Chris Waller may rewrite all the training records but he didn't get to 50 big race wins until he was 42. In fact, the only other trainer to reach 50 Group 1 wins before the age of 40 was Lee Freedman who was 38. Cummings has been Godolphin's trainer since 2017 and has been hugely successful for the global racing and breeding giant, preparing 48 Group 1 winners for the "Blue Army" and more than $200 million prizemoney. Anamoe has been Godolphin's best horse during the Cummings era winning nine Group 1 races including the 2022 Cox Plate and earning Horse of the Year honours in 2022-23. Cummings trained a Golden Slipper quinella in 2019 with Kiamichi and Microphone, and the winners of the Golden Eagle (Colette, 2019), Doncaster Mile (Cascadian, 2021), Epsom Handicap (Hartnell, 2018), Tancred Stakes (Avilius, 2019) and two Golden Roses with Broadsiding (2024) and Bivouac (2019). The champion trainer also enjoyed tremendous success for Godolphin interstate preparing the winners of the All Star Mile (Tom Kitten, 2025), two Australian Cups (Cascadian 2023, 2024), three Newmarket Handicaps (Bivouac, 2020, In Secret, 2023 and Cylinder, 2024), two VRC Oaks (Zardozi, 2024 and Willowy, 2021), two Caulfield Guineas (Anamoe, 2021 and Golden Mile, 2022) and the Stradbroke Handicap (Trekking, 2019).

www.racenet.com.au Arrowfield Stud's super sire Snitzel, the nation's four-time champion stallion, has died. He was 23. John Messara, Arrowfield's chairman, told News Corp Snitzel passed away just after 11am on Wednesday. "We are all devastated by what's happened,'' Messara said. "Snitzel had not been well over the last 12 months with a liver complaint but he has gone downhill rapidly the last few days. I'm still in a state of shock.'' Clinton Payne - Last 28 Days • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! In an Arrowfield press release it was revealed: "Despite comprehensive veterinary support and the daily dedication of Arrowfield's experienced stallion team, his condition deteriorated rapidly over the past week. With no treatment options remaining, the decision was made to allow him a peaceful and dignified farewell." A former outstanding sprinter, Snitzel won the 2006 Group 1 Oakleigh Plate before retiring to stud where he forged a deserved reputation as one of the all-time great stallions. Snitzel has sired 23 individual Group 1 winners and more than 150 individual stakes winners including three Golden Slippers, two The Everests, a Cox Plate, two Golden Roses, four Guineas', a Flight Stakes, two Magic Millions 2yo Classics, an Inglis Sires trifecta and most of Australia's feature sprints. Super sire Snitzel has died aged 23 The acclaimed stallion's best progeny included Redzel, Lady Shenandoah, Trapeze Artist, Russian Revolution, Shamus Award, Snitzerland, Switzerland, Wild Ruler, Sweet Idea, Estijaab and Marhoona. Boasting more than 1600 race wins as a sire, his progeny won just $273 million in stakes. Snitzel was a four-time Australian Champion Sire, four-time Champion 2YO Sire, two-time Champion 3YO Sire, and five Inglis Easter sale-toppers and 71 yearlings that have sold for $1 million or more. READ: ‘Never seen a better jockey': J-Mac closes in on Miracle Mal's mark The super stallion has averaged 24 stakes wins every season for a decade and at the southern hemisphere's premier yearling sale, Inglis Australian Easter Sale, he had seven $1 million-plus lots, including a $2.7 million full brother to Switzerland for a sale-high average of $708,000 for his 32 yearlings. Jockey Craig Newitt rides Snitzel to victory in the 2006 Oakleigh Plate Snitzel, like his sire and former Arrowfield great Redoute's Choice, is creating his own legacy with 17 stakes-siring sons and his broodmare daughters are already the source of 46 stakes winners. The great Snitzel is currently fourth on the Australian Champion Sires rankings for 2024-25 with more than $20.7 million but is also the leading sire for individual stakes winners and stakes wins. There was a real poignancy to Snitzel's last winner before his death – a two-year-old first starter at Seymour on Monday called "Job Done".

What's the point of having an $11m asset if you can't look after it? Resource the damn thing!!! Surely the Stipes are all over safety - have they looked at the Clegg readings and walked the track? Suits look good in these:

Blinkers for Asfoora at Royal Ascot? www.racing.com Trainer Henry Dwyer is considering applying blinkers to Asfoora for the Australian mare's defence of the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot next week. Asfoora turned in a pleasing gallop in blinkers on the July Course at Newmarket on Monday as Dwyer prepares her for her first assignment of this year's overseas campaign. "We threw a set of shades on her," Dwyer told RSN's Racing Pulse on Tuesday, talking about the gallop. "I've always wanted to but it's a bit hard to change things when they are going really well. Not that she's not going well, but I just feel like we're nearer the end than the start and I've got a bit of an itch to scratch with the blinkers, I think. "I reckon they'll help her find a length or two, so we threw them on in trackwork just to make sure she'll be OK with them, and she was. "So I dare say at this stage we'll put them on when she runs next Tuesday." WATCH: Asfoora's 2024 Royal Ascot win Dwyer said he had long thought Asfoora would improve with blinkers but had been reluctant to change given how well the flying mare has continued to race. But he feels now might be the time to try the sprinter in the headgear on race day. Asfoora stormed to victory in Adelaide first-up this preparation in the RN Irwin Stakes (1100m) in April, before finishing seventh in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) two weeks later in her final start before her trip back to the UK. "She won well first-up," Dwyer said. "I just thought she probably was entitled to go a bit better in Adelaide (in the Sangster), despite the fact it was 1200m and despite the fact she was a bit flat second-up, maybe. "I just thought she was probably a bit below her best and then she trialled at Flemington before she left and once again I just thought she probably didn't do as much as she should. "And just her recovery has been a lot better this prep. I think it's a legacy of her reserving her energy a bit more. She used to get very wound up, whereas now I think she's just being a bit complacent. "I think she's in good order and she's going well but I just think there's one little key missing and I'm hoping it's the blinkers." WATCH: Asfoora's Sangster run Oisin Murphy, who rode Asfoora during her UK campaign last year, including her Royal Ascot win, was aboard the mare in the gallop over 800m with a workmate. "We strode off from the five-furlong marker and we used the one-furlong mark as our winning post," Dwyer said. "It's sort of downhill, the Newmarket July course but the last 200m is pretty stiff uphill and I didn't think she needed that strong a workout uphill. "They went evens for the first furlong, Oisin just sat off a workmate there and I didn't want him doing too much on her, but I said 'Just make sure you get your head in front on the line', so he just squeezed up the inside, inside the workmate and put paid to him pretty quickly. "As he said after the work, he said 'I had to break her jaw to pull her up, she was charging through the line'." Dwyer revealed Murphy was suitably impressed by the way Asfoora is going leading into her Royal Ascot defence. "Initially he just said 'She gave me the same feel as last year' and then I pressed him and he said 'She's absolutely flying' and that she's going better than last year, he thought," Dwyer said. "He's probably galloped her five times, last year and today, and he said it's the best she's ever galloped, so I'm hopeful that he's a good judge." While Dwyer expects she is shaping as one of the main contenders again for the King Charles III Stakes, he also feels Asfoora has some improvement to come in her coat, having arrived in the UK summer later this year as compared to 2024 when she raced at Haydock in late May ahead of the Royal Ascot meeting. "I still only think she looks probably a seven out of 10, maybe. The work was still fantastic, but I just feel like there's room for improvement in her looks," Dwyer said. He said Asfoora still looked a bit 'wintery', having come from the cool Ballarat weather. "She'll catch up and she'll reacclimatise but it just hasn't happened yet," he said. "It will happen between Ascot and Goodwood, so still looking at those races at Goodwood and York as better chances for her to win races because she will be more acclimatised, but off what we saw in her gallop this morning, you'd be hard pressed to think she won't be right there."

Exactly. A self policing system is not going to work as evident with the penetrometer readings out of some major track venues. Surely it could be a role for the RIB and their Stewards who take control on raceday. They could perform an independent QA role.

Name them.

You buy that indecision for $55m?

2025 Stradbroke Handicap: Cejay Graham to ride The Inflictor www.racenet.com.au Pressure is your friend. Young jockey Cejay Graham has those words ringing in her ears as she prepares for the "pinch myself moment" of riding in her first Stradbroke Handicap. The words were delivered by Graham's mentor, trainer Kelly Schweida, after the young jockey came from Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-coast to be Schweida's apprentice in the big smoke in Brisbane a couple of years ago. And never have they been more fitting as Graham, 26, prepares to ride Queensland fairytale horse The Inflictor in Saturday's $3m Stradbroke at Eagle Farm. "The best bit of advice Kelly has given me was that pressure is your friend," Graham said. "You've got to absorb the pressure and embrace it. "That's one thing he said to me that really stuck, because coming from a few knock-backs early in my riding career I wasn't initially too confident with some things and he just said ‘don't let the pressure get to you'. "If you don't have pressure, you probably aren't going really good, are you? "So when you put it like that, you want the pressure, don't you? "It is a pretty cool saying that is stuck in my head." The Inflictor winning The Gateway at Eagle Farm to collect a golden ticket into the Stradbroke Handicap. Picture: Trackside Photography Graham might hail from New South Wales, but she now considers herself as Queensland as the Great Barrier Reef. And that's just as well because a lot of Queensland will be supporting her – and the remarkable story of The Inflictor and his 60-year-old truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins – in the Stradbroke. The Inflictor is the home-bred hero who qualified for the Stradbroke by winning the ballot exempt race of The Gateway at Eagle Farm last December. Graham rode the four-year-old gelding to win that day and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. She is pinching herself that she has a chance to ride him to glory in the Stradbroke, in a race which will be her fourth career Group 1 ride. "Craig was pretty adamant he wanted to stick with me straight after The Gateway, so it's great that he has done that and its fantastic to be given the opportunity," Graham said. "It's real pinch myself kind of stuff. "I think there will be a lot of Queenslanders cheering for us on the day. "I've done a lot of work with him behind the scenes, I definitely know the horse inside and out. "He is tough when he leads, but he doesn't have to lead. "I think he's got a great chance. "And I've really got to thank Kelly (Schweida) for his support as I wouldn't have got the gig riding up in Brisbane without him. "And if it wasn't for his continued support coming out of my apprenticeship, I might have struggled a bit. "He has backed me 100 per cent and I owe him everything."

Well no need to get upset. The ARC always had Pukekohe to butcher during the next 14 weeks. I just thought if it was so good on Saturday they'd get at least a couple more meetings in. I see though they will wring the last bit of life out of Avondale with a number of trail meetings scheduled there.

Yes Chappie and Archie.

Is that why they're not racing or trialling on it for 14 weeks? Embellishment.

Yep cut my hair once or twice.

Did the Mundy's live on Queen Street?

Did you get sold a pup @Comic Dog ? Not much if any improvement in speed.

Yep. Related to Bill Craddock who bred Durban Chief. My dad won the Westport Cup with a good horse. LOL flew on a DC3 from Hokitika to Westport to see the Grandparents and used to walk across the road to watch the horses being trained. Karamea the first place to grow Kiwifruit. Used to stay at relatives place next to the Little Wanganui pub.

@Dark Beau can you pass onto Insider that my grandparents lived in Derby Street just down from Patterson Park and my mum was born and bred in Karamea. Seems that @Comic Dog and @Pete Lane as moderators thought that post was worth a ban. cheers

Slower than here. If you want proof let me know.

Agree 100%. Perhaps though the salaries of those making the decisions are tied to turnover not revenue or they don't care and allocate their own salaries.

Perhaps a few Jockeys in NZ should take notice of that advice. I've had the opportunity to see Willo, Parr and Shinn ride in NZ and observed all three walking the track and also listening to advice.

Willo's competition with class www.racing.com With Chris Tetaz Champion jockey Craig Williams has opened up about how his friendship and rivalry with Blake Shinn is driving them both to be better. With the battle for the Victorian Metropolitan Jockeys Premiership the heading towards a conclusion, both Shinn and Williams are sitting in the top two. Shinn, who is currently injured and may miss the rest of the season, holds a substantial lead over his rival in the concluding weeks. According to Williams, their shared commitment to excellence is matched only by their willingness to support each other. “Everyone in here is your friend, but also your competitor,” Williams told young riders in Racing Victoria’s apprentice program recently. “Blake Shinn and I are one and two in Victoria this season, but we’re the best at supporting each other. He comes around and we work on the mechanical horse together.” Williams said the duo had a shared understanding that the better their opposition, the better they must be. For Williams, helping those around him – including apprentices – isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength. “You need to encourage and help your friends. But if they’re lazy and not walking tracks, that’s different – you can’t just give people free advantages and free kicks,” he said. “But at the same time, the more you share, the better you’ll be at things. And the better your opposition are, the better you are.” Williams emphasised to the apprentices the importance of mental resilience and preparation – qualities that set great jockeys apart. “If I’m in the mounting yard and it’s cold – it’s cold for everyone,” he said. “If I’ve got one of my colleagues standing there saying, ‘Oh geez, it’s cold,’ I’ve already got them beat. We need to be ahead of that. “There’s a mentality you can have. It’s up to you how you choose to approach it as a competitor. “It doesn’t matter how well you ride them – at the end of the day, the result is you need to win. Win ugly – it doesn’t matter – you need to win. “These are your colleagues. You need to make sure you’ve got respect for each other. “But respect doesn’t mean you don’t be tough out there – because that’s how people gain respect. You can’t just give it to them.”

From Ardsley Stud: It is with deep sadness we confirm the passing of Micheal Wallace son of Jim and Mary. Micheal was a much loved Father, son and brother. Family are requesting privacy. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Zi6nFyJhp/

My condolences to Jim Wallace and family.

From Prima Park: It is with heavy hearts Prima Park acknowledges the sudden passing of Michael Wallace. An incredibly talented bloodstock agent, Michael’s guidance has been instrumental in the initial development of Prima Park and has contributed deeply to our success early on. Together we selected and sold two Group One winners in Debt Collector and Sprinting sensation Beat The Clock. Debt Collector being sold through our first ever Ready To Run draft in 2013 Over the years Michael has been a close friend to the Van Dyk family and we are deeply saddened of his passing. Our deepest sympathies go out to the Wallace family. ❤️❤️ More to come...

I wonder if any Trainers got as upset as ours do?