Wandering Eyes

Last year proved a memorable one for blockbuster sales of mares at the major breeding stock sales on both sides of the Atlantic. Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) set the standard in Europe with a 6-million gns pricetag-the highest ever for a horse purchased out of the Tattersalls ring-and her buyer, MV Magnier, had also shelled out a combined $14 million for Tepin (Bernstein) and Stellar Wind (Curlin) in Kentucky just a month earlier. With the latest renewal of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale upon us, we look back on the queens that provided the headlines 12 months ago, what they produced this year (if applicable) and who they visited subsequently. Galileo’s Gals In an unsurprising turn of events, Galileo was a popular choice for the market’s top mares last year, and the two Group 1-winning sprinters purchased by MV Magnier for seven figures at Tattersalls-Marsha (6 million gns) and Quiet Reflection (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) (2.1 million gns) both visited Coolmore’s champion sire for their first cover. The aforementioned Tepin and Stellar Wind were also both covered by Galileo this year; the G1 Queen Anne S. winner Tepin after producing a filly by Curlin, and the six-time Grade I winner Stellar Wind for her maiden cover. Ballylinch Stud spent 1 million gns on the well-related American listed winner Modernstone (GB) (Duke of Marmalade {Ire}) in foal to Galileo, and she produced a colt this spring before visiting Ballylinch’s flagship sire Lope de Vega. Lope de Vega himself was the covering sire of Birdwood (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who drew a final bid of 1.1 million gns from vendor Newsells Park Stud to buy out its partners David Redvers and Peter Winkworth. Those two certainly cashed in, as the unraced mare was bought for 150,000gns from the Juddmonte draft at the same sale just the year before, but when your half-sister, who happens to be called Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), goes out and wins five Group 1s including the King George and the Arc within the next year, that’s the kind of inflation that will occur. Birdwood foaled a Lope de Vega filly for Newsells Park this year before visiting another former Juddmonte luminary, Frankel (GB). Dubawi’s Dates Dubawi was the beneficiary of four seven-figure mares from Tattersalls last year. Tops of those by price was the GI Man O’War S. winner Zhukova (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), a daughter of the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner and excellent producer Nightime (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who brought a final bid of 3.7 million gns from Godolphin. Zhukova was offered by John Murrell and Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez, who also sold the G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Intricately (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) to John and Jake Warren for 1.7 million gns. She, too, is out of a Galileo mare and visited Dubawi. The third mare offered by Murrell and Regalado-Gonzalez was the G3 Lacken S. winner Only Mine (Ire) (Pour Moi {Ire}), who was bought by Flaxman Stables for 925,000gns and sent to Galileo. Wekeela (Fr) (Hurricane Run {Ire}), a Group 3 winner in both France and the U.S. and from the family of Monsun (Ger) and last year’s G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Brametot (Ire) (Rajsaman {Fr}), was bought by David Redvers on behalf of Sheikh Fahad for 1.8 million gns, and the now 6-year-old also visited Dubawi for her first covering. The other seven-figure mare to visit Dubawi was Justlookdontouch (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who was bought by White Birch Farm barren after a Sea The Stars (Ire) cover for 1.2 million gns. The 10-year-old Justlookdontouch is an unraced three-quarter-sister to champion Islington (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and was sold as part of the Ballymacoll Dispersal. Greg Goodman’s Mt. Brilliant Farm in the U.S. bought two daughters of Justlookdontouch from the Ballymacoll dispersal through agent Marette Farrell: The then-4-year-old multiple listed winner Abingdon (Street Cry {Ire}) for 1.05 million gns, and the winning 3-year-old Superioritycomplex (Ire) (Hard Spun) for 400,000gns. Abingdon was bred to Speightstown this year and will visit War Front in 2019 after producing that foal, while Superioritycomplex has continued to race. She has won a pair of allowance races in the U.S. for trainer Mike Stidham, including one at Fair Grounds just last week, and was fourth in a listed race in September. She is being aimed for a stakes race again in late December. Farrell said that should Superioritycomplex be bred next year, she will visit Speightstown. A couple of other high-profile mares from the Tattersalls ring last year have raced on: Different League (Fr) (Dabirsim {Fr}), bought by MV Magnier and White Birch Farm for 1.5 million gns, has gone winless in nine starts this campaign for Aidan O’Brien but was beaten only 2 1/4 lengths when sixth in the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye. Aim Of Artemis (Ire) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}), another daughter of Justlookdontouch, has raced on for Godolphin at three this year after being bought for 1 million gns. She won a novice race at Newmarket in June for John Gosden before being well beaten in the G1 Coronation S. and Ascot’s Listed October S. View the full article

Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief) exited his victory in Saturday’s GII Remsen S. in fine shape and shipped back to his home base at Parx, according to trainer Butch Reid. “It looked like he came out of the race perfectly and made good time, he was safely back in his stall by 9 p.m. or so,” Reid said. “He was a little tired, but he’s on his toes this morning.” Owned by Cash is King Stable and LC Racing, Maximus Mischief improved his record to a perfect 3-for-3 with his Remsen win. “The most impressive part was how he acted in the paddock and all the prerace stuff, because he can be a handful in the paddock,” Reid said. “In his new surroundings, he handled it very well. He stood perfectly in the paddock, which at Aqueduct can be a little foreboding. He handled it great and was cool as a cucumber and stood there perfectly when we put the tack on him. I was pretty confident with the way things were going to go after that.” Reid said Maximus Mischief will be heading south in a few weeks. “We’re going to give him a little break, but then we’ll be heading down to Florida,” Reid said. “We’ll be heading down to Gulfstream Park in the next few weeks and get him used to the weather down there and get him ready to start his 3-year-old campaign.” Network Effect (Mark Valeski), runner-up as the even-money favorite in the Remsen, is still improving, according to trainer Chad Brown. “He ran spotty a little bit in the race,” Brown said. “He was in a pretty good position and in the final turn it looked like the eventual winner got away from him a little bit, but late in the race he was starting to gain on him. I thought the winner ran terrific and our horse ran very respectable. He’s a work in progress.” Tax (Arch) was third in the Remsen while making his first start for trainer Danny Gargan and Hugh Lynch, who claimed him for $50,000 out of a maiden score at Keeneland in October. “I thought he ran huge. We were expecting a big performance; he’s a really good-looking horse,” Gargan said. “He ran really well and the [speed] number came back tremendous, we’re really excited about that. He came out of the race great.” Gargan continued, “He has a really big future. We’ll keep him in New York and evaluate him and see where our next stakes spot will be. There’s a big chance he’ll run next at Aqueduct, but if not, there’s a couple of different options.” View the full article

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Patternrecognition (Adios Charlie) may have earned himself a start in the Jan. 26 GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park with his win in Saturday’s GI Cigar Mile H. at Aqueduct. “The owners and I talked about the Pegasus last night. It’s definitely a consideration,” confirmed trainer Chad Brown. Brown, who captured his first Cigar Mile in 2016 with Connect, praised his staff, including assistant trainer Whit Beckman, for persevering with Patternrecognition. “The Cigar Mile is a great race to win and we’re lucky to have won it now for a second time,” Brown said. “He’s a horse that really earned it and everyone in the barn here with Whit has done a great job with the horse, keeping him sound. He didn’t get started until he was four, so he’s clearly had some physical setbacks. But he’s now in good form and has been healthy thanks to a lot of hard work from my team, and a lot of heart and determination from the horse.” View the full article

Rudy Rodriguez and Todd Pletcher tied for leading trainer at Aqueduct’s Fall Meeting, which, with Sunday’s fog-related cancellation, concluded Saturday. Both had 12 wins at the 22-day stand. Jockey Manny Franco was the meet’s leading rider with 25 victories. Chester and Mary Broman, Sr. and Godolphin tied for the most wins by an ownership group, with each entity registering six wins in a meet that started Nov. 2. Aqueduct’s winter meet opens Friday with a first post time of 12:20 p.m. View the full article

Australia’s superstar mare Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) has been voted the 2018 Secretariat Vox Populi Award winner in a year-end online poll of racing fans. Created by Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery, the award annually recognizes the horse whose popularity and racing excellence best resounded with the general public and gained recognition for Thoroughbred racing. Winx was the top choice among U.S. voters, as well as international fans representing a record 60 countries. In 2018, the 7-year-old’s historic fourth straight victory in the G1 Cox Plate, along with a perfect 7-for-7 record, extended her ongoing win streak to 29 races and added to her current career earnings of more than US$17 million. “Racing certainly offered many historic and heartwarming stories in 2018,” said Kate Chenery Tweedy. “And once again, the ‘Voice of the People’ spoke very clearly. The fact that both the American public and voters abroad were not limited by international borders is a wonderful testament to the growth of the award and the winner’s global appeal. Winx represents everything Mom envisioned when she created this award and reaffirms her notion that a beloved horse will captivate fans and draw interest to the sport no matter where they race.” Trained by Chris Waller and ridden by jockey Hugh Bowman, Winx is owned by Magic Bloodstock, Debbie Kepitis and Richard Treweeke. The custom-made Vox Populi trophy will be presented to the Winx connections Jan. 12 at Santa Anita Park. View the full article

When Chris Dwyer saddled the final runner of his career last Thursday it was not exactly accompanied by hysteria or emotional outpouring. That would hardly have been his style anyway, even if he was never the most fashionable of trainers or jockeys and was bowing out with an unplaced 10-1 chance in a low-key handicap early in the evening at Chelmsford. Yet, when he assembles the net worth of more than half a century’s labour and the contribution made for some of the sport’s giants, there really is quite a lot to shout about. First and foremost in leaving solvent and unfailingly positive. “One of my owners was a little bit sad I was calling it a day but it was a good decision really, especially because we’ve had a great year and it was nice to get out on your own terms,” he says. “We’ve had 26 winners and the prize-money has been much improved.” Dwyer turns 71 later this month and, having competed professionally until 1996, continued to ride on the gallops until last year before what he describes as “a very bad fall” alongside his best filly, Rock On Baileys (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}). Even that verges on the side of understatement. “Rock On Baileys got loose and sort of lashed out at the filly I was on and caught my ankle,” he explains. “My filly was scared, ran back and fell over, unfortunately on top of me. She lay there, she couldn’t move and I couldn’t move, so I had multiple rib fractures and the broken ankle. Dwyer admits that putting his horses through their paces alongside wife Shelley was one of his greatest pleasures from training, and no longer being able to do so clearly played a part in his announcement. “It seemed like minutes when the filly lay there but it was only probably a minute. Vicky De Sousa (wife of jockey Silvestre) actually took me into Bury St Edmunds hospital, they kept me in overnight but I was away the next day. The ribs were bad for a while and I got a chest infection which wasn’t very pleasant. It was a nightmare time but I’m sure people have had worse accidents.” He adds, “I suppose Rock On Baileys owed me something, when she got into proper exercise she started winning and we’ve had a great time with her. She’s going to Amy Murphy and will hopefully go for the Bath listed race she was unlucky in last year. I think she’s a very good filly and could improve again.” Murphy will be the recipient of a few others along with Charlie Wallis, a long-time family friend who is also taking on Irineu Goncalves, a Brazilian jockey who Dwyer goes out of his way to recommend. Several others are being consigned at Tattersalls next week. “We own The Lacemaker (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) (lot 2457), she won three and goes to the sales along with Annie Salts (GB) (Zebedee {GB}) (lot 2290), she’s in foal to Equiano (Fr). We’re not expecting a fortune because things are a little tricky at the moment, but if we got our nomination for Equiano back, we’d be delighted.” Although now part of the furniture in Newmarket, Dwyer is of Irish extraction and experienced a culture shock aged 14 when the family moved to London. He was sent to a daunting-sounding secondary school in Bromley which hastened his exit from formal education in 1964. “I worked after school and used to help a greengrocer, I’d go to Covent Garden market and they were always talking about racing. I was very small and they’d say to me ‘why don’t you become a jockey?’ I was always interested, riding ponies when I was a boy and I wrote to a few trainers and got a nice reply from Staff Ingham. “I was picked up in Epsom on a motorbike, of course you didn’t have helmets in those days, I got the interview and started the next day. “It was the year Santa Claus won the Derby. Scobie Breasley, he used to turn up to ride work for my boss in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. Unbelievable…times have changed.” It should be emphasised that Dwyer does not wallow in the nostalgia, or pepper anecdotes with having (needless to say) had the last laugh. However, his memories feel like immaculately preserved artefacts from a bygone age, especially when describing master juvenile trainer Ingham. “He was a very hard man, but very good. I rode winners at Goodwood and Ascot when I was a kid. Those days you only used to look after two horses but you’d tie them up every night and do the bedding, put twists in the door and that sort of thing, and there was a box of straw in the corner where you laid your tools out and your rug. Sir Mark (Prescott) does something similar these days but he’d probably be the only one. “A gallop was probably more important than a race for him because the jockeys were weighed out before you put the saddles on the horses; the lead horse would be giving us a stone on the 2-year-olds. We used to gallop on Six Mile Hill, about four or five furlongs. He had a man at the start of the gallop and a man at the end. Your distance had to correspond correctly with him when you had to say how far you were beat or won by. You soon learned how far a length was.” Seven years later he moved to Malton, initially for Jimmy Etherington and Frank Carr. He was there for a decade and a half, notably winning a race at Beverley on the top-class middle-distance horse Gunner B. Primarily, though, he was known for landing coups for handicap maestro Pat Rohan. “We always sort of knew the time of day and what we were up against. If you knew you had a pound or two in hand, you’d be away,” he recalls. “I remember riding a winner for Peter O’Sullevan. When he sent a filly to Pat he said ‘I want Chris to ride it every time,’ so I did. We went for a gamble one day at Redcar. She’d run a blinder a week or 10 days before but on the day of it, Pat never told me, but she hadn’t been eating well or whatever. I managed to get up and win, but she didn’t feel the same filly as I rode before. I remember Peter sent me a lovely present and we exchanged Christmas cards every year until he died.” Dwyer was not with Rohan at the same time as his protege, Sir Michael Stoute, but the pair came together in Newmarket in the early 90s. Dwyer also rode a pacemaker for Alec Stewart’s mighty Mtoto before he became assistant to Ian Matthews. “It was through Greville Starkey who I was always very friendly with,” he explains. “I rode Michael the odd winner but plenty more at home; I rode Opera House, I thought Red Carnival was a very good filly, I rode Ezzoud when he was a young horse. There were some proper horses and it felt so good to ride them on the gallops. When I decided to train a few, Michael said if things didn’t go right, there was always a job there, no problem.” Although he trained some useful animals over time, such as the durable handicapper Mia’s Boy (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), he never found one better than the horse who got him running, Cyrano’s Lad (Ire) (Cyrano De Bergerac {GB}). “He was no proper specimen, he had bad old knees, but he was probably the quickest horse I’ve ever sat on,” Dwyer recalls. Two years later, reborn as a sprinter, Cyrano’s Lad was a close fourth in the G1 Nunthorpe S. “He didn’t even win a bumper, he was pulled up, and came to me as a 6-year-old. We had instructions to enter him for this selling hurdle at Market Rasen and missed the entry because it was a bank holiday. “I asked if I could pop him in a Flat race, they thought I was crazy, but he ran in a mile seller at Windsor, missed the break but flew through and didn’t quite stay. Then he was second at Redcar and put him in a decent conditions race at Lingfield for a third run thinking we’d get him handicapped, but he won as he liked. Richard Quinn was shaking his head pulling up on one of Paul Cole’s black-type fillies, wondering how I beat him.” With the final horses being packed away at Brickfields Stud, Dwyer’s next move will be to drive to his house in southern Spain with Shelley and their two Scottie dogs. As Mrs. Dwyer will not be required for her day job as agent for champion jockey De Sousa until the spring, it is time for a well-earned break. “We’ll be back for the Cheltenham Festival, we love going to that,” he says. “I’ve got my racing channels, I’m always watching.” View the full article

Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith's grade 1 winner Mendelssohn has been retired from racing and will stand at Coolmore America's Ashford Stud for 2019. View the full article

The New York Racing Association has canceled live racing Dec. 2 at Aqueduct Racetrack due to a dense fog that settled into the New York City metropolitan area resulting in visibility-related concerns at the Big A. View the full article

Horse racing's fans have spoken and Winx, Australia's queen of racing, has been voted the winner of the 2018 Secretariat Vox Populi Award in the year-end online poll. View the full article

Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier, and Derrick Smith's grade 1 winner Mendelssohn has been retired from racing and will stand at Coolmore America's Ashford Stud for 2019. View the full article

If you limit me to the choice of Accelerate and Justify I would vote for Accelerate. The question is, ‘what is the criteria?’ We look at things from a figure point of view, and there is difference between looking at ability versus accomplishment. We measure ability, not accomplishment. Justify was a good 3-year-old, but he wasn’t close to some of the top 3-year-olds of the last 15 years, like Rachel Alexandra, American Pharoah, Smarty Jones. Accelerate was a good, solid older horse and on figures he was far superior to Justify. Older horses are, generally, supposed to run faster than 3-year-olds, but he was significantly better. I know she has no chance, but if you look at who was historically good and the superior horse when compared to anyone else in their division, Newspaperofrecord would be my Horse of the Year by a mile. She’s clearly the best 2-year-old grass filly we have seen since we started making figures. Brown does not have an Eclipse Award vote. Jerry Brown is the owner of Thoro-Graph View the full article

Breeders’ Cup hero Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy-Leslie’s Lady, by Tricky Creek), a half-brother to four-time Eclipse champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), has been retired and will stand at Coolmore’s American arm, Ashford Stud, in Kentucky next year, Coolmore announced Sunday. The $3-million 2016 KEESEP sale topper, who raced for Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier and Derrick Smith, will command a fee of $35,000. Runner-up in the G1 Darley Dewhurst S. at Newmarket as a juvenile for Aidan O’Brien, the bay returned Stateside from Ireland for the first time with a victory in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar last November. He resurfaced this term with a win in the all-weather Listed Patton S. at Dundalk in early March. After an 18 1/2-length romp-good for a new track record–in his initial foray over dirt in the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan at the end of the month, the colt would travel six more times Stateside from his Irish base while being campaigned exclusively over the main track. Third in the GIII Dwyer S. in July, the Clarkland Farm-bred finished second in the GI Travers S. at the end of August, and was again the third horse home in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S. facing elders Sept. 29. Mendelssohn retires with a mark of 13-4-2-2, $2,542,137. “All of our team loved Mendelssohn from the first time we saw him as a yearling and he has developed into a magnificent looking horse,” said Coolmore America manager Dermot Ryan. “Being by our own Scat Daddy and a half-brother to Into Mischief and Beholder, you couldn’t ask for a better pedigree and he showed real brilliance when winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar and the UAE Derby by a street recording a new track record. He also ran some excellent races in defeat this fall, notably in the Travers and the Jockey Club Gold Cup. We have already had a huge number of enquiries about him and I have no doubt that he will prove extremely popular.” A son of listed victress and top producer Leslie’s Lady, Mendelssohn is also a half-brother to GI CashCall Futurity S. hero and successful sire Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday), as well as the dam of SW & GSP Harry’s Holiday (Harlan’s Holiday) and MGSP Remedy (Creative Cause). GI California S. hero Roanoke (Pleasant Colony) lies under the fourth dam. View the full article

DAVE JOHNSON, Iconic announcer and co-host of the Down the Stretch show on Sirius XM radio There is no question about it: Justify is Horse of the Year. The idea that this 3-year-old won the Triple Crown, which is one of the toughest things in all of sports to do, is a magnificent accomplishment and that should be the defining moment when it comes to the Horse of the Year debate. Yes, Accelerate was terrific over a a period of time. But with the competition in the Triple Crown, the way he won it, Baffert’s training, Mike Smith’s riding, there’s no question in my mind that Justify deserves to be Horse of the Year. It was an unbelievable accomplishment for Justify to pull off what he did and it stands out much more to me than what Accelerate did. You think of Enable winning two of the biggest races in the world, to me, that puts her on equal footing with Accelerate. Johnson is an Eclipse Award voter. View the full article

Tom Wood is the latest addition to the talented group of presenters at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and will be working his first Longines Hong Kong International Races meeting this coming Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse. A New Zealand native, Wood ascended to become the primary racecaller for the Singapore Turf Club in 2017 before accepting the Hong Kong position earlier this year. He is currently the number two commentator for the Club, backing up Brett Davis and does the majority of the race calling during the Wednesday evening meetings at Happy Valley, supplemented by barrier trials and the occasional Sha Tin assignment. TDN: How did you get into racing? Tom Wood: I got into racing through my family. My parents trained in partnership for many years and I was always around the stables back at home in Cambridge. My father was also a successful jumps jockey back in the day. Other than than my parents, my grandfather also used to race a few horses. So the interest was there from a young age, but I never ever wanted to get into the stable side of the industry. TDN: At what point did you know you wanted to become a commentator? TW: When I was younger I was always interested in commentating. Back at the stables we had a yard where I would make my brother run around it, while I stood on the roof of the stables (real safe) and calling out names. Probably dates back to then, and I used to go to the races and spend time with top NZ race caller George Simon. I was probably more of an annoyance at that stage but here I am today. TDN: Where/when was your first job? TW: I would call the odd trials meeting here and there, and every Boxing Day there was an equalisator meeting at a place called Pirongia–a mixed card of Thoroughbred and harness racing. That led to an opportunity to work for the New Zealand Racing Board (Trackside TV/Radio), firstly as a broadcast cadet working in Christchurch with retired NZ race caller Reon Murtha, who would critique my trial calls. My first live calls were at the Westport Harness on Boxing Day 2009, 10 races on the grass with big fields. I was then given the opportunity as the Otago Region race caller in August 2010, broadcasting thoroughbreds, harness and greyhounds. That was about 110 meetings a year and I did that for three years. Then I got the opportunity to be the Central Districts race caller (bottom half of the North Island) and was in that role from August 2013 to Dec 2016. TDN: Describe briefly your experience in Singapore? TW: I really enjoyed my time in Singapore, it was a lucky break and it was a chance to get my name out there further into the race calling landscape. When you can get an opportunity like that, it definitely gets your name out there more on the world stage. It was a big step having not lived anywhere outside of New Zealand before, but it was a no brainer. I was lucky to work for my first 13/14 months there under Matthew Jones who was the number one caller. He gave me plenty of feature race opportunities. Matt decided to move on and I was given the role as number one caller. Singapore was a great steppingstone in my career. TDN: How has the transition been to calling races in Hong Kong? Has being involved in barrier trials has helped you in that transition? TW: Having a bit of Asian racing experience certainly helped the transition, but it has not been easy. With every meeting and every day I continue to learn and develop. This is a field where you never stop learning and it’s so hard to get that perfect call. It rarely happens and that’s why you keep doing it to strive for that perfection. There is no shortage of barrier trials here, it helps keep your mind sharp. I did a few weeks of trials before I kicked off on raceday and that was a great decision, easing into it rather than going it boots and all. TDN: You are predominantly charged with calling the action from Happy Valley. What unique challenges does that present? TW: Happy Valley is unlike anywhere else I have called, it’s really challenging. Things happen so quickly there and being in a broadcast box so far away from the winning post (30m before) makes it very tricky. When they come off the home turn the and sprint for home the race can just totally change in the last 150m. Not only watching the horses out wide finish fast, you can get caught out by something flying up the rails when you least expect it, so it’s a place where you have to keep your guard up. More often than not there are blanket finishes as well and you can have horses stretched across the track far and wide. The atmosphere there is something else though on a race night and that adds to the theater of the place. TDN: Which of the HKIR are you most looking forward to and why? TW: This will be my first HKIR week, so that is exciting just in itself, but being able to see the worlds best jockeys and riders on one stage racing for nearly HK$100m will be a career highlight. Being able to work on a broadcast seen by millions around the world will be a big thrill. I am looking forward to the Sprint actually. The local charges will be hard to beat, but a good friend from Singapore, Kiwi Stephen Gray, is coming over to compete with Lim’s Cruiser. Stephen was very good to me in Singapore, a great sounding board on all things life and it will be a big thrill not to just see him run, but hopefully run well since I had the privilege to call him home in Singapore’s premier sprint race (Lion City Cup) back in May. View the full article

Hang’s Decision was the horse seemingly no one wanted to ride, but champion jockey Zac Purton stepped up to the plate at the last minute and was rewarded – even if it did cost him his right boot. Trainer Chris So Wai-yin was left searching for a replacement rider after the man he originally booked, Eddy Lai Wai-ming, pulled the plug on his day after the fifth race citing a stomach bug. So then asked Vincent Ho Chak-yiu if he would take the mount, but the leading local declined,... View the full article

Frankie Lor Fu-chuen’s up-and-coming speedster Big Party delivered on his sprinting potential at Sha Tin on Sunday after leaving punters empty-handed on debut in October. First-time jockey Grant van Niekerk was cool, calm and collected on the grey, settling outside the speed before dashing clear halfway up the all-weather straight. While he was sent out an odds-on favourite on debut, punters were much more cautious this time around, with Big Party starting at $3.3 despite two impressive... View the full article

Iron man jockey Alberto Sanna is already back in the saddle riding horses just one month after he shattered his hip during a bicycle crash. The Italian will live with the scars from the crash, which saw an 18cm titanium rod inserted into his hip, but he says it does not phase him as he readies himself for a return to race riding once given the OK by the doctor later this month. Such is Sanna’s determination and willpower, he has shaved almost four months off his expected recovery time,... View the full article

Among a host of challengers from the East for the 1 1/8-mile turf test was Peter Brant's Raging Bull, who began his rally from the back of the field and just got past River Boyne in the final strides under jockey Joel Rosario. View the full article

With a dominant stretch run that left her competitors in the dust, Mike Ryan's Positive Spirit started December strong with her first stakes win in the $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack. View the full article

After a wide run in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), jockey Mike Smith wasn't going to let the trip matter for Marley's Freedom in the $250,000 Go For Wand Handicap (G3). View the full article

East will truly meet West in the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes (G1T) Dec. 2 at Del Mar. View the full article

Capping off a banner day in which Navarro trainees claimed three races on the opening day of the Championship Meet, Aztec Sense sealed the deal in the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel Stakes. View the full article

Among a host of challengers from the East for the 1 1/8-mile turf test was Peter Brant's Raging Bull, who began his rally from the back of the field and just got past River Boyne in the final strides under jockey Joel Rosario. View the full article

Jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva broke the long-standing record for most wins at a single Woodbine meet Dec. 1 at the Toronto racetrack. View the full article

Well-bred KINGLY (c, 2, Tapit–Justwhistledixie, by Dixie Union) kept the Bob Baffert train rolling on Saturday with yet another first-out win. Let go at 4-1 as all the money came for two-time runner-up Stretford End (Will Take Charge), the bay set the pace through splits of :22.52 and :45.65. First shaking off the challenge from My Mandate (Strong Mandate), he held sway from a somewhat green Stretford End late to prevail by a half-length in 1:10.19. Stretford End has now finished second to Baffert firsters in each of his prior outings. The winner is a full-brother to MGSW Mohaymen and a half to Baffert’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner New Year’s Day (Street Cry {Ire}). Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0. O-Clearview Stables LLC. B-Clearsky Farms (Ky). T-Bob Baffert. View the full article