Joy at The Curragh for Lloyd

Australian owner Lloyd Williams celebrated stakes success at The Curragh with Buckhurst (Ire) (Australia {GB}) victorious in the G3 International S.

Buckhurst, trained by Melbourne Cup winning trainer Joseph O'Brien, notched a comfortable win under jockey Wayne Lordan, his second victory in four career starts, over the 2000m journey.

O'Brien said he was in no rush to get Buckhurst up through his classes, and that he was 12 months away from his best.

He hails from the same family as New Zealand Stakes winner Savile Row (NZ) (Makfi {GB}).

Big weekend for Epaulette

A Saturday treble in Australia and a first Northern Hemisphere stakes winner marked a big weekend for Darley stallion Epaulette.

Epaulette's progeny now have won 79 races in Australia this season, behind only Zoustar and Spirit Of Boom of the second-season stallions after the wins of River Bird and Dulette at Rosehill and Chief Command at Gold Coast.

But the weekend got even better when Insignia Of Rank (Ire) broke through at black-type level in the Listed Celebration S. at The Curragh.

A member of Epaulette's first European crop, Insignia Of Rank is trained by Joseph Murphy and has now won four of 21 starts.

Safeguard colt tops Perth Winter Sale

A half-brother by Safeguard to stakes-winner Uate (Ad Valorem) has topped the Perth Winter Yearling Sale, with Jason Pateman going to $25,000 for the colt offered by Mogumber Park.

There were 33 yearlings catalogued for the sale and only three made five figures, with the Safeguard colt easily the most popular on the day. The dam Long Walk (Over), has produced six winners from seven foals including Uate, who won a G3 Skyline S. for trainer Kris Lees.

The Bob Peters' owned Royal Dream (Bernardini {USA}) fetched the highest price of the Racehorse section of the Winter Sale going to Darling View Thoroughbreds for $52,000, while Peters also sold Truly Belong (NZ) (Showcasing {GB}) for $35,000 and Enterprise (Zoffany {Ire}) for $30,000.

The top weanling sold was a filly by Lucky Street out of Top Show (Stratum), who was purchased by Trevor Andrews for $30,000 from Western Breeders Alliance.

The first crop of Lucky Street were in demand with Bridge Patrol Lodge paying $25,000 for a filly out of Foo Foo The Snoo (Starcraft).

Demons destroys them

Well-bred Inner Demons (High Chaparral {Ire}) broke her maiden in emphatic fashion at Ballarat on Sunday.

The 4-year-old mare, bred and raced by Gerry Harvey, was an eight-length winner over 1500m, going within 0.09secs of I’ll Be Gone’s recently-set record on the new track.

Co-trainer Ben Hayes was thrilled with the performance and predicted she would step up to metropolitan class in the near future.

She is out of Ouija Board (Elusive Quality {USA}), a half sister to multiple stakes winner Zagreb (Zabeel) out of Listed winner Dansino (Danehill {USA}), who herself is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Leica Smile (At Talaq).

RQ look at premiership rule

Racing Queensland will follow Victoria's lead and introduce a rule which prevents disqualified persons from winning premierships.

Racing Victoria confirmed last week it had made an amendment to its awards criteria to prevent any person currently disqualified from winning a trainers' or jockeys' premiership.

It was done to prevent Darren Weir, currently serving a four-year disqualification, winning this year's trainers' premiership.

Queensland has a similar issue with Ben Currie, currently disqualified for 7.5 years and facing charges of fraud from Queensland Police, leading the state trainers' premiership by five wins from Tony Gollan.

RQ will discuss making an amendment to its criteria for awards at its next board meeting and has been speaking to Racing Victoria about how to structure its new rule.

Collett's comeback gains momentum

Alysha Collett is looking to build on her breakthrough win at Ruakaka over the weekend

Collett has recently made her comeback from back and heel injuries suffered in a fall in Singapore last October and rode her first winner back when Poker Face (NZ) won the final race on Saturday.

“It just feels so good to get the monkey off my back,” Collett said.

“It hasn’t actually been that long but it seems like an eternity since I had my last winner given what has gone on.

“I’ve been really thankful for the rides I have been getting since I started back and I knew it was just a matter of time until I got the win but I wanted it that much, it did start to get a little frustrating.”

Collett is aiming to return to Singapore once she regains her visa.

Golden ambition for Gai and Adrian's pair

The G1 Golden Rose preparation for a couple of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's contenders have already stepped up a notch, with Dawn Passage (Dawn Approach {Ire}) and Bellevue Hill (Pierro) both nearing their racetrack return.

Bellevue Hill made excellent progress through his first campaign, winning the G3 Baillieu S. before finishing seventh in the G1 Inglis Sires'.

He will trial in the next month, with Dawn Passage, an impressive winner on debut at Randwick in January before finishing second to Castelvecchio (Dundeel {NZ}) to return even sooner.

"They are both excellent," Bott told Racing NSW.

"Dawn Passage will come in a little bit earlier and you'll see him at the trials in two weeks. He is ready to roll. Bellevue Hill is probably about a fortnight behind him, but both are on a Golden Rose path."

The Golden Rose is on Saturday September 28 this year.