Deep Field celebrates 21st
Go Deep secured the 21st winner for Deep Field's first crop with an easy maiden win at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
The Darryl Hansen trained colt was having his second start and lived up to his short-price with a 2.25l win over the 1000m.
Newgate's hopes that its stallion may snatch the honour of having the most winners of the first-season sires from Better Than Ready look dashed after the Lyndhurst Stud stallion made it 23 winners with Green Rules' win at Bendigo on Sunday.
Windsor Park's Charm Spirit (Ire) was the other first-season sire to get a winner on Sunday with Heirborn (NZ) successful at Bendigo. He now has two winners in Australia to go with his four in New Zealand.
Everest tilt unlikely for Nature Strip
Nature Strip (Nicconi) is unlikely to be aimed towards The Everest, with owner Rod Lyons admitting the Group 1-winning sprinter had probably missed his chance at a slot.
Trainer Chris Waller will have two runners in the $14 million race with Arcadia Queen (Pierro) and Enticing Star (Testa Rossa), but with only four slots left, Lyons told Racenet that the options were slim for the rising 5-year-old.
One option could be to send him to Melbourne go to the G2 Schillaci S., which the Melbourne Racing Club have utilised a deal with the ATC to make a qualifying race for The Everest, but Lyons all but ruled that out.
Nature Strip is unlikely to be aimed towards The Everest
“To bring him down for the Schillaci and then to put him on a float the next day, if he happened to win, and go back up to Sydney for The Everest is too big a task for a horse that needs his runs spaced,” Lyons said.
“I think he will stay in Sydney and start in the (G3) Concorde S, and then run in the (G2) Premiere S., and maybe he will run in that Everest consolation race (Sydney S.) before coming to Melbourne."
“It is 99 percent set in stone that he will stay in Sydney for those races I mentioned.”
Given Godolphin and Coolmore are likely use their slots for their own horses, it leaves just James Harron's slot as an option.
Baker, Forsman complete hat-trick
Murray Baker points to the 25 stakes wins from he and Andrew Forsman's stable as the highlight of their third straight New Zealand National Trainers Premiership title success this season.
The duo are on 112 wins with just one raceday left in the season, 14 victories clear of their nearest rival, Matamata’s Jamie Richards.
Baker said that while the results didn't come as he would have liked across the Tasman, it was a very satisfying season on home soil.
Baker and Forsman complete the hat-trick
“We have had a good year but those 25 stakes wins is pretty hard to beat as our season highlight,” Baker said.
“We probably didn’t fire as well as we might have liked in Australia, but on the home front we managed to take out plenty of good races with both the younger members of the team as well as some of those older horses that have served us so well.”
Turnbull kick-off for Django
G1 German Derby runner-up Django Freeman (Ger) (Campanologist {USA}) will have his first start in Australia in the G1 Turnbull S. in early October.
Django Freeman is part-owned by Suman Hedge Bloodstock and will arrive in Australia in late August before joining Robert Hickmott's stables.
He will contest the Turnbull S. before a decision is made to either send him to the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups or the G1 Cox Plate.
Django Freeman (Ger) will contest the Turnbull S.
Sir Charles Road already in Australia
Group 2 winning stayer Sir Charles Road (Myboycharlie {Ire}) is already on his way to the G1 Melbourne Cup having arrived in Australia ahead of his spring campaign.
The Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott trained rising 6-year-old will resume in a 1400m race at Rosehill on August 17, then have another two runs before contesting the G1 Metropolitan Hcp.
Sir Charles Road
“All going well he will have four runs in Sydney, culminating in the Metropolitan Handicap in October," owner David Archer said.
“If he is still going well, we would have a look at the Caufield Cup and then the Melbourne Cup from there.
Ready To Run bonanza in Macau
Sacred Capital (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}) headed a quinella for graduates of the NZB Ready to Run Sale in the Macau Derby.
A $580,000 purchase at the 2016 NZB Ready to Run Sale, Sacred Capital, raced by Raffles Farm owner Dato Yap Kin San, proved too good for runner-up Eclair Lightning (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}), who cost $125,000 at the same sale.
Bred by Waikato Stud, Sacred Capital is the three-quarter brother in blood to Group 1 winner Alamosa (NZ) and was initially purchased by Ciaron Maher Bloodstock, Bruce Perry Bloodstock and Michael Wallace's Waterford Bloodstock.
