Happy Clapper retired

Multiple Group 1 winner Happy Clapper (Teofilo {Ire}) has been retired.

Trainer Pat Webster confirmed the 9-year-old had run his final race in the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. on Saturday after a 48-start career which yielded 12 wins and over $7.3 million in prizemoney.

“I just don’t want to go to the well once too often, Clapper doesn’t deserve it,” Webster said.

“It has certainly been a great journey and I pinch myself to have trained a horse as good as him, but his time has come, as we knew it would at some stage.

“He’s still fighting fit and that’s the way I wanted him to go out but he’s a rising 10-year-old and there’s nothing more for him to prove.”

Happy Clapper won the G1 Epsom H., G1 Canterbury S. and G1 Doncaster Mile while he was runner-up in Group 1 races on a further seven occasions, including four times behind the champion mare Winx (Street Cry {Ire}).

Limited horse movement allowed in Queensland

Racing Queensland will allow limited numbers of horses to move between Queensland's racing zones from this week.

Protocols have been in place for two weeks which have divided the state into five regions, with no horse or human movement permitted between the zones.

A review of procedures will see horses being able to move between zones, but with biosecurity protocols in place, including no movement of trainers or strappers and jockeys cannot travel with them.

Horses can be nominated for races outside their zone but must arrive a day before the meeting and be in the charge of an approved person.

Jockeys remain restricted in their designated regions unless they quarantine for 14 days, which is the same procedure in place for interstate jockeys.

Bivouac confirmed for All Aged

James Cummings will hunt further Group 1 glory with Bivouac (Exceed And Excel), confirming Hugh Bowman had been booked for the ride in the G1 All Aged S. next Saturday.

Bivouac, a winner of the G1 Golden Rose S. and G1 Newmarket H. this season, was last seen when sixth in the G1 TJ Smith S. on April 4.

Cummings told RSN he was happy to give Bivouac another shot at the best in Saturday's race.

“It looks like being a top class All Aged as it should be but with the circumstances at the moment, it seems to me that lots of connections are making sure that their horses are fit and well to have one more crack this campaign because we don’t quite know what lies ahead," he said.

“For the sake of that among other things, it’s going to be a serious weight-for-age race and the horse that we produce needs to be at his best.”

Te Akau trio to spell in Australia

Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards was philosophical about how Saturday panned out for his trio of stars at Randwick and is already planning for the spring.

Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel) finished eighth in the G1 Australian Oaks, while Melody Belle (NZ) (Commands) and Te Akau Shark (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}) battled gamely for fifth and sixth in the G1 Queen Elizabeth S.

“Probabeel got out of her ground a little in the Oaks but she couldn’t quicken in it as she came to the end of a long campaign,” Richards said.

“We’re proud of her as she is now a Group 1 winner in Australia so she can have a good break before we get her ready for the spring."

“The other two ran super races as well."

All three runners will now travel to Greg and Jo Griffin’s Lime Country Thoroughbreds in New South Wales for a spell ahead of the spring.

“We will be guided by what happens in the next couple of weeks with any easing of the travel restrictions but currently we are thinking that Melody Belle and Te Akau Shark will stay in Australia and be prepared for the spring from there," he said.

“We will talk with Probabeel’s owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay about what she will be doing. She has been up for a fair while and needs a break so we want to see how she lets down."

Addeybb set to fly home

Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) could return to Australia early next year but trainer William Haggas has ruled out his G1 Queen Elizabeth S. winner from staying for the spring.

Addeybb was a dominant winner of Saturday's race at Randwick, prompting speculation that Haggas may target more riches in Australia. But he immediately put a line through the prospect of keeping the horse in Australia.

“I would rather not stay,” Haggas told Sky Sports Radio.

“We have really minded this horse for a long time. He loves the cut in the ground and is good with cut in the ground.

“I know he doesn’t like firm because he runs on good, it is tough for them. I don’t want to ruin him.

"We have minded him for five seasons and he is now paying us back. He will last another two seasons if we don’t ruin him.”

Haggas wants to target Addeybb at the G1 Champion S. at Ascot later this year.

King fined $1000 over jockeys' room breach

Victorian apprentice Lachie King was fined $1000 for having entered the wrong jockeys’ room at Bendigo last week.

King is part of a group of jockeys who are kept seperate from other jockeys as part of COVID-19 protocols, but accidentally walked into a room designated for other jockeys,

He was stood down from riding at the time, had his temperature taken and was sent home. He pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with a stewards’ direction when going into the wrong jockeys’ room.

Stewards considered King had 'not breached any social distancing protocols at Bendigo and that he had been stood down from his riding engagements'.

Dierdre on Arc path

Globetrotting Group 1 winner Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}), who ran second in the Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors Cup on the Saudi Cup undercard in Riyadh on February 29, will point to the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Jour de Galop reported on Saturday.

The bay, who won the 2017 G1 Shuka Sho in her native land and the 2019 G1 Nassau S. at Goodwood in August, ran fourth and third, respectively, in the G1 Irish Champion S. on September 14 and in the G1 Champion S. at Ascot on October 19. She ended her 2019 campaign with a fourth in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin on December 8.

“It’s been a month since we returned from Saudi Arabia, where she showed up as always, very consistent,” said trainer Mitsuru Hashida to Jour de Galop of the Toji Morita runner.

“She is ready to attack the next step of her preparation. The ultimate aim this year is the Arc de Triomphe. The mare could re-enter the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 24, but obviously the [COVID-19] crisis we are experiencing questions everything.”

Pegus gets first winner

Former jockey Mark Pegus marked his first winner as a trainer.

Pegus, who first started training in November, oversaw Costa Maya's (High Chaparral {Ire}) maiden win and then later took out the feature Stawell Cup with Sentimentalist (Written Tycoon).

Linda Meech rode both winners, with Costa Maya backed from $26 into $9 to win.

"She is new to my stable," Pegus told Racing.com after the win. "So I was fortunate that Peter Knights, the owner, was happy enough to send her up to me, given the unfortunate things happening with Terry O'Sullivan.

"We ended up with her, and it's good to win a race with her. I was quietly confident today."