Waller stars to trial in 12 days
Chris Waller will send several of his stable stars to the trials on July 17, including Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) and Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio). “Autumn Glow will resume in the Winx and then decide in distances and targets,” Waller told racenet.com.au.
Chris Waller | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“She's come back how I'd hope to see her come back, faultless really. She'll bounce back very quickly this spring; She's an awesome beast. Aeliana's owners are happy to be targeting the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup would be a dream bonus.”
Thompson not celebrating yet
With four weeks to go and a 15.5 win margin, jockey Ben Thompson is not celebrating the Brisbane Jockey’s Championship just yet. “There's still a month to go and I know we're at the pointy end of the season but I think it's not over unless I have this sort of margin with a meeting to go and it's physically impossible (for Maloney to win),” Thompson told racenet.com.au.
Ben Thompson aboard Tengun Tommy at Sunshine Coast | Image courtesy of Trackside Photography
“Ryan Maloney's having a great season and he's more than capable of still catching me, so by no means I am taking anything for granted until it is literally wrapped up.” Last year’s champion Angela Jones has been out for several weeks with a collar bone injury. Thompson is second in the Australian jockey premiership with 146.5 wins, behind William Pike with 188.5.
Winner number two for The Odyssey
First season sire The Odyssey celebrated his second winner on Sunday when Adam Campton-trained 2-year-old gelding Slippin’ Away bolted home at Grafton by two lengths. Owned by Wilrace, he was having his second start. He is the first foal of Written Tycoon mare Redheads Rock who is a daughter of Listed winner Rock My Pago (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}).
By Choice set for Rosebud
It’s only six weeks until the Listed The Rosebud and jockey Tim Clark is excited about the rising 3-year-olds at the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable who are headed that way. “The Rosebud and San Domenico (Stakes), they come up pretty quickly, so those 2-year-olds rising three are starting to roll back in,” Clark told racingandsports.com.au.
Tim Clark | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“By Choice raced through a Magic Millions and lined up in the Slipper lead-ups. Physically, she looks to have really strengthened and come back in good order. The Princess Series races might suit her. She gives the impression she will run a strong mile, so she is definitely one that physically looks like she has made good improvement.” By Choice (Written By) was a winner just after Christmas and placed in the G2 Sweet Embrace Stakes and G3 Magic Night Stakes.
Written By’s 3-year-old gelding Mind Over Matter made it five wins in succession on Sunday at Townsville.
Toorak Jewel back after fracture
The Debut winner Toorak Jewel (Tassort) is back in work after sustaining a hairline fracture that ruled her out of the autumn. “She had this little hairline fracture and we stopped because if we'd kept going it could've caused me grief,” owner Mike Crooks told racenet.com.au.
“She had a spell for three months and we X-rayed her every month. She'll do four weeks of work at home and then go back down the Gold Coast to Paul, who loves her immensely. … there's a very big chance we get an invite into the Sunlight. We actually programmed that to make it work. I'm pretty confident that we'll get an invite into that race but we've got to go and prove ourselves first.
“Some good judges have overrated her, I think. I know she ran that race (The Debut) well in a good time and it's exciting but I've known too much about horses to get too excited. I just hope she's as good as what Paul's making out and what I think, but I'm one that goes ‘let's wait and see'.”
Black Caviar granddaughter wins on debut
Street Boss (USA) added a juvenile winner when Team Hawkes-trained 2-year-old filly Panchenko won on debut at Bendigo by an impressive 5.2 lengths. Owned by Werrett Bloodstock and partners, she is fourth foal and fourth winner for Oscietra (Exceed And Excel).
Two-time winning mare Oscietra is the first foal of unbeaten Champion sprinter Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) who produced five winners.
Juvenile winner for Capitalist
Lindsay Park-trained 2-year-old gelding Stakes (Capitalist) opened his account with a narrow victory over the older maidens at Bendigo on Sunday. Sold by Attunga Stud at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale for $160,000 to Darling View Thoroughbreds, he was put back through Attunga’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft where Lindsay Park and ARJB Bloodstock bought him for $300,000.
Stakes is the third foal and second winner for She’s Glamourous (Star Witness) who is an unraced full sister to Group 1 winner Global Glamour.
Buzzoffski and Valley Star trade places again
Leanne Gaffney-trained 2-year-old gelding Buzzoffski (Hanseatic) made it two wins from three starts at Hobart on Sunday. In second was stablemate 2-year-old gelding Valley Star (Widden Valley) who ran second to Buzzoffski in his other win, and when Valley Star won, Buzzoffski was second.
Buzzoffski took his earnings over $75,000 and he was a $22,000 purchase from Armidale Stud’s Magic Millions Tasmania Yearling Sale draft. He is a half-brother to Group 3 winner Deroche (Needs Further).
Jason Collett scores JRA win
Jockey Jason Collett has achieved a life long dream in winning on the JRA circuit in Japan, winning on Satono Ivory (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) on Sunday. “I'm so happy to have won a race. I've been looking forward to riding in Japan for about five years now, and I've always wanted to go, so I'm very happy that my dream has come true. I'll do my best to win a few more races in the future,” Collett told sanspo.com.
The victory was number 400 on the JRA circuit for trainer Haruki Sugiyama.
Derby winner Motivator dies aged 24
Michael Bell hailed Motivator as an “exceptional racehorse” following the death of the Derby winner at the age of 24. It is 21 years since the son of Montjeu's career-defining victory at Epsom, with the manner of his five-length defeat of Walk In The Park, with super-sire Dubawi back in third, living long in the memory.
Motivator headed to post at Epsom unbeaten in three starts, with his other wins including the G1 Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster as a juvenile, before he warmed up for the Derby with an impressive success in the G2 Dante Stakes at York.
Bell told the Press Association, “I was very lucky to have him as part of my life and he obviously gave us many special days, but one in particular.
“He was a very, very high-class horse and I think on Derby day he would have won a lot of Derbys. He was absolutely on his game that day and was very impressive – it would have taken a good Derby winner to beat him, I think.”
Motivator's Derby win also saw him become the first ever syndicate-owned winner of that Classic for the 230 members of the Royal Ascot Racing Club, which is managed by Harry Herbert.
“The life-size bronze of him by the pre-parade ring at Ascot is something very special. I certainly know that, every time I pass it, I smile,” said Herbert. “He went on to be a successful stallion, being the sire of Treve, and he had a very high black type strike-rate with his runners in France, in particular.”
He sired 35 stakes winners led by six-time Group 1 winner Treve and G1 Longchamp Prix de l'Opéra Ridasiyna.
Tattycoram aimed at G1 Yorkshire Oaks
One of the potential improvers in Saturday's G2 Lancashire Oaks, Chasemore Farm's Tattycoram (Camelot) made her biggest leap yet to storm to an impressive success. Trainer Ralph Beckett is understandably thinking big from here. “She's in the Arc, but she'll go to the Yorkshire Oaks next and I fancy her chances there,” he said.
“She was a filly we finished early last year hoping she would develop from three to four and it looks like that is the case. She went into a little dip after winning the Daisy Warwick, hence the two-month break, but I was easy about that and this was always a race that would set up well for her. She's a good filly.”
Astern’s Phileas Fogg does it again
One year ago, Phileas Fogg (USA) (Astern) went to the lead and gutted it out late to take the G2 Suburban Stakes in a photo finish. This year, he left no doubt.
Once again on the front from the opening strides, the 8-1 shot kept his face clean and absolutely rolled home in a one-horse parade to defend his title in the Suburban this time by double-digit lengths.
“The horse was training so good coming into this race,” said winning trainer Gustavo Rodriguez. “I told my owner that he was doing better than last year. He won, but I didn't expect him to win the way he did. The way he ran today, I thought he was going to run good, but to win the race and the way he did it, I didn't expect that. That was the plan: grab the lead and take it from there. And Kendrick [Carmouche] is beautiful on the lead.”
Phileas Fogg is one of eight graded stakes winners for Astern who previously stood in both North America and in Australia for Darley before being sold to Turkey ahead of the 2025 breeding season.
I Love Giraffe pulls up with hip injury
It wasn't a total happy ending after Friday's frightening spill on opening day of the 46-day Saratoga meet.
I Love Giraffes (Charlatan) came out of the incident with a fractured hip and will be sidelined for at least four months, trainer Chad Summers said Saturday morning. And Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who was also involved in the spill, will miss the rest of the week and probably all of next week.
“I don't know if she will ever run again,” Summers said of his 3-year-old filly outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “It's just disappointing. We love that filly, we love all our horses. That is the first horse in my whole career that I have had go down and it's not a good feeling. It makes you not wanting to come here in the mornings.”
I Love Giraffes, owned by Al Gold's Gold Square, was ridden by Paco Lopez in Friday's Wild Applause, a one-mile race on the inner turf. At the top of the stretch, I Love Giraffes clipped heels with Pillar of Beauty (Caracaro) and fell.
That started the messy spill and Lovely Grey (Vekoma) and jockey Dylan Davis fell over I Love Giraffes. Smexy (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) and jockey Tyler Gafflione and Paris Carver (Bolt d'Oro) and Hall of Fame rider Javier Cstellano were next and tumbled to the turf.
All four horses that went down immediately got up and it was originally thought that all were ok. Summers said his filly was stepped on twice, resulting in the fractured hip.
“It is just unfortunate,” Summers said. “It looked like she was going to be a winner. It's a shame that opening day had to be marred by an incident. Thankfully, nobody died.”
