Here’s something you might know about Neville Begg. He ran second to Tommy Smith in the Sydney trainers’ premiership no fewer than nine times. It could have exasperated a man of different mind. “Well, Tommy had a lot more horses than me, you see,” Begg tells It’s In The Blood. “I thought I was doing... Read More

Mid Summer Music (Oamaru Force), the little mare that could, seems like she was put on this planet to just keep defying expectations and first impressions. She was up against it from the off, with her dam Samsara Lady (Nassipour) dying as she foaled her, in 2005. The chestnut filly had to be hand-raised, her... Read More

You’ve got to love a bit of excitement, even over-excitement, in racing. It’s what the industry is based on, after all. When Ciaron Maher won the 2020 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) with Sir Dragonet (Camelot), in one of the great post-race interviews, he famously thanked his sisters. “I’ve gotta give my mum and dad... Read More

Sometimes things run so smoothly you wonder why it isn’t this simple all the time. Five years ago, Matthew Sandblom’s Kingstar Farm bought an imposing-looking mare from a strong family named Sweet Bouquet (Dream Ahead), surprisingly easily at $40,000. They put her to the famously sub-fertile Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and she got... Read More

At the start of May, this column mused about a statistic which stood Fastnet Rock (Danehill) apart from many others as the Coolmore legend headed into retirement: his Group 1 winners to stakes-winners ratio. His 193 stakes-winners worldwide is ultra-impressive, but the fact 43 of them scored at the top level – 22.27 per cent... Read More