First season sires put to the test as new breeding season gets underway Just days after breeders were toasting themselves with champagne and canapes at the Hunter Valley stallion parades, it was officially down to business yesterday, with trucks roaring into stud farms across Australia’s thoroughbred heartland for the start of the southern hemisphere breeding... Read More

Form deriving from last season’s premier juvenile races came to the fore in the feature three-year-old Group contests yesterday. However, it was two new stakes winners who stamped their mark this spring in the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Rosehill and HDF McNeil Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield.  Sweet Ride (Deep Field),... Read More

Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) runner-up Hoo Ya Mal (Territories) came through the next step on his path to what connections hope will end with a tilt at this season’s Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) when taking the rise in trip firmly in his stride to land yesterday’s March Stakes (Gr 3, 1m 6f)... Read More

Iffraaj gelding makes his debut for Danny O’Brien in Memsie Stakes as stablemate Graceful Girl reappears in Cockram  Perth’s Bob Peters will seek his first Group 1 of 2022 and the new era of his vast racing and breeding operation when the aptly-named Western Empire (Iffraaj) contests the Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield... Read More

Jack Bruce is one of a number of young trainers bidding to make their mark in a competitive scene and his fledgling career continues to go from strength-to-strength with a double at Dalby yesterday, his ninth win from just 23 starters.  Bruce, who was previously assistant trainer to Bjorn Baker, Ciaron Maher and Chris Waller... Read More