It’s hard to find a good old bolter’s triumph story in the Golden Slipper. Two-year-old form being what it is – precocity rising to the early top, formlines exposed thanks to most entrants contesting the same handful of lead-ups – there haven’t been many winners to send the bookies wild. The biggest-priced winner of the... Read More

Les Bridge, 85, stunned onlookers on Saturday by declaring Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Celestial Legend (Dundeel) the best of all the horses he’s trained. That includes the outstanding Golden Slipper winner Sir Dapper (Vain), three-time Group 1 victor Drawn (Star Shower), Melbourne Cup hero Kensei (Blarney Kiss), and one Bridge didn’t have to... Read More

Phearson (Exosphere) struck a blow for old-fashioned Australian bloodlines with his bold all-the-way display for a second career Group 3 success in Saturday’s Liverpool City Cup (1300m) at Randwick. No fewer than 10 of the first 14 names in the gelding’s pedigree have (AUS) beside them. What’s more, the other four are from the country... Read More

A bush breeder named Boof, an American sire with a name barely known to anyone, a battle for survival on the first day of life – for a foal still suckling from its dam two years later – a frantic dash to the border before a Covid closure, a court case and a Group 1... Read More

Some breeders rely heavily on type and, to varying extents, don’t pay too much mind to pedigrees. Highgrove Stud’s Ron Gilbert is the other way. It’s all about the two pedigrees involved, and which names bob up where, something he learned from another Queensland bushie. “Rob Atkinson was a big cattle breeder in north-west Queensland... Read More