So the rot or the rout, depending on your point of view, continued yesterday with Twilight Payment (Teofilo) taking the Cup. It began in 1993 when Irishmen Dermot Weld and Mick Kinane turned up with a hurdler Vintage Crop (Roussillon), who hadn’t raced since September, and turned the Melbourne Cup upside down. It precipitated such... Read More

New first season sire winners Scissor Kick Skycutter (2 g ex Skysweeper by Hurricane Run) brought up the eighth individual winner for first season sire Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice) when landing a maiden over 2000 metres at Compiegne on Tuesday. The Jo Hughes-trained gelding came within a length of breaking his maiden at Fontainebleau less... Read More

The list of living Australian-based Melbourne Cup-winning trainers is a relatively short one. An exclusive club, no less, and one which is becoming harder to join.  Perhaps that’s no surprise given that three men – Bart Cummings (12), Lee Freedman (5) and George Hanlon (3) – won almost half the Cups between 1965 and 2008.... Read More

2 c Extreme Choice – Unrevealed by Forest Wildcat  O: Edmund Wong B: SF Bloodstock LLC T: Jamie Richards S: 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale V: Ainsley Down Stud P: David Ellis, $85,000 S: 2019 Inglis Great Southern Weanling And Bloodstock Sale V: Newgate Consignment P: Paul Willets Bloodstock Consultancy, $65,000 W: NZB... Read More

They say some have greatness thrust upon them. Perhaps others have it forced upon them – by old fashioned economic reality. They also say too many sweets are bad for you, but in the case of whisking up this pedigree, you could say oodles was still not enough. The main highlight to be found from... Read More