New first season sire winners Belardo Hale Bopp (2 c ex Emperors Pearl by Holy Roman Emperor) brought up Belardo’s (Lope De Vega) ninth individual winner when landing the Irish EBF Median Sires Series (C & G) Maiden (7f) at Dundalk on Friday night. The Ger Lyons-trained two-year-old was making his second start after finishing... Read More

2 c Contributer – Dare To Dream by O’Reilly  O: K Rae, M Harris, S and A Rumble, R Dick and D McHugh B: Kevin Hickman T: Ken Rae & Krystal Williams-Tuhoro S: 2020 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale, Book 2  V: Valachi Downs  P: Ken Rae Stables,  $24,000 W: Nobby Bussell Memorial 2YO Handicap, 800m,... Read More

Two academic points spring to mind in an assessment of Verry Elleegant.  The most obvious is that the spelling is a tiny bit off. The second, from the mare’s pedigree, suggests the maths don’t quite hit the mark either.  The factor that screams “potential champion” in the lineage of the five-year-old, who’ll attempt to become... Read More

– The man who rode the arguably incomparable Sea Bird II – Thomas Patrick (Pat) Glennon – (23 August 1927 – 14 February 2004) – had limited international success, measured by numbers alone, compared to his fellow “Incomparables” (the Australian jockeys who had sustained and remarkable success in England, Ireland and France from the 1900s... Read More

A combination of one man’s determination and one stallion’s brilliant but all-too-short career, is firmly behind the success of last week’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) victress Probabeel (Savabeel). The man is Garry Chittick, founder of Thornton Park Stud which later morphed into Waikato Stud when that fabulous facility became available to purchase. The stallion... Read More