Features

Count Octave enjoys a quiet day on Side Hill

Meanwhile, connections of Red Verdon were on hand to watch the son of Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo) have a single canter around Side Hill, following on from his gallop with the Charlie Fellowes-trained Prince Of Arran (Shirocco) on the Al Bahathri yesterday. “He’s come out of yesterday’s gallop well and has been his usual cheeky... Read More

Nick Williams right to highlight the challenges facing racing in Victoria

Williams this week called for greater leadership from Racing Victoria (RV) and queried the role of the state’s governing body – both reasonable questions and ones which I’d extend Australia wide. Giles Thompson – the affable, generally reserved and capable CEO of RVL – sagely avoided any slanging match with Mr Williams and understandably defended... Read More

Melbourne Cup entrants put through their paces on Newmarket’s Al Bahathri

The Roger Charlton-trained Withhold, who beat Prince Of Arran by two and three quarter lengths in the Northumberland Plate (2m.5f) earlier this year, enjoyed a much quieter piece of work, following on from Ed Dunlop’s Red Verdon who worked upsides Prince of Arran in a noticeably faster exercise. Charlie Fellowes, who trains the latter, was... Read More

Strong pace saw Grunt produce a career-best performance in winning Makybe Diva Stakes

In fact, Timeform reacted by immediately elevating Grunt to a clear lead on their 2018-2019 Four-Year-Old tables after allotting him a high 125 rating after his impressive victory  – the only horse to return a higher rating so far this season being Winx (Street Cry) [129+]. Grunt settled nicely under Damien Oliver, back in fifth... Read More

Nakeeta Jane (AUS) 3 f So You Think – Lustre Lady by Flying Spur

The Mark Newnham-trained three-year-old settled in fifth place on the rails from her improved inside barrier (1), before making nice progress into third coming to the home turn. The filly then showed a nice turn of foot and quickly took control at the 200 metre mark, before going on to score in very good style... Read More

Duretto and Langley look in good shape on day eight in quarantine

The Andrew Balding-trained Group 3 winner Duretto (Manduro) worked upsides Japanese raider Langley (Deep Impact) in what was noticeably the fastest piece of work on Side Hill, with both galloping nicely. The son of Manduro (Monsun) holds an entry for the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) at Flemington and he was last seen winning the... Read More