Features
Many moons ago, on my first racing expedition to the UK, the Herald-Sun’s Matthew Stewart offered me the following propitious salutation.
I found then in the 1990s and early 2000s that, at large, the English punter was much less sophisticated than his Australian counterpart. No account was seemingly taken of track bias. Horses with obvious winning form but with an unfashionable trainer – jockey combination were invariably three times the right price. There was an obsession... Read More
More from Steve Moran
Steve Considers The Achievements Of Darren Weir This Season
Not, alas, that I know how many he has. I can only take a guess. And this musing is not confined to Weir. I’d be curious to know how many horses each trainer has – a strike rate of winners to individual horses. Another benchmark by which we may judge them. I wonder how many... Read More
Mulk (AUS)
The Lindsay Park-trained two-year-old colt Mulk followed placings in four of his first six starts with an impressive win over older opposition here. He began well from barrier four and was soon crossed to the front by jockey Damien Oliver. He settled well and gradually lifted the pace nearing the 600 metre mark. With 200... Read More
Times Suggest That Queensland Derby Winner Ruthven Has Spring Potential
Already the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) winner Egg Tart (Sebring) has indicated that she has the potential to be a force in the spring, displaying a brilliant turn of foot in her impressive late-closing victory at Doomben a week earlier. Ruthven certainly is not in the same mode as Egg Tart, a fast turn... Read More
September Impresses On Debut
The two-year-old filly was dropped in behind the leaders in fifth by Seamie Heffernan in the early stages of the contest, but crept into contention approaching the home straight and was produced to lead a furlong from home. The filly, who holds an entry for the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) later in the... Read More
It’s hard to believe that it’s now 14 years since Choisir blazed the sprint trail to Royal Ascot. Steve reflects.
There has arguably never been a better front-running straight track sprinter than Choisir and he ably demonstrated that twice, in five days, at the Royal Meeting. Racing Post journalist Graham Dench recently described his presence as ‘intimidating’ and wrote of his performances ‘changing the nature of international sprinting for the next decade or so’. His... Read More