Get In The Spirit
There’s a line from an American author named Jack Kornfield – not coincidentally a Buddhist practitioner – that says to let go and move on means we release “the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit”. Surely there can’t be a more apt setting for that than racing and breeding, where ifs,... Read More
Price and Baker strike for colts on solid opening session at Tattersalls
Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr and Bjorn Baker continued their northern hemisphere spending sprees at yesterday’s opening session of the Tattersall’s Book 1 Yearling Sale in Newmarket, purchasing colts by Frankel (Galileo) and Australia (Galileo). Following on from their US$275,000 (approx. AU$377,000) purchase of a filly by War Front (Danzig) at the Keeneland September... Read More
Heroic Valour hits the mark immediately for Queensland’s Raheen Stud
Doomben win of Kenmore Lodge-bred colt Heroic Son a first for long-time studmaster Basil Nolan Snr Sometimes racecourse victories mean more than others and cannot be measured simply by a race’s status or the prize-money it carried and one result in particular last weekend was an example of that for the tight-knit Nolan family and... Read More
Moor and Bayliss confirm that opportunity is everything in racing
“You could throw the colours into the jockeys’ room and you wouldn’t care who picked them up.” That’s not a line you haven’t read before. Plenty of trainers have trotted it out on occasions but I cannot recall hearing it from a current jockey until Michael Walker said so on television last Sunday. Walker is,... Read More
The great New Zealand mare behind Lagardere winner Angel Bleu
Featuring an extravaganza of six Group 1s, France’s biggest day of racing last Sunday at Longchamp revealed a number of interesting pedigrees, one of which has a significant connection with New Zealand. Angel Bleu (Dark Angel), winner of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Gr 1, 1400m) for three-year-olds, is the fifth northern hemisphere Group 1 winner... Read More
Sprinters are shaping up for a worthy Sha Tin showdown
Pixie Knight (Maurice) emerged as the new star on Japan’s sprinting block with an impressive performance in the Sprinters Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Nakayama on Sunday that could well see him pointed towards Sha Tin to shake-up the Hong Kong contingent on the second Sunday in December. Trainer Hidetaka Otanashi is believed to be... Read More