This year will be a year like no other for the Melbourne Cup. With the backdrop of a pandemic and the introduction of additional vetting procedures in the face of a series of fatalities in the race, the Road to the Cup is a chequered one for many international aspirants dreaming of winning the Race... Read More

It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain. So, too, between madman and genius.  When Rick Jamieson watched Masked Crusader win the Group 3 The Heath so effortlessly at Caulfield last Saturday, hanging over the pride in another cracking piece of breeding was a large cloud of melancholy.  It was the Gilgai Farm maven who... Read More

At first glance, it makes perfect sense why Waikato Stud would have been attracted to a yearling bred the way Banquo (Written Tycoon), the stud’s latest addition, is bred. When the well is deep, why not go back? Since the announcement that he will join a formidable stallion line up, it has been well publicised... Read More

Ottavio Galletta’s phone was ringing so incessantly in the hours after Profondo (Deep Impact), the $1.9 million colt he bought “on a whim” last year, made the perfect start to his highly touted career that he told trainer Richard Litt to wait to give him the post-race rundown until last night. One of the first... Read More

Newgate among those again in possession of an enviable arsenal as available stud prospects appear in short supply The new southern hemisphere breeding season may have just begun, but already the most likely commercial first season stallions of next year and beyond are being stockpiled by Australasia’s leading stud farms. Newgate Farm’s enviable arsenal of... Read More

Early in her race career No Effort (Reward For Effort) lived up to her name because she didn’t make much of it on the track. It wasn’t until her 17th start on July 20, 2019, in the depths of winter at Moe, that she finally managed to break through for a win. And it came... Read More