Gonnadancealot
When Gonnadancealot won the 1800m first race at Flemington last Saturday, it heralded the start of not just one but perhaps two exciting Australian careers – that of the two-year-old filly, and her sire Sir Prancealot. The Irish-bred 11-year-old is a stallion who, in a way, may have slipped through some cracks on his way... Read More
Frappell has Cause for optimism through deeds of his sire son of Choisir
Queensland studmaster making most of limited opportunities with Worthy Cause Queensland studmaster Bob Frappell referred to his former stallion Outback Prince (Desert Prince), the 2004 T J Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner, simply as “Las Vegas”. Asked why, the Clear Mountain Fairview principal replied: “I used to look at him and think, ‘if I... Read More
Hong Kong connection fires Stanley Chin’s Macau Derby hopes
When a smart three-year-old with Hong Kong connections places top-four in an Australian classic, what follows is often exportation to the Pearl River environs and a targeted Derby campaign. That is exactly what prominent owner Simon Kwok did with his homebred Beauty Bolt (Redoute’s Choice), and yet, rather than take the conventional route to Sha... Read More
Entries open for 2022 Inglis yearling sales
Inglis will largely maintain the status quo for its live auction sales in 2022, a schedule which this year capitalised on a surging thoroughbred market to deliver a number of records. The company’s sales season will open with the Classic Yearling Sale (February 6 to 8) and the Premier Sale in Melbourne will run from... Read More
Money-balling the 2021 Spring Carnival and a likely Covid-hit Melbourne Cup
Moneyball is the entertaining 2011 movie based on the Oakland Athletics baseball team’s success in building a team of undervalued players based on data analysis. Baseball, like cricket, is very much data analysis and statistics driven. Much more so than horse-racing despite the vast array of factors assessed, consciously or subconsciously, every time we look... Read More
Second for Air Force Blue
New first season sire winners Air Force Blue (pictured) Coolmore’s Air Force Blue (War Front) landed a second winner from his one and only southern hemisphere crop as Forceful Matilda (2 f ex Matilda’s Dance by Danehill Dancer) recorded a two-and-a-half-length win at Toowoomba in the two- and three-year-old maiden over 1200 metres. The filly... Read More