It was a weekend of upsets in the three big Group One races. The James Cummings-trained nine year Cascadian rolled the hotpots Pride of Jenni, Mr Brightside and Atishu in the Australian Cup, winning the race for the second year in a row.
The broader Cummings family have now won the race a staggering 16 times. The Tancred Stakes at Rosehill was another upset with the Kris Lees trained $31 chance Kalapour winning the chocolates. The Pommie raider Post Impressionist was a huge flop.
The kiwi filly Orchestral was the one shining light. Winning the Vinery Stud Stakes as a short favourite, she will be very hard to beat in the Oaks or even Queen Elizabeth back at 2400m.
I spotted two good runs for the Derby and Oaks – Noisy Boy and Zardozi.
Good on the lovely Jamie Kah riding another winner on the day.
It’s got to a sad state of affairs when there wasn’t one Australasian-bred starter in the Group One 2400m Tancred Stakes. All fully imported horses. Says a lot about Australian breeding, it’s all about producing five and six furlong wonders, that are stuffed at the end of their three-year-old season. Food for thought.
Doomben races: cancelled. The shocking state of SEQ racecourses and meeting programming was on display over the weekend. The Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and now Doomben out of commission. The Racing Queensland CEO can’t pass it off as a “blip”. It’s bad management
with some tracks being overworked and the redevelopment of others stuffed up. Worse still it’s costing the industry a lot of wagering revenue.
Perhaps less could be spent on administration and more on the ground!
Big news on Good Friday with Annabel Neasham announcing the retirement of her champion racehorse, Zaaki. All up Zaaki won $11m and 15 races including five at Group One level. Neasham said Zaaki had put her on the map.
Zaaki’s retirement comes hot on the heels of the triple Group One winner, Kerry Parker-trained Think It Over being retired the day before. Both horses raced on till nine, a testament to their trainers. Zaaki will see out his days under the watchful eye of his trainer on her private property.
Winx half-sister City of Lights just keeps on winning. The Jo Pride four-year-old mare saluted on the Kensington course a week ago today. Owned by her breeder Fairway Thoroughbreds and by champion Japanese stallion Deep Impact, she is priceless. A keeper and some.
Great news: Fabs Cowboy the bush champion will be retired to Living Legends in Victoria after his racing career ends on 31 July, when turns 13. Since I last wrote about the Bevan Johnson trained marvel, he has knocked up two more wins, 53 in all, from 151 starts. He will not be out of place with former champion racehorses at Living Legends located on the outskirts of Melbourne.
I wasn’t all surprised to hear that two-year-old colt Switzerland was going under the knife to remove a bone chip off his knee. His Golden Slipper run was below par and now we know why. He will be a very good three-year-old. Mark my words.
Talk about optimism, I spotted the aptly named Fresh Start a nine-year-old going around in a maiden at Rocky. Fresh alright, his first race was in 2016. He then had almost five years off racing. He has been to the races 13 times all up. I can’t remember another horse like him.
Starry eyed owners: With the seasonal change of weather comes a jump in bush racing. Last weekend, races were held at Barcaldine, Boulia, Einasleigh, Emerald, Flinton ( rained out), Gatton, Nanango and Roma. That’s pretty much Queensland covered. That should be the pattern now for the next seven months. Enjoy your race days folks and support the locals.
About time. The VRC have taken the number of races back on a Saturday from 10 to nine for June and July. It would be better again, if they made it eight. It’s hard enough watching that many races, let alone the poor participants who must be knackered at the end of a 10-race card. Let commonsense prevail.
Paddy and Mick were attending the Easter service. Afterwards, all the parishioners greeted the priest and had brief conversations. When it came to Paddy and Mick, Paddy was gracious and thanked the Priest for a comforting service and commented on his new set of robes. Then it was Mick’s turn, “Thank you so much father. It was a lovely service. Your new robes look very smart, and the new bright collar will certainly be handy at this time of the
year. Puzzled, the Priest asked” why do you say that Mick?”. “Because it kills ticks and fleas for up to 30 days”.
