There were 78,500 people at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day 1976. Those still living, hold indelible memories of their visit to the historic course on the day mother nature threw a tantrum.
“If I could find a way to bottle the feeling I got on Saturday, I’d be marketing it all over the world,” said Todd Smart after So Magnificent’s win in the TAB Highway.
Brad Widdup knew it wasn’t ideal to back Savvy Hallie up in the Silver Shadow Stakes just nine days after her Super Maiden win at Newcastle, but made the decision to do so on three counts.
Most country trainers agree it’s no pushover to win a TAB Highway. For a start they have to identify the right horse for the job and plan their programmes meticulously.
“Horse training is a business fraught with disappointments interspersed by the odd pleasant surprise” is a quote attributed to a veteran NZ trotting horseman many years ago.
The significance of Greg Hickman’s Midway win with Glounthaune (Ire) on Saturday was lost on many racing fans. It’s likely that Greg himself had forgotten he’d trained the winner of the very first Midway ever staged on July 3rd, 2021.
Joe Pride has never regarded himself as a hopeless sentimentalist, but he did confess to a hint of nostalgia after saddling up two winners at Wyong’s first ever stand-alone meeting.
With rarely more than fifteen horses in work at his long-time Hawkesbury base, Terry Croft doesn’t expect to win premierships. He’s happy to simply identify the capabilities of every horse that comes his way, and leave no stone unturned in finding the right races for them.
In his heart Marc Quinn thought lightly raced Bomarea had a massive chance in Saturday’s 1000m TAB Highway and wasn’t afraid to say so in a couple of media interviews late last week.
Karen Owen and daughter Madeline provided one of NSW racing’s most touching moments of the year when they combined to win the $100,000 Stacks Law Firm Taree Gold Cup with Sound And Vision on November 19th.
Peace Officer’s stylish win in Saturday’s Rosehill Midway completed a week of high elation for Warwick Farm trainer Clarry Conners. Only a few days earlier it was confirmed that the multiple Gr 1 winning horseman will be among this year’s inductees into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame.
Mark Minervini’s love affair with Randwick racecourse began when he was a race mad teenager growing up in Adelaide. He knew everything there was to know about local horses, but was also a regular listener to racing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“I can always tell when he’s ready to run a big race,” said trainer Sara Ryan of Friday’s Coffs Harbour Gold Cup winner Attractable. “When he’s at the top of his game he’s a nightmare as he comes off the training track at Kulnura.
