What a comforting thing it is for any owner, trainer or jockey to be involved with a horse capable of delivering a peak performance no matter what the conditions.

For those who’d supported Pride Of Jenni it was an exciting watch. For those who’d backed any one of her eight rivals it was a frustrating experience.

When you’ve trained the winner of a one million dollar Country Championship Final at Royal Randwick you’re entitled to celebrate accordingly…

March turned out to be a bittersweet month for Dubbo trainer Dar Lunn. His five wins for the month included the all important Country Championship Qualifier at Coonamble with Elson Boy.

When Shelby Sixtysix grabbed Gr 1 glory in the 2022 Galaxy, trainer Danny Williams was confident he had another one at home likely to tread a similar path.

Ray Selkrig, Bill Camer and Cliff Clare were close in age and carved out distinguished careers for themselves in an era when the Sydney riding ranks were as strong as they’ve ever been.

Chris Parnham’s four win haul at Ascot on Saturday was almost certainly Australia’s best riding performance numerically. At Rosehill Gardens James McDonald calmly snared a black type treble including the Gr 1 Coolmore Classic on Zougotcha.

When Passive Aggressive went off to Yarraman Park Stud last spring, trainer Grahame Begg was probably hoping he’d get to train some of her progeny down the track.

Steve Hart recently caught up with Kerrin McEvoy who added another Gr 1 to his impressive CV by winning Saturday’s Randwick Guineas on Celestial Legend.

James McDonald’s tactics on Fangirl in the Verry Elleegant Stakes were a carbon copy of his Apollo Stakes ride two weeks earlier.

Astute Wagga trainer Gary Colvin maintained his trademark strike rate throughout February posting four winners for the month. Dupride Star and Danny Beasley got the stable away to a good start with an Albury win on February 1st.

Trainers of horses who qualify early for the $1 million Country Championship Final are obviously relieved to get the hard part out of the way, but then they have to deal with a different kind of problem.

You’d expect a bush trainer who’d just won her very first race at Royal Randwick to be treating herself to a lazy Sunday morning. There was also the small matter of a nine hour round trip from Wingham to Randwick.

Danny Williams has saddled up 26.5 TAB Highway winners since the inception of the concept in 2015. He got a special thrill in 2017 when Don’t Give A Damn posted a 6.5 lengths winning margin at Rosehill.

Alison Smith rarely has more than a dozen horses in work at her Orange (NSW) base and gives each of them her utmost attention.

We’ve seen an amazing sequence of Sydney metropolitan wins lately by horses of humble origins. $7000 online purchase Willaidow recently made it four straight with a Midway win at Rosehill. 

Many veteran racing fans on and off course felt a tinge of sadness as the runners filed onto the track for Saturday’s Petaluma Hcp at Randwick.

Marc Conners was still shaking his head in disbelief half an hour after Willaidow’s impressive Midway win at Rosehill Gardens.

I’ve always been a pushover for anybody seeking to find a new home for an ancient scrapbook, newspaper or photograph. One day I’ll have to do something about the pile of memorabilia at my place that Red Rum would have had trouble clearing.

All it took was a sidestep and a swerve from a green three year old filly to remind Anna Roper of the vagaries of racing.