As disappointing as it was, Profondo’s defeat in Saturday’s Gr 3 Gloaming Stakes wasn’t a complete surprise to connections.

One of the highlights of my day at the 2019 Tuncurry-Forster Cup meeting was to catch up with Alan and Sharyn Scorse.

It’s unlikely there was a more contented horse trainer in Australia on Sunday morning than Grahame Begg. Not only had his talented five year old Nonconformist scored an emphatic win in the MRC Foundation Cup on his home track, but…

Chat’s barnstorming win in the Gr 2 Theo Marks Stakes at Kembla Grange was the highlight of a very disheartening few weeks for John Thompson.

Former high profile Sydney jockey Gordon Spinks is making an excellent recovery after major heart surgery at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Brooke, who hadn’t ridden a winner in seven attempts at Gilgandra and Tamworth in the previous week, arrived at Grafton with a book of six rides in as many races.

In form apprentice Brock Ryan left Kembla Grange on Saturday content with his winning double, but knew in his heart it should have been three.

Covid restrictions currently being enforced in the Liverpool LGA caused one Warwick Farm trainer a great deal of anguish on Saturday. Horse loving Lauri Parker would have given anything to be at Randwick with her five year old stallion Torrens.

Michael Travers was quietly chuffed in late 2018 when Racing NSW announced that jockeys would be permitted to both ride and train horses in their home state from the beginning of the following year.

Experts say the effects of an adrenaline rush can be felt for up to an hour. If that’s the case Michael Costa was still well primed by the time the Missile Stakes field moved into the gates at Randwick on Saturday.

“A trainer usually gets more bad news than good news, and most of the bad is beyond his or her control. You can’t be too hard on yourself and you’ve got to have a laugh. It’s easy to handle winners and success. Dealing with the bad news quickly, allows you to get on with the good things. A happy stable is a good stable.”

There were three breaths of fresh air to come out of an unremarkable winter meeting at Rosehill Gardens. Firstly apprentice Brock Ryan put behind him the horrors of a broken leg earlier this year, to ride four of the ten winners - a remarkable feat at such an early stage of his career.

Jenny Duggan wanted her return to race riding to be as low key as possible. After all she’d been off the scene for more than a year and knew her fitness and racecraft would need some fine tuning.

Mark Bradley was kind enough to send me a photo he discovered recently in the Bradley Photographers archives. This is a precious piece of racing memorabilia from the Wyong jockeys room in 1973.

Grant Buckley’s decision in the late 1990’s to concentrate exclusively on the provincial and country circuit has proven to be a runaway winner for the indefatigable jockey. His reasoning was simple.

America’s victory over Japan in the famous Battle Of Midway in 1942, was no more comprehensive than Greg Hickman’s triumph with Our Bellagio Miss in the equine battle of the same name at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Wendy Peel was paid the ultimate compliment by David Reynolds when he elected to entrust her with the ride on Rather Salubrious in Saturday’s Battle Of The Bush Final, even though apprentices were unable to claim.

“You can’t let the strength of the Sydney riding ranks play on your mind,” says popular jockey Sam Clipperton. “You’ve got to stay focused and bring your A game every time you go to the races.”

Surely the most unique winning double of the weekend was the one achieved by Muswellbrook trainer Jan Bowen. The horse loving grandmother was on cloud nine when her consistent three year old Casino Kid stormed home to win the TAB Highway at Randwick.

Steve Tregea had cause to worry when Anthony Allen made the snap decision to send Incentivise to the lead 1200m from home in Saturday’s Bm80 (1810m) at Eagle Farm.