It was a weary Aaron Clarke who rolled into the Rosehill Gardens float area on Saturday with just one horse occupying the stable truck. The lone passenger was the four year old mare Run Like A Rebel, a contestant in one of two divisions of the Class 2 TAB Highway Hcp.

The careers of several Australian racehorse trainers have been honoured in book form, but none have had a more human story to offer than Pat Webster. What a journey, what a career, what a life!

I was delighted to record a podcast recently with top jockey Craig Newitt who’s getting very close to 2000 career wins including 33 Group 1’s.

Kris Lees was probably feeling a little out of sorts as he positioned himself in front of a TV monitor at Kembla Grange to watch the running of the Spirit Of Boom Classic at Doomben.

Nobody was more impressed with Trophies Galore than her super-efficient jockey Andrew Gibbons. Newcastle based Gibbons has had four rides on the mare for two wins and two placings.

Although beaten into second place on See You Soon in Saturday’s Golden Gift, Jean Van Overmeire was awarded the “ride of the day” by several experienced observers.

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.

But I Know’s jockey Andrew Adkins may have been the only person confident of victory in the middle stages of Saturday’s TAB Highway (1800m) at Randwick.

Had it not been for Louis Mihalyka’s fascination with thoroughbred line breeding, Australian racing would have been deprived of the touching scenes that followed Handle The Truth’s win in Saturday’s Kosciuszko.

The Kalgoorlie Cup has been on my bucket list for many years and I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity when the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing Club invited me and my wife Ann to join them for the Sportsman’s Luncheon on Friday, and the Iron Jack Kalgoorlie Cup on Saturday.

Every Rose would look pretty good without the white blaze and stockings. With them she takes your breath away. The powerful chestnut filly has the sweetest of actions which is greatly enhanced by her dazzling markings.

Standout was a month old when owner/breeder George Altomonte saw him for the first time at Corumbene Stud. “I’d had a call from my Stud Manager Toby Frazer not long after he was foaled to say he was an absolute standout”, recalled George.

Who remembers Sir Dex? He wasn’t in the same league as Greg Hickman’s current headliner Pierata, but good enough to amass prize money of $831,000 - a tidy sum in 2005 when he bowed out of racing.

A buoyant crowd of 3342 turned out for the Tuncurry-Forster Gold Cup meeting last Friday. Most of them viewed the nine race card from the landmark hill adjacent to the home straight.

Paul Cave’s broad brimmed hat partly concealed the look of relief on his face when Spanish Dream won the last race at Rosehill Gardens. The mare owed him that one.

Steve caught up with Corey Brown just three months after his horror fall in the Queensland Derby. The champion jockey sustained a cracked sternum, a punctured lung and required major surgery to repair an unstable fracture to the T7 vertabra.

Tim Clark is one modern day Sydney jockey who loves to lead when presented with the opportunity. This is not a recent development in Tim’s technique, it’s an art that’s been slowly developing over several years.

When Danielle Seib saw Nash Rawiller look behind in the closing stages of Saturday’s TAB Highway, she suddenly realised her “big baby” Assault’N’Bathory was going to win by a space. “I thought my God he’s looking back to see where they are”, said the young Goulburn trainer. “I couldn’t believe my eyes”.

Mark Minervini has saddled up a handful of Group runners in a career not yet three decades old. He’s familiar with the butterflies that most trainers experience when they have a runner at the elite level.

Daniel Bowman has never counted the number of owners involved in Begood Toya Mother, but estimates the figure would be between forty and fifty people.