Lenny Beasley couldn’t remember if it’s eleven or twelve years, since the ravages of the sweat box forced him out of racing.

“I know my last ride was at Kembla Grange for Clarry Conners, but don’t ask me the name of the horse”, said Lenny this week. “I just knew I couldn’t do it for one more day”.

This isn’t the first story ever written about Carbine. Countless journalists and historians have recorded their interpretations over 130 years, all of them in total awe of the great horse’s achievements.

Over in sunny California 10 year old Soi Phet got a similar reception when he won the Crystal Water Stakes at Santa Anita on May 20th. The race was for California breds only, and represented a class drop on the Gr 2 Californian Stakes in which Soi Phet had been unplaced three weeks earlier. Having said that, one of his rivals was Ashleyluvssugar who has won 5 Gr 2 races.

I regularly work a harness horse on a 1600 metre training track adjacent to Rickaby St Clarendon, a stone’s throw from Hawkesbury racecourse. I harness my horse directly opposite a training complex called “Angst Lodge”, home base to trainer Noel Mayfield Smith.

The free running and consistent Dark Dream looks certain to be a major player in Saturday’s Grand Prix, and the Queensland Derby on June 9th. Had it not been for one of mother nature’s most unpredictable and dangerous phenomenons, Dark Dream wouldn’t be walking racing’s biggest stage.

The scuffle between trainer Richard Laming and jockey Noel Callow at the Cranbourne trials recently, left both participants a little lighter in the pocket. Stewards ruled that Laming instigated the incident, and fined him a hefty $2500. Despite the fact that Callow retaliated with a left rip to the body, he was fined a more lenient $300.