My thanks to popular Queensland race caller Russell Leonard for drawing my attention to a notable training performance at the Barcaldine meeting on September 4th. Respected local trainer Todd Austin prepared four winners and four placings on the eight race card.

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.

Our first Hygain/Mitavite country trainer of the month is Grafton’s John Shelton who notched a winning treble at the Grafton meeting on August 16th from his only four starters.

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.

Mark Bradley sent me a rare piece of memorabilia which will be of interest to those who were around when Tails was racing in the eastern states.

Chances are most Sydney racing photographs you’ve seen in the last forty years would have been taken by one of this legendary quintet.

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.

I met Brian Henderson long before I got a start in the Sydney media, and on the occasion in question I was scared to death. It was early 1959 and I hadn’t long turned seventeen.

The legendary Australian horse feed specialists join us this week. One of their sponsorship initiatives is the introduction of a monthly “country trainer of the week” award.

“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.

When Graham McNeice stumbles upon a piece of priceless racing footage, his reaction is something akin to that of Howard Carter when the British archaeologist found the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun. “Shadow” came across some rarely seen black and white footage of Vain’s three Sydney race starts in 1969.

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.