The smile on Scott Aspery’s face said it all as Uzziah snatched victory in the last few strides of Saturday’s Midway. For a Newcastle hobby trainer to saddle up a city winner is one thing. When you’ve only got two horses in the stable it’s something else again.

Toni Schofield’s achievement in winning six races between two venues on May 6th gives her the Pryde’s Award hands down.

Rex Lipp is a trainer who waits for young horses to tell him when they’re good and ready for the serious stuff. Two year olds need to have a flashing light on their heads before the Toowoomba maestro will even consider an early campaign.

Followers of picnic racing look forward to a unique triple header in northern NSW at this time each year. The series begins with the Boolooroo Cup fixture at Moree, followed at fortnightly intervals by hugely popular meetings at Mallawa and Talmoi.

Modern day prize money has reached undreamed of levels, but you’ve still got to have a horse good enough to win it.

Luke Pepper’s usually a sound sleeper but he forsook a few valuable hours last week in weighing up options for his exciting three year old filly Opal Ridge.

Twenty seven year old Ethan Ensby continued on his winning way in April with three winners and six placings on northern tracks. This followed hot on the heels of his stunning performance in March when he landed six winners from just ten starters.

Homesickness is simply defined as the distress caused by being away from home. It can affect humans and animals and can sometimes take a long time to dissipate. In the case of a New Zealand thoroughbred called Palmetto a full year was required for the gelding to overcome the effects of leaving his rural south island home.

Graeme Scheu was immersed in thought as he set out on a leisurely walk one September morning last year. He and his fellow Goondiwindi Race Club committee members were still coming to terms with the disappointment of having had their all important Cup meeting rained out a few weeks earlier.

There’s no quick way to calculate Norm Gardner’s winning strike rate over twenty five years of training, but there’s little doubt it would compare favourably with that of most small stables.

Keen observers of NSW western districts racing were surprised when Wendy Peel made the trip from Brisbane to ride at Coonamble’s Country Championship Qualifier Sunday meeting on March 12th.

There was a note of urgency in James McDonald’s body language as the field topped the rise in Saturday’s Polytrack Provincial-Midway Championship Final.

Whether you’re competing in the professional or amateur ranks, it’s quite a feat to win nine races in a single month. Dubbo trainer Connie Greig did exactly that in March with a team of just twenty two horses in work.

“She lifted her head out of the feedbin, walked to the stable door and looked me straight in the eye,” said owner breeder John Muir as he recalled the day Magic Time was passed in at the 2021 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Thanks largely to her ability to ride at a featherweight, Rachel King is one of Sydney’s busiest jockeys. When acceptances were declared for last Saturday’s Rosehill meeting she’d been locked in for a whopping nine rides.

Fortunes fluctuate in most walks of life, but in the racing game they can literally run amok. Just ask Scone trainer Luke Pepper who’s been at both ends of the spectrum in the last few weeks.

The creation of the Black Opal Stakes in 1973 triggered a buzz in racing circles. A major two year old race in the national capital sandwiched in between the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper made good sense.

Grahame Begg’s stakes double on Saturday wasn’t unique in his thirty year career, but it was the first time he’d won black type races on the same day in two states.

Saturday’s 1000m TAB Highway at Randwick may have produced the most impressive winner in the restricted sprinting ranks anywhere in Australia.

When you have only eight horses in the stable it’s no mean feat to produce four winners in a single month - and a short month at that. Long time Port Macquarie trainer John Sprague began the month of February with a double on his hometrack.