Berry Confident Star Can Handle Wet

Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:02

Pouring rain is likely to produce a heavy track for the Run To The Rose, but that doesn't worry Star Turn's jockey Tommy Berry.

A wintry blast has hit Sydney with 25mm falling in the city's west to Wednesday afternoon rendering the Rosehill track in the heavy range.

More rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday but Berry is confident Star Turn, who won the San Domenico Stakes in soft going at the same track last start, can handle even wetter conditions.

Jockey Tommy Berry riding Star Turn

"He's shown no reason why he couldn't," Berry said.

"He's got a daisy-cutting action so I'd be pretty confident that he would."

Star Turn pulled off an upset in the Group Three San Domenico, lowering the colours of Golden Slipper winner Capitalist to dramatically alter the complexion of the spring's three-year-old Group One contests.

A week later Berry rode Divine Prophet to an exciting win in the Group Three Up And Coming Stakes at Randwick.

Following those performances Divine Prophet became the $6 favourite for the $1 million Golden Rose, while Star Turn now shares the second line of betting at $8.

It remains to be seen whether the Hawkes Racing stablemates will face off in the Group One race at Rosehill on September 10, but having first option is a nice problem to have for Berry.

"Star Turn and Divine Prophet look to be two that are putting their hand up at the moment," Berry said.

Star Turn has drawn barrier five on Saturday and Berry will look to get cover behind the speed.

"Sometimes he can jump and put himself right there and sometimes he can jump and drop the bit and relax," Berry said.

"I'd love to see him in behind a couple because we believe he's a better horse with cover."

Star Turn is the $4 favourite to win Saturday's Golden Rose lead-up race with Godolphin colt Impending next pick at $4.60.

The Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Mediterranean is $4.80 and Winx's sibling El Divino is $5.50.

Paul Perry Hoping Colt Can Fly

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 08:26

Gadfly doesn't have the profile of most of his opponents in the Run To The Rose but his trainer believes it is worth putting him to the test.

The Paul Perry-trained colt earned his way to Saturday's Group Two race at Rosehill with his last-start win over 1200 metres on his home track at Newcastle.

That was his fourth start which came after three minor placings at the provincial course.

"You never know unless you try," Perry said.

"We'll throw him in the deep end and give it a go and see what happens.

"He's a nice colt and if he goes well, then we would have to think about the Golden Rose.

"This race will be the measuring stick."

Gadfly is at $151 in early markets on Saturday's race with Star Turn the $3.80 favourite ahead of Impending at $4.60 and Mediterranean at $4.80.

El Divino, the younger half brother to champion mare Winx is also among the favoured runners at $5.50.

Gadfly also has breeding on his side as a son of Smart Missile out of Distinctive, a daughter of Special who held the 1000m-record at Flemington of 55.5sec for 25 years until Black Caviar bettered her time in 2013.

Both mares ran the times in the Lightning Stakes.

Smart Missile is a son of Fastnet Rock who Perry trained to win the 2005 Lightning but he is hoping Gadfly has the scope to get up to the 1400 metres of the Golden Rose.

With rain forecast in Sydney in the lead-up to Saturday, Perry has no qualms about Gadfly on wet ground.

"All his runs have been on soft or heavy which is just the way it's turned out," Perry said.

"He has won a trial on good going so I think he would be effective on that as well."

Three Hopes In Memsie For Lindsay Park

Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:02

Lindsay Park and the all-conquering Darren Weir stable saddle half the field in the opening Group One race of the season, the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield.

Weir has the top three in early betting, the $2.80 favourite Black Heart Bart, Mahuta ($5.50) and Palentino ($6.50) along with last year's Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance, a $41 chance.

On the other hand, the Lindsay Park team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig have three outsiders.

He Or She and Rising Romance are $21 chances with Tashbeeh the $101 rank outsider.

Rising Romance, who is yet to win in 12 starts for Lindsay Park, is going as well as she ever has in her time with the stable according to Dabernig.

"It's been a long time since she's won but she has been beaten narrowly in a couple of Group Ones for us," Dabernig said.

Rising Romance is likely to head to the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on September 10, a race she finished second in last year, after which she is due to make a stud visit to Written Tycoon.

Plans are to race the mare in foal with the owners hoping to start her in the Cox Plate.

"We'll see where she is at after her first couple of runs," Dabernig said.

"She's booked in to visit Written Tycoon but when that will be we're just not sure yet.

"It's all about getting the timing right."

Dabernig said He Or She may find the 1400m on Saturday a bit short but he had been working well with the stable expecting a forward showing.

He said the gelding kept on improving through his last campaign and believes 1600m will be his ideal trip.

"We'll probably look at the Toorak Handicap and the Emirates Stakes with him," Dabernig said.

Dabernig said the stable had considered a Balaklava Cup start for Tashbeeh but decided on a throw at the stumps at Group One level instead.

He said Lindsay Park had always held Tashbeeh in high regard and were happy with his first-up effort down the straight at Flemington.

"He'll probably start big odds but the way that he's been going he won't be the worst in the race," Dabernig said.

Cory Parish gets a rare chance in a Group One race.

"He's riding well, riding winners and doing the work," Dabernig said.

"It's our policy to support the guys that do the work."

Song And Laughter Gets Shot At Stakes Win

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 08:26

Winning the Premier's Cup will be the Litt family's biggest success in racing.

Retired NZ dairy farmer Jim Litt established the stable at Warwick Farm in 2013.

His son Richard, a one-time foreman for Bart Cummings and John O'Shea, has been pivotal to the operation.

"We just potter along. It takes us all day but we love our horses," Richard Litt said.

"We have 11 horses - that's plenty for us."

While she won't be their first stakes runner, Song And Laughter will be their first winner if she can pull off an upset in the Listed Premier's Cup (1900m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

"We've never really been too competitive in stakes races so hopefully it might be our day in the sun on Saturday," Litt said.

Beyond the Premier's Cup, Litt is looking at extending Song And Laughter to provincial Cups at Wyong and Newcastle on September 2 and 16 respectively.

"Saturday is probably a bit of stepping stone really," Litt said.

"I really want to get her into the Wyong and Newcastle Cups and start pushing her out over a bit of distance."

Song And Laughter arrived in the Litt stable after trainer Kevin Moses received a ban for a cobalt offence.

The mare's owner-breeder Joe O'Gara died in April, leaving his wife Theresa to race their horses.

"It would be huge for her to win Saturday because she lost her husband," Litt said.

"The horses were her husband's thing so she's taken over and to get a win for her has been great."

The mare won at a Saturday meeting at Canterbury on July 23 before before finishing last in the Premier's Cup Prelude on August 13.

Litt said a drying track and three weeks between runs counted against her in her last run at Rosehill.

"She loves a wet track, anything from a soft onwards and she'll be very competitive," Litt said.

Another ex-Moses trained horse O'Gara owns which is now with Litt is Singing Flame, a full brother to Song And Laughter.

The six-year-old gelding is Group Two placed and ran seventh in the 2014 Australian Derby.

"He's very exciting," Litt said.

"He's four times as good as Song And Laughter if we can get him right."

Litt said Singing Flame had not raced since May last year because of injury and he expected the horse to return to racing in December.

Former Rodeo Rider Fry Bullish About Sofin

Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:02

A bull rider from Bowraville is confident one of the two horses he trains can match it with racing's heavyweights.

Bush trainer Shannon Fry is getting ready to make the 5-1/2-hour trip with Sofin for the Listed Premier's Cup at Rosehill on Saturday.

The northern NSW town's most famous sporting export is South Sydney rugby league star Greg Inglis.

It will be western Sydney where Sofin will try to give the town with a population of a little more than 1000 further glory.

Fry, who has been training for about 10 years, was on the verge of retirement after losing his training facilities at Bowraville racecourse.

But Sofin convinced him to continue.

"I was not far off hanging the reins up and I said to the owner 'this little girl is showing a little bit of ability - let's just stick it out and see how she goes'," Fry said.

Persistence has paid off with Sofin - $6000 at a Patinack Farm dispersal sale - earning more than $125,000 for owner Byron Fegan.

While on the rodeo circuit riding bulls and horses, Fry rode trackwork for local trainers to pay his competition entrance fees.

"Ten years ago I started getting back into the trackwork and fell in love with a couple of young horses I was riding work for and the rest is history," he said.

Fry said his rodeo experience made him concentrate on horses' mental focus in racing.

"Rodeo riding is a high adrenaline sport for people and racing is a high adrenaline sport for horses," he said.

Sofin was Fry's first city winner during a midweek meeting at Warwick Farm almost two years ago.

She was his first Saturday metropolitan runner when a creditable fourth at Rosehill on August 13.

He is bullish about the chances of knocking off horses trained by Chris Waller, John O'Shea and James Cummings to give him his biggest win.

"Every trainer and owner is quite confident or you don't put them in the races," Fry said.

"But provided we get her in one piece we're just happy to go down - it's a big eye-opener down there for a fella like me."

Fry, who is also Sofin's track rider, farrier and strapper, says the size of his stable makes him cherish any success.

"They're no world-beaters but they're your world-beaters," Fry said.

The trainer says Sofin lives in the stables 20 metres from his house and he loves her to death.

"You find yourself sometimes at 10pm at night wandering down to give them a pat," Fry said.

"They're more like my pets than anything."

A Lotta Love Chasing First Stakes Win

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 08:26

A Lotta Love has already been placed at Group Three level and her trainer is hoping that is an omen for her next assignment.

Sam Pritchard-Gordon has aimed the five-year-old at Saturday's Group Three Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield since her unplaced run in the Leilani Series Final at Flemington last month.

Pritchard-Gordon is hoping race fitness from a winter campaign will give A Lotta Love an edge over some of her rivals.

A Lotta Love finished third in the Group Three Proud Miss Stakes in Adelaide in May to earn her first stakes placing while she was a winner over the Cockram Stakes course and distance two starts ago on July 2 in a benchmark-90 for mares with Dylan Dunn in the saddle.

The apprentice has the ride again on Saturday.

"I was surprised by how close she went to winning that Group Three in Adelaide, and she went into that race as a bit of a shy at the stumps," Pritchard-Gordon said.

"This race has been a target and I think that can only help. I also think she's a mare that just keeps on improving.

"I know she's just turned five but she's an Al Maher and is only lightly raced. She's pretty easy to place because she races so tractably."

Pritchard-Gordon says A Lotta Love has spent plenty of time at Balnarring beach since her most recent start and he believes she is in good form heading to Saturday.

"I'm really pleased with the way she's come up in the last two weeks," he said.

He had planned to give her a soft barrier trial on Monday but the Cranbourne trials were cancelled, something he did not believe would be an issue.

He said he liked the idea of going into an early season stakes race with a mare who had raced through winter.

"In my mind I always think the fillies or mares that have been racing through the winter seem to have the edge in those early Victorian mares' black type races," he said.

Yankee Rose Injury Not Too Serious

Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:02

Trainer David Vandyke is hopeful one-time Golden Rose favourite Yankee Rose will be ready to trial next Tuesday despite spraining a fetlock in a track gallop.

Vandyke called a vet to his Sunshine Coast stables after Yankee Rose showed inflammation in a fetlock after her trackwork on Tuesday morning.

Stable manager Alan Thomas said the vet had x-rayed Yankee Roses's near side fetlock and the report was far from gloomy on Wednesday afternoon.

"He found she had sprained her fetlock in the gallop and there was obviously swelling around it," Thomas said.

"But the swelling has gone down markedly and the vet recommended we continue the treatment for her."

Vandyke said he would continue to monitor Yankee Rose in the lead-up to the Golden Rose on September 10 at Rosehill.

"At this stage we hope she can trial at Caloundra next Tuesday and go from there," he said.

Yankee Rose has eased to $11 for the $1 million race.

The filly won the ATC Sires' Produce Stakes but missed the Group One Champagne Stakes with a foot injury in the autumn.

She has been entered for several Group One races in the spring including the Cox Plate in October.

Tough Sandown Work For The Housemaid

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 08:26

A midweek restricted race at Sandown will give trainer Archie Alexander a spring guide to lightly raced filly The Housemaid.

A nomination for October's Thousand Guineas at Caulfield, The Housemaid will line up in The Grand Hotel Frankston Handicap (1300m) on Wednesday.

The Housemaid goes into the race off a win on the synthetic track at Pakenham over 1400m last month which came after a third to subsequent city winner Artie Dee Two at Geelong in June.

trainer Archie Alexander

Alexander says the heavy track conditions on Wednesday will suit The Housemaid although the filly is coming back in distance since her last start victory.

"It's a pretty tough race," Alexander said.

"There's 16 in it and probably 10 have a real good winning chance.

"Her win last time was pretty good and we felt she deserves to take her chance.

"Normally I would have liked it to be 1400 metres, but it's only 100 metres shorter and then we'll be stepping her up to 1400 and a mile afterwards.

"That's where her future lies."

Alexander describes The Housemaid as a gutsy individual who always gives her best and believes that will hold her in good stead.

Even though it's more than three weeks since The Housemaid broke her maiden status, Alexander says the filly has held her form.

He said her performance on Wednesday would determine whether the Thousand Guineas was a realistic target.

"She'd have to win or go close to think about the Guineas but I thought she was worth the nomination," Alexander said.

"She's the sort of horse that can get away with a 1300 or 1400 race but I think in time a mile is her go."

With Alexander saying The Housemaid will appreciate getting up to at least 1600m a start in the VRC Oaks over 2500m at Flemington hasn't been ruled.

"We can aim high and always come back," he said.

"For the moment she's done everything right and she tries really hard.

"She might not be the best filly in the race but she will always give her best."

Jason Taylor Correct Weight For Oink

Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:02

A handicapping mistake means Jason Taylor will ride both Queensland's Golden Rose hopefuls in their final lead-up races at Doomben.

He will be on O'Reilly Cyrus and Oink on Saturday with the two trying to earn starts in the Group One Golden Rose at Rosehill on September 10.

The lightweight Taylor had already been booked for O'Reilly Cyrus who has 51.5kg in the Coke Zero Plate (1350m).

He picked up the ride on Oink in the Lift Plate (1200m) when it was discovered the gelding had originally been given one kilogram above his proper allocation.

Paul Hammersley had wasted all week to ride Oink at the 53kg but could not make the new weight of 52kg.

Racing Queensland handicapper Lester Grimmett said the allowance for three-year-olds in Plate races had been changed in Queensland this season and Oink had been weighted under the old scale.

"He should have had less weight at 52 kilograms so we quickly made the change when we realised the mistake," Grimmett said.

Trainer Kelly Schweida was quickly on the phone to find a rider who could get down to 52kg.

"The Gods are really smiling on me. He has drawn barrier 20 and now I have lost my jockey. I feel sorry for Paul (Hammersley) as he has wasted all week," Schweida sad.

"But I have to take advantage of the weights. Jason is a Group One winning jockey and he will do the job."

Oliver Back On Lord Of The Sky In Memsie

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 08:26

Champion jockey Damien Oliver reunites with Lord Of The Sky in the first Group One race of the new season at Caulfield.

The pair will be trying to add Saturday's Memsie Stakes (1400m) to their victory in the Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield last month.

In between Oliver rode Miss Rose De Lago to win the P B Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 13 with Mark Zahra partnering Lord Of The Sky into fifth place.

"I was locked into Miss Rose De Lago before they had asked me to ride him in the Lawrence Stakes," Oliver said.

"As Miss Rose De Lago is heading towards the Dato Tan Chin Nam I became free again for the Memsie.

"I thought his run in the Lawrence was full of merit as he and The Cleaner went toe-to-toe all the way and he was still there inside the 200 metre mark.

"You would think the run over the 1400 metres would serve him well for the next time that he's at it."

Oliver has ridden Lord Of The Sky four times for two Group One seconds and the Bletchingly Stakes success.

In the past two months, Oliver has picked up feature Caulfield sprint wins with Wild Rain in the Sir John Monash Stakes before victories in the Bletchingly Stakes and Lawrence Stakes.

He said a Group One win for Lord Of The Sky would be fitting.

"He's been consistent at the highest level but he hasn't won one yet being beaten in a Goodwood and a TJ Smith," Oliver said.

"I think he'd be a worthy winner of a Group One."

Oliver will partner Queensland Oaks winner Provocative when she makes her Melbourne debut in the Heatherlie Handicap (1700m) on Saturday.

He expects the mare to be running on at the end of Saturday's race.

"I trialled her the other morning over a half-mile (800m) which was too short and I think she'll want 2000 metres plus to show her best," he said.