Omei Sword Favourite For Gr 1 Golden Rose
- Tuesday, 06 September 2016 08:31
Hong Kong champion Joao Moreira will ride Golden Rose favourite Omei Sword as she attempts to become the first filly to win the race since it was elevated to Group One status seven years ago.
After drawing barrier three, the Chris Waller-trained filly assumed $3.20 favouritism for Saturday's $1 million feature over 1400 metres at Rosehill.
Godolphin colt Astern drifted to $3.80 second pick after drawing gate 12.
Astern was an impressive last-start winner of the Run To The Rose, the lead-up race for the past four Golden Rose winners.
"We've won this race from wide draws before and the way Astern is progressing in this preparation he can overcome it," Godolphin Australia managing director Henry Plumptre said.
Epaulette won the 2012 Golden Rose from barrier eight in a 10-horse field and Astern will only have two horses outside him if all 14 runners start in this year's race.
"We have Guineas aspirations for this colt later in the spring, so this trip shouldn't present a problem," Plumptre said.
Godolphin will also have Run To The Rose placegetter Impending in the race and he will jump from inside Omei Sword.
"He has the pedigree that says he'll run seven furlongs at Group One level," Plumptre said.
"I really feel we have the best two colts in the race.
"The draw for Astern could be better, but it is far from a disaster."
Hawkes Racing-trained Divine Prophet ($4.60) has drawn barrier 10 and comes into the race off a devastating last-to-first Up And Coming Stakes win on August 20.
Australian jockey Zac Purton will also travel from Hong Kong to ride ATC Sires' Produce winner Yankee Rose.
Yankee Rose had been the subject of concern about her fitness until a raceday gallop at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday convinced trainer David Vandyke she was ready to race.
Yankee Rose and Up And Coming Stakes runner-up Derryn are $11 chances.
Star jockey Hugh Bowman will be after his fifth Golden Rose victory on the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained El Divino.
The colt is a half-brother to champion mare Winx and is rated a $15 hope to win Saturday's race.
Trainers Peter and Paul Snowden will apply winkers to Mediterranean, while James Cummings believes the 1400m will be in Good Standing's favour.
"We're really happy about the weather at the moment because he's been looking for a firmer track," Cummings said.
"The blinkers importantly go on for Saturday which will sharpen him up."
Oliver Excited To Ride Black Heart Bart
- Tuesday, 06 September 2016 08:31
The misfortune of jockey Brad Rawiller has given Damien Oliver a great chance to win the Group One Makybe Diva Stakes for the second year running.
Oliver is looking forward to riding favourite Black Heart Bart in Saturday's 1600m weight-for-age feature at Flemington having picked up the mount last week after Rawiller was suspended for careless riding.
Rawiller won the Group One Memsie Stakes on Black Heart Bart on August 27 in the gelding's first start this season.
Oliver won last year's Makybe Diva Stakes on Fawkner, having chosen him over Alpine Eagle.
Black Heart Bart is the early $2.25 favourite in all-in betting ahead of stablemate Palentino who has been a notable firmer to $5.50.
"He's in great form and he's most consistent," Oliver said.
"He hasn't run a bad race since he has come over to the eastern states, so he's a fantastic ride to pick up."
Black Heart Bart raced 26 times for Western Australian-based trainer Vaughn Sigley, recording 10 wins, before being transferred to Victoria's premier trainer Darren Weir.
In six starts for Weir this year, Black Heart Bart has won The Goodwood and Memsie Stakes at Group One level and finished second in the Newmarket Handicap, All Aged Stakes and Stradbroke Handicap.
He also won the Group Three Victoria Handicap.
Like Black Heart Bart, Oliver also hailed from the west before moving to Victoria early in his career.
"His former trainer Vaughn Sigley, I grew up with him," Oliver said.
"He was apprenticed to my stepfather. So it would be nice to get a win on him."
Black Heart Bart won the Memsie Stakes by 1-1/4 lengths from Rising Romance who is among the 15 nominations for the Makybe Diva.
Jacquinot Bay, a stablemate of Rising Romance, was the only horse added to the entries after they were extended.
Nick Hall will ride Jacquinot Bay should he take his place.
Oliver is set to have a strong book of rides at Flemington including star New Zealander Xtravagant who resumes in the Group Two Bobbie Lewis Quality.
"I trialled him a little while ago and he's a lovely horse," he said.
Oliver said he expected Xtravagant to run well but it was always interesting to see how four-year-olds came back after their three-year-old season.
Welfare Fund For NSW Thoroughbreds
- Tuesday, 06 September 2016 08:31
Young Sydney horse trainer James Cummings says a $2 million horse welfare fund will help transform the NSW racing industry and provide justification it is doing all it can to protect animal rights.
The fund, drawn from an estimated $204 million of annual prize money, will ensure all NSW thoroughbreds are cared for outside their racing careers, including those that never make it to the track, according to Racing NSW.
Cummings said the impending demise of the state's greyhound racing industry meant it was paramount Racing NSW staked its claim as a world leader in animal welfare.
"I'm a young trainer and I have young friends from university who are well educated animal activists and animal lovers," Cummings said.
"They ask me that question, `what happens to these horses after racing'?".
The welfare fund will be predominantly funded from a one per cent deduction in prize money which is set to receive a multi-million dollar boost from October.
Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club jointly announced an almost $53 million increase to prize money on Tuesday, which RNSW chairman John Messara described as a watershed moment for the industry.
The Horse Welfare Fund will support a dedicated team of staff, including an equine veterinarian, to manage the program, as well as establishing partnerships with riding schools and agricultural societies to promote horse re-homing.
The money will also fund training in horse welfare for new owners.
Cummings said the fund would help alleviate some of the financial burden that had previously laid with owners and participants.
"This has been an argument, and explanation that we've needed to give for a long time, a part of our sport that we really need to take responsibility for," Cummings said.
Rules Not Followed On Cobalt: Bailey
- Tuesday, 06 September 2016 08:31
Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey has admitted the rules of racing were not "followed to the letter" in testing for cobalt.
Bailey blamed Victorian lab Racing Analytical Services Ltd for the decision to split urine samples for testing, which he admitted did not "strictly" follow the racing rules.
"That's the way RASL wanted to do it so that's the way we did it," Bailey told trainers Danny O'Brien and Mark Kavanagh's appeal against their cobalt disqualifications.
"Obviously the rules weren't followed to the letter."
After Racing Victoria brought in its cobalt threshold in April 2014, samples were initially sent to Perth-based ChemCentre for testing.
However from June 2014 the urine samples were divided with ChemCentre testing for cobalt and RASL for all other prohibited substances.
Asked who was in charge of ensuring the stewards complied with their obligations under the rules, Bailey said: "At the end of the day the buck stops with the chairman of stewards."
Bailey said he was never told ChemCentre and the Hong Kong Jockey Club lab did not have specific accreditation for the method for testing for cobalt in equine urine.
Kavanagh and O'Brien's barrister Damian Sheales on Tuesday suggested Bailey was lying about what Racing Victoria knew in 2014.
"We say he's untruthful about all matters pertaining to cobalt and what they knew in 2014," Sheales told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Sheales accused Bailey of telling "a straight-out lie" when the steward maintained he could not remember a drug strategy committee meeting where cobalt was discussed.
"When it's in your interests I suggest to you you're a person who tells lies," Sheales said.
Bailey replied: "You can suggest what you like."
Bailey was also questioned about a media report describing the 2014 spring racing carnival being the cleanest ever, when Sheales said the steward knew about cobalt positives for O'Brien, Kavanagh and fellow trainer Peter Moody.
Bailey said there were only screening results at the time, which were not positive results.
He said Racing Victoria does not notify trainers about positives for any prohibited substance until it gets the first analysis certificate.
"Screening levels we've found in the past have been unreliable.
"We don't act on screens because we're not confident of the readings."
VCAT heard the certificates of analysis relied on by Racing Victoria for one Kavanagh horse and four trained by O'Brien were all dated after ChemCentre had accreditation for its method to test for cobalt in equine urine.
ChemCentre forensic scientist Charles Russo admitted he said should not have put the National Association of Testing Laboratories stamp on certificates before the November 26, 2014, accreditation date.
Bailey continues giving evidence on Wednesday, before Racing Victoria head vet Dr Brian Stewart appears as a witness.
AAP TURF mn/cw
Winx Set To Trial At Warwick Farm
- Tuesday, 06 September 2016 08:31
Champion mare Winx is likely to run in a barrier trial at Warwick Farm to sharpen her fitness ahead of the Group One George Main Stakes.
Trainer Chris Waller opted to avoid the heavy Randwick track and scratch Winx from the Chelmsford Stakes on Saturday.
Winx's next start is to be the George Main Stakes at Randwick on September 17 before she travels to Melbourne for the Caulfield Stakes, her final lead-up race to her Cox Plate defence.
Waller said he would rather see her trial at Warwick Farm on Friday than have an exhibition gallop during Saturday's Golden Rose meeting on her home track at Rosehill.
"She galloped well on Monday," Waller said.
"The back-up plan would be to gallop on Saturday at Rosehill.
"I'd prefer the trial, it would just bring her on a little bit more."