A great photo of Princess Royale and her foal by Wordsmith At Newhaven Park

I must say what a week Australian Racing has had!!! Have a look at this for a list of significant events

John Messara announces he will step down as Chairman of Racing NSW. He did a remarkable job during his tenure as Chairman and we all owe him a lot of gratitude for the way he has set up racing in NSW.

David Moodie resigns as Chairman of RVL with him being under investigation by the Victorian Racing Integrity Commissioner. This is a sad state of affairs with Moodie replacing the previous Chairman who also resigned after an error was found with the nomination of a horse and the non-payment of a nomination fee for an overseas horse for the Melbourne Cup which he was involved with.

The merger of Tabcorp and Tatts is back on the table with a wagering giant with a market value of $10 billion being the result of the marriage. I think this would be great for racing in this country.

It seems we are getting to the end of the cobalt cases currently before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Let’s hope so anyway, it has been a real drag on the Industry in Victoria.

Bruce Clarke has written an excellent piece on the current issues facing Racing in Victoria on the G1X platform. It can be found in the news section of G1X under news, the story is titled ‘Pakula on Crisis Relief’. I’m certain you will find it very interesting.

ON THE TRACK

Our team has been building momentum heading towards the end of the Melbourne Carnival and then on to the rich Summer Racing Carnivals in NSW, Queensland and Tasmanian Carnivals which includes Magic Millions.

Over the next few weeks you will see us having plenty of runners with some of our higher profile horses in good races. We are likely to have Flying Jess, Hijack Hussy, Invincible Al and Savoureux running at Flemington during Cup week and Husson Eagle and Reneged not far off running.

We will, barring the unforeseen have our first two year old runners for the season heading to the races this weekend with our Magic Millions Ladies Syndicate horse Smart Missile filly Kaera Jaani set to make her debut in Adelaide on Saturday and Delago Deluxe filly Casa De Lago in the $250,000 Inglis Banner Race at Moonee Valley. Our only other runner in the next few days is the Smart Missile filly The Wasp at Taree on Friday.

Another Smart Missile filly Strike For Victory which has been our ‘trouble child’ got to the races on Tuesday at Muswellbrook and if you had a horse where you wanted everything to go right then it was with this filly.

As it was nothing went to plan with the broadcaster having a ‘turn’ and requiring ambulance attention which saw the horses being kept in the enclosure longer than they normally would be which stirred Strike For Victory into a frenzy, the wind was blowing which caused the barriers to rattle, the attendants had problems loading some other runners which resulted in our filly being locked in the barriers for over five minutes before they eventually jumped, I’m tipping the longest five minutes in Andrew Gibbons life!!! The filly then missed the start, copped a serious check, was caught 6 wide down the side, 8 wide into the straight and after straightening ran around like a drunken sailor and then had the audacity to run into 3rd place in a race where than ran a touch over 33 seconds for their last 600m. Extraordinary performance!!!

We have also seen some remarkable performances on the track with Australian bred Jameka winning the Caulfield Cup beating a host of precious ‘imports’. Good to see. For the life of me I can’t see why Racing Victoria put so much money into staying races. In Australia the breeding industry is highly geared towards sprinter mile racing. It makes a lot of sense to me for the big money races in this country to be over distances up to 2000 metres so that the majority of stakes money stays here.

We don’t breed staying horses, we will get the odd freak that can stay but in the main the commercial breeders in this country cater for our market and also for the Asians where a majority of races are over the shorter distances. So why are our big purse races not over 1200 and 1600 metres? Let’s see the ‘Internationals’ come her and take our sprinters on. They wouldn’t do it. It seems crazy to me to offer a combined $9 million in stakes money for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. If it is to support the Victorian breeding industry then perhaps they should look at last Saturday’s results where not one of the winners is by a sire now standing in Victoria, not one on one of their big days!!!

MELBOURNE CUP WEEK DRINKS

We will be having drinks at Proper And Son at the South Melbourne Markets on Sunday night before the Cup. Our host for the night will be Irish chef Eugene Lavery with him likely to produce some gems for you to taste and as usual we will have some fine wine on offer.

This function is for ‘Clients only and their partners’. I expect a good roll up and want to be able to spend time with our many of you during this great week of racing.

To help with catering please email primethoroughbreds@hotmail.com if you are able to attend by 4pm on Wednesday 26 October 2016. This isn’t a big venue but a good one and we will need numbers for Eugene and won’t be able to take late responses.

STABLE VISITS

The visit to John Thompson’s Stable at Randwick was a huge success with our owners really warming to John and his staff. John is a rising star in Australian racing and he is putting together a really strong stable. The win by his mare First Seal at Caulfield was dominant and the Myer Classic looks hers for the taking.

We had clients come from as far as NZ, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane for the visit which was great.

We will also be visiting Kris Lees Ellalong Farm with this visit also including Christmas drinks for our NSW clients. I’ll send through the details once we have a firm date.

Kris has been in Melbourne putting the final touches on Lucia Valentina for her assault on the Cox Plate. If we get a wet track and it is very likely we will get one given the ordinary spring we are having in Melbourne the mare will become a major player. Exciting stuff!!!

The Savabeel colt out of On Broadway at John’s Stable on Sunday. At $561,000 our most expensive yearling purchase!!!

In every respect this has been a great year and I was very pleased with the yearlings I inspected at Newhaven Park. This is a great nursery with history everywhere you look. I’d love to get Delago Deluxe’s first winner but we may be just a trial short heading into Saturday’s $250,000 Inglis Banner but time will tell. Good luck to the owners of our horses running over the next week.