Group 2 $250,000 SANDOWN GUINEAS. (1600m): WE may be at the back-end of the Spring Carnival yet tomorrow’s Sandown Guineas hasn’t thrown up any off-season surprises. Our power stables – Weir, Team Hayes, McEvoy and Price – have the runners … Read more

The Sandown Guineas, as it is now known, has quite an interesting history. It was introduced in 1957 when the race was run at Caulfield and was for fillies only. The inaugural running was won by Orient, a daughter of … Read more

He was named after the flagship of the Spanish Armada, which failed in its bid to invade England in 1588. But on Saturday Santa Ana Lane had far more success than his maritime predecessor when he sank all comers in … Read more

It was Winx versus the world – principally Godolphin – in this year’s spring carnival. After 30 years of trying, Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby finally delivered Sheikh Mohammed one of the few trophies he had never won when Cross Counter … Read more

Race 1 Pelican [6] Yulong Rockstar [3] Emoci Star [5] South Street Boss [1] Race 2 Kamien [2] Aliris [1] Left Hand Man [3] Regalo Di Gaetano [4] Race 3 Tongsai Boss [8] It’s Magic [7] Busker’s Ballad [1] Scout’s … Read more

The weight-for-age L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes has traditionally been one of the most highly regarded races on the Australian racing calendar. The Victoria Racing Club introduced the event, as the Melbourne Stakes, over a mile-and-a-quarter, in 1869 when the winner was … Read more

NEALE DONNELLEY previews the two Group 1 races at Flemington tomorrow:   Group 1 $1,000,000 VRC SPRINT CLASSIC. (1200m): DEFENDING champ REDZEL heads a stunning renewal of the Group 1 $1 million VRC Sprint Classic at Flemington tomorrow. The Everest … Read more

Sheikh Mohammed has broken his 30-year Melbourne Cup drought with the victory in Australia’s greatest race of lightly-weighted three year old Cross Counter, trained at Newmarket in England by Charlie Appleby and ridden by Sydney-based jockey Kerrin McEvoy. Second home … Read more

When Charlie Appleby got the job to train for the mighty Godolphin empire five years ago he made it clear that he had two major ambitions. To win the Melbourne Cup for Sheikh Mohammed, ending his patron’s decades-long drought in Australia’s … Read more

TRAINING juggernaut Darren Weir can tomorrow add the Group 1 $1 million Victoria Oaks (2500m) to his maiden Victoria Derby win with Extra Brut last Saturday. Weir will put the saddle on shortening favourite AMPHITRITE ($3.30), former Kiwi filly VERRY … Read more

  Over the last four years Darren Weir has come to dominate the Victoria racing scene. Yet, remarkably, this has all come about quite suddenly after a humble beginning in his training career and then a number of relatively quiet … Read more

NOW we have all accepted the best stayers in the world come from Europe it’s time to join the winning team – them! It’s no longer an US versus THEM story on Melbourne Cup Day – ‘they’ have taken over, … Read more

Rain Lover (1968) Jim Johnson Makybe Diva (2005) Glen Boss Galilee (1966) J. J. Miller Saintly  (1996) Darren Beadman Gurner’s Lane (1982) Mick Dittman Think Big (1974) Harry White Vintage Crop (1993) Mick Kinane Kiwi (1983) Jim Cassidy Gold And Black (1977) John Duggan Let’s Elope (1991) Steven King Doriemus (1995) … Read more

The Irish raider Yucatan – carrying the silks of the Williams family – is poised this year to end the losing streak of trainer Aidan O’Brien and of international favourites beaten in the Melbourne Cup. O’Brien, who was trumped by … Read more

They won’t quite start from the car park – but many of the overseas invaders in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup might feel as though they are. Race favourite Yucatan immediately drifted in the market after pulling  barrier 23 at the draw … Read more

It’s not often a jockey returns to the winners enclosure on the most celebrated day in the Australian racing year and says that riding the winner of one of the country’s most-storied flat races is like booting home a winner … Read more

The Coolmore Stud Stakes has rapidly established a reputation as a stallion-making race, one which attracts the top sprinting colts. Victory in this group 1 contest usually adds several noughts to the value of a top class youngster whose post-racing … Read more

It is quite ironic that three of Australia’s greatest champions – Tulloch, Dulcify, tragically, and Kingston Town – were brought undone in unfortunate circumstances in the Melbourne Cup. Despite being burden with 10.1 (64kg) Tulloch was sent out a 3/1 … Read more

In the spring of a three-year-old colt or filly’s life, there’s no denying that the 2500-metre Victoria Derby and VRC Oaks are stamina-sapping tests of strength, staying power, mentality and maturity. Some have claimed, in the current Australian bloodstock climate, … Read more

Peter Cox knows better than most the reality of horse racing economics. Now retired, the former photographer and picture editor at The Age has spent a lifetime owning racehorses, usually with friends and in syndicates, and he can relate chapter and verse … Read more