SEVEN DAYS: A WEEK IN RACING LIFE (JUNE 1- JUNE 7)

By Graham Potter | Friday, June 7, 2019

Racing NSW have certainly got a spring in their step buoyed by their announcement that the Sydney Spring Carnival will now carry both additional prize money and additional feature races. Significantly there will be at least one $1 million race on every Saturday over nine weeks from September 28 until November 23. Apart from the metropolitan meetings, Newcastle and Kembla Grange are also in the mix hosting Saturday meetings late in November which will feature $1 million Quality Handicaps. Importantly, in terms of revenue, it has been reported that having at least one race worth $1m on the card takes the race fields legislation fees to a higher level creating an estimated 20 per cent extra in wagering revenue.

Zac Purton has come a long way from his birthplace in Lismore in northern New South Wales. On the first Sunday in June he smashed Joao Moreira’s record for prize-money won by a jockey during a season in Hong Kong raising that bar to $HK207 714 765 … and still counting. Purton rode six winners at Sha Tin on that day, the second consecutive Sunday he had done that and then grabbed another four winners on the following Wednesday. The word unstoppable comes to mind.

Blake Shinn received a contract to ride in Hong Kong for the new season which kicks off in September after Hong Kong racing’s annual break. A new challenge and a fitting reward for the commitment and fine form that Shinn has shown since returning to action following an injury enforced layoff after he fractured two vertebrae in a fall in a barrier trial in August 2018.

Moving the other way … Nash Rawiller, who is coming to the end of a fifteen-month ban imposed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, is hoping to rekindle his riding career in Victoria. He is eligible to ride in races from July 25 and if he does re-apply for a Victorian Jockey’s licence, as has been suggested, the RV Board will make a decision on that application on June 20.

Still in Victoria, the Moonee Valley Racing Club has issued all expenses paid invitations to Cox Plate invitations to several overseas runners with that list headlined by the Japanese star Almond Eye who is a five-time Group 1 winner from only nine starts. With no Winx to deter them this year, it will be interesting to see who responds to the challenge.

But wait there is more … Moonee Valley has also announced the introduction of the Ladbrokes Cox Plate International Bonus whereby winners of selected races eligible for a $2million bonus if they go on to win the 2019 Ladbrokes Cox Plate. The Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin on June 23 kicks off these selected races promotion. The other races that will be in play have yet to be announced.

Magic Millions and the Gold Coast Turf Club have announced a new International Raceday, to be supported by eight leading international racing clubs and associations to coincide with Australia’s premier breeze up style auction. The eight sponsors on the day will be: Macau Jockey Club, Metro Manila Turf Club, Perak Turf Club, Selangor Turf Club, Singapore Turf Club, Thailand Horse Racing Association, Yulong Jockey Club, China and Wuhan Jockey Club, China. The race-day will on Saturday, October 12, just three days before the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YOs in Training Sale and Spring Racehorse Sale.

John Meagher is back in the training business. He has regained his licence and has joined his son Chris in a training partnership. The seventy-year-old Meagher, who was recently inducted in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, won the 1985 Melbourne Cup with What A Nuisance on the day where winning connections were presented with their trophies by Prince Charles and Lady Diana. It was also the first Melbourne Cup to carry $1 million in prize-money.

In terms of the week’s action, Winning Ways’ triumph in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks took centre stage … and what a story it provided. Winning Ways raced in the colours of long-time racing supporter and enthusiast, the late Paul Makin, who passed away at the age of 82 earlier in Oaks week. That was part one. Part two was that the result provided young jockey Matthew McGillivray with his first Group 1 win and the final cog in the winning wheel was trainer Gary Newham, who Makin had urged back into training specifically to train his small team of horses. To say it was an emotional win for all concerned would be an understatement.

Trainer John O’Shea’s gamble paid off when the three-year-old filly Pretty In Pink won the Group 2 Moreton Cup at Doomben. Pretty In Pink was also entered for the Helen Coughlan Stakes on the same day but the fact that the Moreton Cup winner would gain a ballot-free entry into the Stradbroke was too tempting a target for O’Shea who won Queensland’s premier race with another three-year-old filly Private Steer in 2003 who had Glen Boss in the saddle.

Trainer Lloyd Kennewell confirmed the retirement of his well performed Group 1 winning mare Viddora who saluted in both the Moir Stakes and the Winterbottom. Viddora, who is still in England following a prescribed a six-month quarantine protocol before she can return to Australia after her runs in Dubai and Hong Kong, has been purchased by SF Bloodstock and Newgate and is set to be covered by Lope de Vega Lope at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland.

Champion jockey Jeff Lloyd was another one confirming a retirement … his own. The top hoop who has had an absolutely amazing career filled with achievement will take his final bow on July 13.

An MRI scan undertaken by jockey Jason Benbow after a fall at Sale has found up to seven previously undiagnosed fractures in his right foot. Benbow will now undergo surgery and he will be sidelined for an indefinite period of time.

In a further sequel to police raids on Darren Weir's stables at Ballarat and Warrnambool in January, the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board confirmed it will hear the charges against trainer Jarrod McLean, Darren Weir's former Warrnambool assistant, on June 17. The serious charges relate to the possession of an electronic apparatus and to McLean's conduct in possessing such a device, his failure to give an explanation to stewards and conduct prejudicial to the image, interests or welfare of racing. In February Darren Weir was found guilty of possessing electronic apparatus and conduct prejudicial to the image, interests or welfare of racing. Weir was disqualified for four years.

Anybody would be forgiven if they have lost count with any of the numbers surrounding the Ben Currie case. On Friday, stewards disqualified Currie for two years after he was found guilty of 12 race day treatment charges. He was already facing a four year ban for previously judged offences but he has had that particular penalty reduced by eighteen months on internal review. That means, as things stand at this moment, Currie has been outed for four-and-a-half years as his latest two-year disqualification will be served cumulatively with the previous conviction, again subject to an internal review of the latest finding and penalty. The sentences are unrelated to five other positive swab conviction with sentence on those charges still to be handed down.

More articles