There were 78,500 people at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day 1976. Those still living, hold indelible memories of their visit to the historic course on the day mother nature threw a tantrum.
Trainer Joe Burges was confident Markwell Dreamer had enough ability to figure in the finish of Saturday’s TAB Highway provided he did everything right.
Gayna Williams wouldn’t have cared if half of Bathurst had witnessed her unbridled display of acrobatics as Zoo Station scored an emphatic win in Saturday’s TAB Highway at Rosehill Gardens.
“I’ve had some unforgettable thrills since the company commenced operations thirty five years ago, and Fireburn’s two city wins are right up there with the best of them,” said Louis Mihalyka
George Moore told me in 2002 that his failure to win a Melbourne Cup in nineteen rides was of little concern to him. His wife Iris told me differently.
“Can you imagine the number of track gallops those blokes have ridden for Warwick Farm trainers over the years?” The question was posed by one of fifty guests at a recent Xmas gathering hosted by seafood restaurateur and racing devotee Mick Doyle.
Several jockeys rode winning doubles on metropolitan tracks around Australia on Saturday while ever consistent Kayla Crowther notched a treble at the Morphettville meeting.
It was going to be an uncomplicated ride for Michael Cahill when he bounced out of the gates on $2.60 favourite Why We Drink in the opening race at the Sunny Coast meeting on Friday night.
The horrors of Joe Ible’s recent relocation from Canberra to Kembla Grange paled into insignificance when stable favourite Sepulchre scored the easiest of wins in Saturday’s Midway Hcp at Rosehill Gardens.
Enthusiasts with a sense of racing history find it hard to get through Melbourne Cup week without sparing a thought for Carbine - perhaps the greatest of all Cup winners.
You could detect an undercurrent of emotion in Darren Flindell’s voice as he paid tribute to an old mate before the running of the Vale Chris Kearns Highway at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
Tracey Bartley didn’t know what to do next in the immediate afterglow of the inaugural Four Pillars on Saturday. His emotional roller coaster began in the early stages of the $700,000 race…
It’s not uncommon for high achieving mares to display race day eccentricities. They know exactly why they’re being taken to the track, and the adrenaline flows from the moment they’re loaded onto the horse transport.
Big Parade got his first taste of black type success in Saturday’s Gr 3 Sydney Stakes. It’s not unrealistic to think that he might win the right kind of Gr 1 next autumn.
“When he bounded out of the gates and settled in the first half of the field I was confident he’d be in the finish,” said Shoalhaven Heads trainer Terry Robinson.
