I hope China keep matching Trumps Tariffs dollar for dollar, it makes life interesting, and eventually will probably end up all coming to nought in the end.

Carmouche joined the 4,000 career-win club when he guided Crimson Light to a half-length win on April 5 at Aqueduct. The milestone led the panel of racing experts to unanimously vote Carmouche Jockey of the Week for March 31-April 6.View the full article

Brad Cox trainees Final Gambit and Good Cheer took to the Churchill Downs track April 9 to record five-furlong breezes.View the full article

The April 12 Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland does not have the word international in its title, but it might as well. Three of the favorites in the nine-horse, 1 1/16-mile turf race have raced exclusively overseas.View the full article

Entain should run a book on these Finalists.. Congratulations to our 12 grand finalists! Reacher, Peter RS, Pheroz, Majestic, Pegasus, Gubellini, Ohokaman, Montydrum, Blaird, Sayer, Floyd and Kiwignome   1. Reacher     Good form in lower grades. Trentham selections in the past have been top class  2.Peter RS,  The Obvious 3rd favorite but needs early night on Friday to perform well on Saturday. 3. Pheroz,       Xcellent ability. Uses cunning strategies. Finished top3 in play offs to get here. 4..Majestic,    Well named entrant   Past  Aussie selections sometimes a mystery, 5.Pegasus,    Has great water creating powers so will need it very wet.  6. Gubellini,   Super reliable in all of the qualifying rounds. Although he's Getting on in years he could still have the "Edge " on these.                       NOTE :He needed the ultimate gear change decades ago. Dawn didn't make the final so no fillies here to arouse his interest. 7.Ohokaman, Finished strongly in Round 5 Wears lucky saddle cloth 7. May need blinkers and ear muffs. 8.Montydrum, Earned his place here by selecting Sam Spratt to win on Provence. Right handed specialist .Include in first fours. 9.Blaird,    Finished  10th in week 4 beating Floyd, Reacher and Gnome. Has been the subject of many "please explain" steward enquiries' 10.Sayer,     He Confidently selected Blue Sky at Night at 34/1  . Finishes well. Main danger to  Floyd. Early morning wind sprint could do the trick. 11.Floyd           Brilliant form . Selected Devil Knight  and BB quinella in February. Aussie specialist. Favourite for mine to bolt in. 12.Kiwignome  the 15th February Wk 2  placing was full of merit .A real sleeper this gnome.    

Carmouche joined the 4,000 career-win club when he guided Crimson Light to a half-length win on April 5 at Aqueduct. The milestone led the panel of racing experts to unanimously vote Carmouche Jockey of the Week for March 31-April 6.View the full article

Prize money for the Coral-Eclipse Stakes (G1) has been boosted to £1 million (US$1,278,030) this year, making it the richest-ever race to be staged at Sandown.View the full article

Luxor Cafe, who qualified for the Kentucky Derby (G1) via a designated series in Japan, is scheduled to arrive April 23 at Churchill Downs, according to track publicist Kevin Kerstein.View the full article

The track manager has said the track at moonee valley is just hanging in their it's over 20 years old now so they've had a good run with it. This is the latest I read about the new track  The Valley could host less than its scheduled 23 race meetings in the first season from August 2027 to give the new track "every chance to settle in" and then return to a full fixture in the second year.

I think they are just trying to get thru until it closes later in the year for major renovations and unlike here they accept the criticism and try to find a solution.

It is being dug up soon, there is your answer Dougie

I think that it’s at the end of its life. Actually past it and nothing has been done because the Valley is about to start on a massive makeover. The stands and the finishing post will be in a completely different place etc. StrathAyr tracks definitely need rebuilding after about 20 years although I stand to be corrected if someone wants to be more accurate than me. 

Awapuni I hope plays well and is conducive to all horses having their shot at winning regardless of where they are in running. i also feel we don't need to rush in getting back on there. First meeting on ANZAC day and then forget about it and let it grow and nurture, we should learn from what happened at Ellerslie. It needs time. We shouldn't be racing on it countless times through bogs in the Winter, in fact we shouldn't even at all. Re-introduce it the Spring and gradually bring meetings back to Awapuni a vital track in the CD.

I do feel synthetic tracks do have a place in our industry, especially with our typical winter climate, sometimes we just can't race due to how wet/heavy the tracks would be. Synthetic racing in that instance is better than no racing and losing out on money. I do feel they need to not shove it down our throats as much as they are doing at the moment, and decrease meetings for all 3 tracks. It seems Awapuni has always struggled for numbers and maybe only having 5-6 meetings during the winter is more than enough.

What are your thoughts on how poorly The Valley is playing at the moment? Its last meeting was an absolute joke, and by all accounts, no one is happy with the surface.  

Agree Liz Synthetic tracks not widely received in Australia, with many top trainers avoiding them more than the Punters I say go with the grass/Strathayr but draw very widely in overseas experience where similar rainfall exists This will all take some time but worthwhile in the long run if we get it right. The end result should be 4 superb NI track and 2 in the SI, with course closures inevitable.    Will not be easy but has to be done imho Survival bell ringing  

This is the only triple dead Heat I can ever recall , as my dad had the picture on the wall , along with some Tassie trotters of his and a photo him with PM 'Piggy' Muldoon. I had to grow up looking at that lot every day lol 😁.

I've been thinking! We now have two relatively newly constructed grass tracks in NZ, both designed to sop up the water when it rains, and to perform well throughout our summer. Ellerslie being a StrathAyr exactly like they have in Hong Kong and at Moonie Valley. Awapuni being similar in construction to Flemington and others in Australia, in that it is a basic grass track with superior drainage when it rains. Ellerslie seems to be performing very well now, and Awapuni [at this early stage] has been very well received. Then of course we have the three Polytracks that in general after three years, haven't been well accepted.  Give me your opinion [at this very early stage ] on which one you think will be the number one option. For my threepence worth, I think that the Industry now needs to sit back and see how the two grass track perform over the next couple of years, before they rip up another track and cause havoc like has happened recently, at Te Aroha for example.   

I see the latest Entain betting machine has "tap and go".  That is place your bet and stick it on your credit card.  I am just a little concerned that the anti gambling people will go apeshit about sort of practice.  I believe that if you need to borrow on a credit card to bet, then maybe you should not be betting.

Congratulations to our 12 grand finalists! Reacher, Peter RS, Pheroz, Majestic, Pegasus, Gubellini, Ohokaman, Montydrum, Blaird, Sayer, Floyd and Kiwignome.     Same format as last three weeks. 1.  Either pick two horses in each race listed below - you will have $10 each way on both and a $2 quinella; or if you'd prefer to pick just one horse in any (or all of the races) you can do that and you will have $20 each way on that one runner,  but you will forego the quinella. 2.  You will have two best bet races where your bet is doubled.  They can be any two of the 12 races listed below. Posting deadline this week is 1.00pm  This weeks 12 races are as follows - we planned this to finsih on a big day at Randwick so we're all in there.  As always we need six of the 12 races to be run for the results to stand. 1.  Riccarton R8 2. Trentham R8 3. Randwick R1 4. Randwick R2 5. Randwick R3 6. Randwick R4 7.  Randwick R5 8. Randwick R6 9. Randwick R7 10. Randwick R8 11.  Randwick R9 12. Randwick R10 Please enter horse numbers, not names and remember to nominate two best bet races, and some form of punctuation between your two numbers is very helpful - thanks.  Same scratchings and abandoned race rules as last three weeks.