A cool, calm, and collected Cabo Spirit entered the Santa Anita starting gate for the $101,000 American Stakes (G3T) April 20. When his competition decided to leave him alone on the lead, he made them pay late as he coasted to the wire in victory.View the full article

Waverley R2 Our Ace and Pinhook - the interesting runners R3 Joans Joker - big class drop R5 Thrilling - back from the Oaks. Vickezzmargaux will win one eventually. R6 Hayate - might be too wet. Lord Spenser. R9 Unscripted $23/5 - in and out lately but has ability One at Riverton R4 On Song $8.50 - good record here and fresh. One at Addington R7 Hoof it Hagrid -  neighbouring stable $26 into $7.50  

At least Auckland has almost all mobile starts (trot races excluded)  The standing starts down at Addington are shockers and I refuse to bet on any race Donkey Donnelly has anything to do with. Just watched race 3 Addington and the horse drawn unruly 2 was in a full trot at the start and straight to the lead. How many of his starts have horses late scratched because of the shambles. Why isn't he fined for incompetence the same as trainer and drivers are - or is it the "Old Boys Club"?  

Bruce Sherwin calling again today J Evans MIA????

It got a ton of criticism early on and rightly so...but it seems it has now started to perform much better....with all the rain there was last week to even conduct a race meeting on a soft track everyone should be praising the club but seems for some it is not possible to do that.....🥱

Great to see I know Subzero was outstanding at this over the years...great to see the jockeys giving back to the kids too...and yes kids should be encouraged as early as possible to like racing...they are the future.

Thanks Blair for this....

I like Wolverine today at Waverley...hope Royden can get her back to winning.

Precisely why harness is travelling so poorly, once bitten twice shy but what on earth are Northern stipes doing?    

As with an earlier Auckland race it was probably a case of just having a race to fit it for the next week. Sound familiar On a similar note the drivers effort on Wag Star in Winton Cup was noticeable for a lack of interest to put best horse in race in the race IMO

Yes that makes a lot of sense.  He's going to be considered as an older horse - the Greenlands is for 4-y-o and upwards (not sure if there is a specific clause mentioning Southern Hemisphere 3-y-o and whether he would get any kind of weight allowance). The very useful REGIONAL was second in the Greenlands last year. From there, the logical path would be the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee at Ascot followed by the July Cup at Newmarket.

This coming Friday sees the first Group 2 of the British season with the Mile at Sandown. The ground is currently Good and ten have been entered. Early favourite is DANCING GEMINI who looked very good at Doncaster on the first day of the season. This looks a strong renewal of this race and we have three others rated above 115 (which is basically Group 1 class up here).  ALCANTOR comes over from France and trainer Andre Fabre had SAJIR win at Newmarket last week. ALCANTOR has come to the UK before when sixth in last year's Craven after which he ran third in the Poulains and sixth in the Jockey Club. He won a Group 3 at Saint Cloud on seasonal return at the end of March and I presume Fabre thinks he will enjoy some decent ground. You'd think the stiff mile would be ideal. TAMFANA mixed it at the highest level last year. She was fourth, beaten barely a length, in the English 1000 Guineas and ran another fine race when third in the Diane. She didn't get home when fourth in the Grand Prix de Paris over 2400m but put up her best effort when beating INSPIRAL to win the Sun Chariot at Newmarket. That puts her right in this. Top rated on 117 however is LEAD ARTIST representing the in-form Juddmonte and Gosden combination though oddly enough he's never run in a Group 1. He's also probably better known over a touch further and last time was runner up in the Bahrain International Trophy. Nine have been entered for the Group 3 Gordon Richards over 2000m for the older horses. REGAL RHYME is a course and distance winner, albeit on soft ground and mixed it with the likes of AUGUSTE RODIN in the Prince of Wales at Ascot and CITY OF TROY in the Juddmonte at York. He was a close seventh in the Irish Champion and third in the British version of the same race but will the ground soften enough for him? The Classic Trial over 2000m is a credential race for the English Derby. WINDLORD is early favourite having run a decent third to subsequent Futurity winner HOTAZHELL in the Beresford. Aidan O'Brien has entered SWAGMAN who was also behind HOTAZHELL but in the Tyros at Leopardstown. Ralph Beckett runs I AM I SAID who won on his only start as a juvenile at Newmarket but the horse he beat that day, BYBLOS, disappointed in a handicap last week. More on these races in the middle of the week.

The plan is to go Irish Guineas weekend first for the 6f Group 3 (Greenlands Stakes),” That is on Sunday 25th May.

Agree Nerula...CM and RO and the removed Curious/Leggy add little if anything. I will keep the thread on the straight and narrow...you are correct in your assumption of those two you mentioned.

Top 3-year-olds Rodriguez and Baeza each had their final local works April 20 at Santa Anita Park prior to shipping to Churchill Downs.View the full article

After a 10-year absence, veteran jockey Martin Garcia is headed back to the Kentucky Derby (G1). He is set to ride Citizen Bull, last year's champion 2-year-old male, for trainer Bob Baffert in the 151st Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs May 3.View the full article

Good to hear someone else on this forum is up north. Fairyhouse lost the Saturday meeting due to the rain and it's going to be on Tuesday - typical Irish ingenuity. STORM BOY is a 3-y-o and I presume transferring him to Aidan after January 1st was to prevent him being considered a 4-y-o? He'd be a mature 3-y-o born September 2021 running against horses born several months later such as  BERKSHIRE WHISPER, who won the sprint at Newcastle on Friday, who was born in April 2022.  On that basis, STORM BOY would have a big chance in a race like the Commonwealth Cup let alone the all-aged sprints later in the year. IF I'm wrong and he's going to have run against older horses from the start, the evidence is the 1200m sprinting division is weak at least in Britain (not the case with the 1000m horses) so he could do well in a race like the King Charles III which would be ideal and unless something good turns up from Japan you'd give an Aussie sprinter a huge chance. I wonder if Aidan will run him in the Greenlands at the Irish Guineas meeting at the end of May as his Ascot prep.

I dont see myself as a Pedant or a nit-picker so maybe thats a paradox. The thread was about Avondale which is dying and the it diverts to places hundreds of kms away. So why not let the Avo' thread die and start another that is pertinent? It irritates me that people like CM and RO want to dive off and divert threads to someting they can argue about. That disease may become contagious and if so this site will not be worth following. Can we not follow a thread? I will not be looking at this thread again. Likelly CM will come back with another Leggy like swerve.

Trainer Whit Beckman discusses some training adjustments he's making with Kentucky Derby (G1) contender Flying Mohawk and Kentucky Oaks (G1) contenders Simply Joking and Drexel Hill after their April 19 workouts.View the full article

It appears that the Hawkes team has another stallion prospect on their hands in the form of Nepotism, who on April 19 laid his claim to being the best juvenile colt around with an awe-inspiring late run to win the Champagne Stakes (G1) at Randwick.View the full article