Horsing Around 6/9 - 13/9

Cup Weights: Last Year’s Cup Winner Facing Uphill Battle

Danny O’Brien and the Vow and Declare team will have a heavy task on there hands to overcome the 5kg penalty the Horse now has to carry in order to achieve back to back Melbourne Cups.

The stayer carried 52kg to victory last year but received 57kg when Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper released the weights for the 160th running of the Melbourne Cup.

Favourite for the Caulfield Cup and stablemate to Vow and Declare, Russian Camelot received a similar weight penalty for the Melbourne Cup (53.5kg) after a strong win in the SA Derby.

Current favourite for the Cup, Surprise Baby received an extra kg this year and will carry 54.5kg after absolutely flying into 5th place in 2019.

Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has the topweights for both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. The 4th consecutive year of taking that honour in the latter.

The 2019 Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck is the sole Melbourne Cup topweight with 58.5kg while he shares top billing for the Caulfield Cup with his stablemate Japan.

Surprise Baby will be the one to watch though and is positively poised to deliver an explosive finish like the one that saw her win the Bart Cummings in 2019:

Rick Rolled: $1.22 Shot Goes Walking at Hawkesbury

Favourite backers would have there head in there hands at the scenes in the first at Hawkesbury on Thursday with short priced Game Theory running from side to side up the straight to throw away a solid chance to win at $1.22.

Opening the betting at $1.30 the Gerald Ryan runner was quickly backed into $1.24 and subsequently jumped at $1.22 with heavy backing.

Having won last time out at Randwick on his 2 start the bay gelding came off the corner in front to pull clear by two lengths but as jockey Josh Parr went to kick clear the horse pulled towards the rail losing momentum.

Allowing the closing pack to get close Game Theory then shifted back towards the stand side rail and continued to zig zag up the straight.

Backers of the horse would have been mystified by the behaviour up the straight as it continued to shift left and right eventually finishing third missing out on any place pay out with only 5 runners in the race.

https://twitter.com/SkyRacingAU/status/1303901329912291330?s=20

Head To Head: G1 Winner & Son Of Frankel Continues Winning Streak

The Logician returned to racing action after injury on Thursday winning at two horse race at Doncaster in the UK.

Son of Frankel, Logician has made an impressive start to his racing career winning 6 from 6 and ease to a win at Doncaster going up against only one other runner.

Having suffered from a serious illness in his time off, the John Gosden trained runner was found a very suitable race to return in. Conditions for the race were for horse without a stakes win since the 30th September last year. This left competition scarce.

Regardless the colt line up alongside fellow runner Mythical Magic, a five-year-old Godolphin galloper with just the one win to his name in the past three years.

Mythical Magic wasn’t a match for the son of Frankel who looked in control throughout and went to score by 7l.

Spring Watch: Group 1 Winning Kiwi Raider Set To Miss Spring

Kiwi trained Tony Pike runner the Bostonian has been ruled out of the spring through injury.

The Bostonian had been clocking up some serious travel time in recent month hitting the Sydney Autumn Carnival and Queensland Winter Carnival in recent months amassing 3 Group 1 titles over the period.

Most noticeable was the win in the Doomben 10,000 as well as the Group 1 Canterbury stakes back in March.

After returning in the Winx Stakes last month it had been hoped that the Bostonian would be steered towards a number of Group races during spring but Xrays showing an injured fetlock have now put pay to those plans.

The horse will now return back to NZ for a spell and time to recover.

Run away Rose: Rothfire Stamps Everest Credentials With Blitz

Robert Heathcote trained Rothfire destroyed a strong Run To The Rose field on Saturday and demonstrated why MiRunners selected him as there choice for the Everest.

Rothfire took out the Group 2 after following the long term leader and favourite for the race Farnan into the the turn. Riding under jockey Jim Byrne the three year old jumped well however the race seemed to be over after Farnan kicked clear with 500 to go.

Hugh Bowman was criticised for his tactics after the race which saw the race favourite tire significantly in the straight allowing Rothfire to power past and will be over a length to the chasing pack.

Ole Kirk and North Pacific filled the minors for Team Hawkes, from Peltzer, Farnan, Mamaragan and King's Legacy in last place.

Hitting Milestones: UK Jockey Hits The Top 100

UK Jockey Hollie Doyles impressive season continues in the UK as she racked up her 100th and 101st wins of the racing season.

Doyle, 23, steered the Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt to a dominant success in the British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes. The result was scarcely in doubt, with 2-7 favourite taking over the running early in the home straight and readily pulling five lengths clear of Toromona.

Doyle told Racing TV: "It was a great performance. He jumped smartly and travelled well.

"He didn't do a whole lot early on and didn't realise he was in the race until the two furlong pole when I put him eyeball to eyeball with the leader. After that he grabbed hold of the bridle and took me away."

Doyle was reaching her century much quicker than in 2019, when she got to three figures at Chelmsford on November 21 - and that is despite racing being forced to shut down for almost three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the previous campaign Doyle went on to break the record for most wins by a Female Jockey recording 116 across the season. With still 3 months of racing left in the campaign it’ll be hard not to see her achieving greater results this time.

Watch here for Doyles ground breaking win at Ascot:

Showing His Metal: Galileo Chrome Gives O’Brien Impressive Double

In the UK on Saturday we saw a fantastic finish to the St Leger where Joseph O’Brien runner Galileo Chrome won out over a competitive field to win his 3rd straight start.

With only 2 furlongs left in the race it was anyone's to take with all 7 runners in a line however young jockey Tom Marquand kicked 4/1 shot Galileo Chrome clear to win.

Marquand, who had recently tasted Group 1 success in Australia aboard William Haggas-trained Addeybb in the Ranvet Stakes, only picked up the ride 2 days prior after original booking Shane Crosse was ruled out through a positive Covid-19 test.

Marquand did not attempt to conceal his excitement afterwards and said: "It's probably the most cliched thing that can come out of my mouth but it really is dreams come true.”

But he added: "I can't stress enough how bad I feel for Shane because we've all been in a situation where things haven't gone our way and we're both relatively young so I really can relate.”

A record was also set on the day however through the Trainer, Joey O’Brien who was only the second trainer to both ride and train winners of the St Leger having won the race in 2013 aboard leading light.

Inevitable: Stewards Open Enquiry Into Farnan Ride

There were a lot of eyes raised on Saturday when fromer Winx steer Hugh Bowman decided to ride the legs off Run To The Rose favourite Farnan and subsequently the stewards have decided to dig deeper into it.

Most of the punters who watched the race would have seen the race favourite blast out of the gates and register a startling 10.34second 1000m - 800m only to see the Waterhouse and Bott trained runner fade badly in the straight.

The stewards have subsequently opened up an inquiry into the ride of Bowman having his first run out after receiving a 6 week suspension previously for careless riding.

The stewards' report read: "An inquiry was opened into the tactics adopted on the colt and in particular the fast pace set throughout the early stages of the event.

"Rider H Bowman stated he was issued with no specific instructions however the stable had expected the colt to either lead or race outside the other on pace runner Rothfire.

"Rider H Bowman stated that in the early stages when he was positioned outside Rothfire he observed its rider J Byrne not showing a positive intention to hold the lead and he therefore elected to ride Farnan forward to lead.

"He stated that after riding his mount in this manner Farnan commenced to race keenly and took charge which resulted in the colt setting very fast early sectionals (1000m to the 800m 10.34, 800m to 600m 10.88).

"Co-trainer Mr A Bott confirmed the nature of the instructions and advised there was no requirement for the colt to hold the lead. https://twitter.com/SkyRacingAU/status/1304651020719415299?s=20

Check out more of the latest PGR news >>>

Don’t miss out on the best offers from Australia’ top bookmakers >>>