Not too many people outside trainer Gai Waterhouse will know the tactics she will employ in Saturday’s Group 1 George Main Stakes (wfa 1600m) at Randwick.

Waterhouse saddles up the two dominant favourites – and two of her personal favourites – the brilliant young More Joyous and the veteran stable star Theseo (pictured).

Waterhouse said it is not her preference for the two horses to clash, but winning Group 1 races is her aim.

Both horses can lead, and one of them will. The other is likely to be sitting second. But which way will it be?

I have gone for More Joyous leading Theseo … and More Joyous winning. I believe More Joyous, drawn in five, has more natural early pace than Theseo (barrier four), so I believe jockey Corey Brown will take her to the front as he did in the Group 2 Theo Marks Quality (wfa 1400m) at Rosehill. More Joyous cruised and then skipped home her final 600m in 33.2 secs, giving nothing else a chance.

I doubt Waterhouse’s instructions to Nash Rawiller on Theseo will be “put the pressure on and make it a tough affair”, so I expect More Joyous to get her own way, and have too much speed for the tough Theseo.

If the tactical call goes the other way and Theseo is the designated leader, with More Joyous parked behind him, I believe the race will be run at a more generous tempo, as that is the way Rawiller likes to ride Theseo. If that’s the case, then I still think More Joyous will win, as she has the cruising speed to follow without pressure, and the sprint to out-dash her stablemate.

No matter how I look at this race, I keep coming back to More Joyous winning.

On paper the George Main is a strong one – eight starters and eight Group 1 winners.

But the racing style of the other six runners is to get back off the pace and finish off, which will play into the hands of the front-running Waterhouse pair.

Danleigh and Black Piranha are class acts, and big finishers. They also share a statistic that is concerning – neither has won beyond 1500m. However, I believe that is a statistic in name only, as both horses have some outstanding non-winning performances at Group 1 level.

Danleigh returns from a fourth in the Group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes (wfa 1600m) at Flemington, where his jockey Jim Cassidy said he didn’t handle a heavy track. The conditions on Saturday will be perfect for this horse.

Black Piranha ran second in this race last year behind Road To Rock. His first-up fourth behind More Joyous in the Theo Marks was a bottler, as he ran slick sectionals sitting out wide.

The interesting runner is Trusting. There is no doubting his class, but injuries have restricted him to only three starts in 12 months.

The 1600m of the George Main is suitable for Trusting, and I am happy to forgive his ordinary run at Newcastle, when he trailed then field and didn’t give a yelp in finishing 11^th behind Kenny’s World in the Group 3 Cameron Handicap (1400m). I am looking/hoping for a good run from this horse as he has the ability to be a Cox Plate contender.

The Group 1 Manikato Stakes (wfa, 1200m) at Moonee Valley on Friday night promises to continue the impressive run of star gallopers this spring.

Already we have seen last year’s Cox Plate winner So You Think take another step to greatness and the 2009 Melbourne Cup winner Shocking confirm that he is a stayer of the highest class, who could win the Cup again. In Sydney, More Joyous is so exciting that Gai Waterhouse has likened her to the great Sunline

And Hay List (pictured winning in Perth) has emerged as a sprinter every bit as good as some of the outstanding sprinters that have taken the world by storm in recent years.

Hay List is a horse of tremendous charisma. He is big animal with an enormous stride and scintillating turn of foot. He also is a work in progress, and still learning his craft under the care of trainer John McNair.

Hay List was awesome winning the Group 3 Ian McEwen Stakes (wfa, 1000m) at Moonee Valley at his recent start, so much so that Mark Kavanagh, who trained the runner-up Catalpulted, was still shaking his head in amazement after his horse Whobegotyou had won the Group 2 Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes. “I didn’t think any horse could run past Catapulted like that. He (jockey Glyn Scholfield) did even let him go,” Kavanagh said.

Not surprisingly, Catapulted is missing from the Manikato Stakes line-up. Kavanagh will be dodging Hay List from here on. “I hope John takes him to Hong Kong,” he said, tongue in cheek.

As good as Hay List is, and I expect him to win easily, I have great respect for three horses that will be chasing him home – Bart Cummings’ lightly-raced 4YO Latin News, the multiple Group 1 winner All Silent and the comeback horse Reward For Effort.

Latin News is held in very high regard by Cummings, and the reports from Flemington are that the horse is flying on the track. He has looked quite impressive working a couple of times at Moonee Valley as he prepared for his first-up run. Expect the chestnut to run a cheeky race at good odds.

All Silent will get back as usual, and he will come home hard. His chance depends on Reward For Effort, who will be a lot fitter than he was when third in the Ian McEwen, going hammer and tongs at Hay List in the first 600m.

Eagle Falls has a terrific record at Moonee Valley – winning three from four – but it is hard to see him having serious impact first up against this field.

It took only six meetings this new season for the cream to rise to the top again on the Hong Kong jockeys’ premiership; Brett Prebble and Douglas Whyte each riding a treble at Happy Valley last night to settle in the lead.

Australian Prebble, who combined his treble with 33rd birthday celebrations, is on top with eight wins from South African Whyte with seven. Another Australia, Zac Purton, is next on six, but was absent serving the first night of a two-meeting suspension.

Darren Beadman, one winner this season, was among four jockeys to cop suspensions last night, and he will miss the meetings on October 6 and 10.

Whyte’s winners were copybook rides on the tight Happy Valley track – he gave Fresh Air, Ho Wongchoy and Joyful Joyful the run of the race and pulled them off heels entering the straight. None was for his main supporter, John Size, who, as usual, is a slow starter with only one win in the six meetings.

Prebble rode a double for Caspar Fownes (My Way and Prime Target) and one for Australian David Hall (Vaugirard, who was odds-on favourite). Fownes is well clear on the trainers’ table with 11 wins – next best, YS Tsui, has five. Hall has two.

Prebble’s Group 1 sprint mount, Hong Kong’s Australian-bred champion Sacred Kingdom (b g 7, Encosta De Lago-Courtroom Sweetie, by Zeditave), was to barrier trial over 1000 metres on the turf at Sha Tin today on the way to his racing return in the Group 3 Sha Tin Trophy over the same course next Friday.

Sacred Kingdom has been out since a colic attack stopped him going to Japan for a big sprint in March. If his campaign goes as planned he will clash with Singapore’s best sprinter Rocket Man in the Group 1 Cathay Pacific International Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin on December 12.

The Singapore Turf Club’s website reports that Rocket Man (b g 5, Viscount-Macrosa (NZ), by McGinty) has put weight back on after concern over his condition forced the cancellation of a trip to Japan for the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes over 1200m at Nakayama next month.

Trainer Patrick Shaw reported that Rocket Man weighed-in at 474kg on Wednesday morning, 3kg above the weight he was a week ago. His next race will be the Group 3 Garden City Trophy (1200m) at Kranji on October 15, by which time Shaw hopes to have the gelding weighing 478-480kg.

“I want to get a bit more weight on him before he runs on October 15, as that will give us something to work with before his trip to Hong Kong,” Shaw said.

This weekend: Singapore races tonight and on Sunday; Hong Kong races on Sunday. Australian pay television shows the meetings.

Photo: Brett Prebble winning on Sacred Kingdom at Sha Tin.

Last weekend’s racing was a big one for past Group 1 Oaks winners and their families.

The first race at Caulfield – 1700m for 3YOs heading towards the Group 1 Victoria Derby – featured only eight starters, but three of them are out of outstanding Oaks-winning mares and another is a half-brother to an Oaks winner.

The winner Mackadoo, another highly-promising son of Coolmore-stallion High Chaparral, is from the 1992 New Zealand Oaks winner Staring (by Fiesta Star). Staring, formerly trained by Murray Baker, who also trains Mackadoo in partnership with his son Bjorn, has been a disappointment at stud, including visiting the great Zabeel a few times, but she has clicked with High Chaparral.

Incidentally, High Chaparral had a memorable day, siring four winners, including the sensational So You Think (Group 1 Underwood Stakes, Caulfield) and the Gai Waterhouse-trained Descarado (Group 2 Hill Stakes, Rosehill).

First race runner-up Altius is by Redoute’s Choice from a Circles Of Gold (by Marscay), the great producing mare who won the 1994 AJC Australian Oaks. Circles Of Gold is a contrast to Staring in the breeding paddocks, as she has produced two outstanding international Group 1 winning colts in Elvstroem (by Danehill) and Haradasun (by Fusaichi Pegasus). Tony Vasil has trained all the progeny of Circles Of Gold.

Fourth home was the only filly in the race, Dizlago (pictured at Lee Freedman’s Markdel stables), a daughter of Encosta De Lago and the 2005 AJC Oaks winner Dizelle (by Danehill). Dizlago, who is bound for the VRC Oaks, is trained by Freedman, who trained Dizlago’s granddam Danelagh to win a Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes.

Trailing the field was Seventh Bullet, a racy son of Shamardal and the Bite The Bullet mare Beat The Bullet, the dam of the 2004 Group 1 Oaks winner Hollow Bullet. Seventh Bullet over-raced in front before tiring badly, but he has shown considerable promise. The challenge is for trainer John McArdle to get his head right for him to be a Derby contender.

In Sydney, the 2003 VRC Oaks winner Special Harmony had a red-letter day when two of her offspring won at Rosehill. The very stylish Slater (by Redoute’s Choice) won the opening race for 3YOs, while her Stakes-winning daughter Little Surfer Girl (by Encosta De Lago), winner of the Listed Reginald Allan Stakes (1400m, Randwick) last spring, won the benchmark-85 later at the meeting.

Who said the best race fillies leave their class on the racetrack?

Exciting young stallion Foreplay, thanks to a progressive stem cell treatment on his troubled fertility, has been able to return to commercial breeding, reports a Woodside Park media release.

Victoria’s Woodside Park today announces that Foreplay (pictured at Woodside Park) will stand the 2010 breeding season at its Tylden farm at a fee of $16,500 (inc. GST).

Foreplay’s first-crop foals, after standing four seasons at Yarraman Park, Scone, include: the brilliant colt Decision Time, runner-up in the 2010 Group 1 Golden Slipper and recent winner of the Listed Heritage Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill; the very promising dual-city winner Shiny And New; and the eight-length debut winner at Eagle Farm, Havatryst.

Foreplay, with five winners this season, currently sits second on the Second Season Sire List with earnings of $213,000. Decision Time has been set for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Derby day.

Unfortunately, Foreplay’s fertility, after covering 108 mares in his first season for 75 foals, gradually regressed to the point where he was virtually taken out of service last season after covering two mares. The stallion has 57 two-year-olds and 24 yearlings.

Woodside Park’s bloodstock manager Dean Harvey said Foreplay’s fertility had improved dramatically under the radical stem cell treatment conducted by Melbourne-based stem cell pioneers, C4M Laboratories.

“He has undergone the stem cell treatment, and then spent a month under the care of fertility expert Dr. Angus McKinnon at Shepparton, where further treatment continued and his fertility was monitored regularly,” Harvey said.

Harvey said Foreplay had been at Woodside Park for about five weeks. “His has been a terrific horse to work with, and his libido his great,” he said. “We bred 15 test mares to him in September, and we are pleased to announce that the first of those was tested in foal today.”

Harvey said that Foreplay was a magnificent horse that had caught the eye of everyone that had visited Woodside Park in recent weeks. “We had one breeder book six mares into him after he was paraded recently,” he said.

C4M laboratories chief executive Brett Langan said the treatment given to Foreplay had previously provided positive results for humans. “It’s purely his own cells that have been pinpointed, cultivated and injected back into him.

“The treatment that the horse has been given is Peripheral blood stem cell culturing and Autologous blood therapy. Basically stem cells have been pulled out of the blood and cultured, and his blood has been conditioned,” Langan said.

Woodside Park is standing Foreplay alongside resident young sires Econsul and Grey Swallow – both stallions’ first crop foals are two-year-olds this season.

For information regarding Foreplay, contact Dean Harvey on 0408 641 424.

Moody’s tactics

Peter Moody put the cat among the pigeons when he advised Racing Victoria stewards that Typhoon Tracy (pictured), who was expected to take her usual leading role in the Group 2 Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes (wfa, 1600m) at Moonee Valley, would be ridden back.

Typhoon Tracy, as Moody said, settled in fifth place in a field of eight and ran well to finish second behind the brilliant Whobegotyou, who unleashed big run from the back of the field from the 600m.

More should be read into Moody’s decision than just a fiddle with tactics to upset his opposition. I read that Moody believes that Typhoon Tracy cannot lead and win the Cox Plate (wfa 2040m) on October 23; that’s the story to come out of his tactical backflip.

The premiership winning trainer is conscious that Typhoon Tracy is susceptible at 2000 metres, but he also has often said (and jockey Luke Nolen has agreed) that the mare is better from behind than in front; it’s just that her tactical speed often sees her in a dominating position.

The good news for Moody is that the mare settled well off an inconsistent tempo and she showed a good turn-of-foot to go with Whobegotyou when he made his charge. The art of any great trainer is to have his/her horse at its peak on “grand final” day and that’s Moody aim, and challenge, with Typhoon Tracy.

Shoot for Caulfield

I wouldn’t be surprised of trainer John Wallace switches from weight-for-age races to run Shoot Out in the Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 16.

Wallace has been effusive about Shoot Out’s chances in the Cox Plate, but he told me after the horse won the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (wfa 1200m) on July 31 that the Caulfield Cup always remained an option for the 2010 AJC Derby (2400m) winner.

“There is no reason, why I can’t run him in both,” Wallace said.

Wallace is conscious that if he is to run Shoot Out in the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 2, a 2400 metre race as a lead-up is probably imperative.

The last horse to win the Caulfield Cup-Cox Plate double was the great, and now Hall of Fame champion, Northerly in 2002.

Shoot Out looked a bit one-paced before finishing third in a muddling run Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes on Saturday, and Wallace wasn’t too perturbed. “He will be a lot better in a race run with pace on,” he said.

Shoot Out is likely to run next in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 2, although he has the option of waiting a week and running in the Yalumba Stakes (wfa, 2000m) at Caulfield – if he does that then you can wipe out the Caulfield Cup as Wallace will not want to run Shoot Out three weeks in a row.

Who said that?

Last year Whobegotyou went in to the Cox Plate a raging $2.80 favourite, but in a race run at a fairly hectic tempo, set by the winner So You Think, he struggled home in sixth place.

On the strength of that performance – his only defeat at Moonee Valley in six starts – he has been labelled as a “soft” galloper unable to handle a pressure-packed 2040 metres of a Cox Plate.

Those who make that can claim – and you know who you are – continue to do so despite the facts. Here they are:

(1)  Whobegotyou has no trouble winning at 2000 metres. He has won twice at that distance: the Group 1 Yalumba Stakes (wfa) and the Group 2 AAMI Vase.

(2)  When he won the AAMI Vase on Cox Plate day as a 3YO, the race was run at a hectic, high-pressured pace, so much so that Whobegotyou won in 2mins 05.31secs – compared to Maldivian’s 2.06.92 in the Cox Plate two races later.

(3) Whobetgotyou jarred up badly on a very firm Moonee Valley surface in last year’s Cox Plate. The stewards’ report backs that up: Subsequent to the race, a veterinary examination of Whobegotyou revealed that the gelding was showing signs of soreness in the hindquarters and back.

Whobegotyou has returned to racing this spring a bigger and stronger version of the one that raced last year. He looked awesome in the parade before the Dato Tan Chin Nam, and he looked awesome winning it, running past two highly-rated Cox Plate contenders, Typhoon Tracy and Shoot Out, with ease.

Ignore Whobegotyou’s chances in the Cox Plate at your peril. He may not be able to beat a fit and superior So You Think, but an inability to run out a tough 2040 metres won’t be the excuse.

Lady gaga

‘The Lady Trainer’ has gone off a bit early in the spring with her suggestion, first to owner John Singleton, and then to lapping media, that her brilliant mare More Joyous is better than Sunline. When More Joyous, and I have no doubts about her great talent, wins a couple of Cox Plates, two Doncasters and a dozen or so other Group 1 races in three countries she can earn the title of “as good as Sunline”. The old girl would be turning in her grave.

More Joyous strolled through her first 800m of the 1400m Sebring Sprint at Rosehill on Saturday in a tick under 50 secs – her stablemate, the stayer Descarado, was able to ‘possie up’ second – and she skipped home her final 600m in 33.21 secs. No wonder jockey Corey Brown said she was strong on the line.

And I think we are all getting a bit awash with Waterhouse waffle over the win of Herculian Prince. It was a tremendous performance to jump from 1400m to 2000m to win the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes at Randwick, but let’s put this in perspective – he beat Stormhill, a 9YO stallion who won this race five years ago, and a handy Group 3 level plodder, The Embassy.

Herculian Prince is a bold, tough front-runner, who is still lightly raced and may reach heights that Stormhill and co. can only dream about, but let’s see this wiry New Zealand gelding beat a top-class field before he gets the superstar tag slapped on his rump.

Chief handicapper Greg Carpenter has announced a penalty in the Emirates Melbourne Cup for Saturday’s Group 1 Irish St Leger winner Sans Frontieres.

The Jeremy Noseda-trained stayer’s weight has been lifted to 57kg, joining last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Shocking.

It will be interesting to see if Noseda and owner Sir Robert Ogden continue with plans to make the trip to Melbourne as Sans Frontieres has other options available to him, including the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (2400m) at Longchamp.

Ogden’s racing manager Barry Simpson said after the St Leger win that the prospect of suitable firm ground in Melbourne was one of the lures – the other is the $AUD6 million in prizemoney.

Carpenter, as usual, was meticulous in his summary of Sans Fronteires’ first Group 1 win and for his reasons for the 2kg penalty.

“Sans Frontieres has won his last three starts and his come-from-behind win in the Irish St Leger was impressive as he displayed the turn of foot required to be competitive in the Emirates Melbourne Cup,” he said.

“The determining factors in arriving at the penalty were the relativity to the horse he beat in the St Leger, Profound Beauty, and given the authority of the performance, his proximity inthe weights to horses like Alandi, Shocking and Rite of Passage.

“Sans Frontieres comfortably defeated Profound Beauty on Saturday night giving the Dermot Weld-trained mare 3lb (just under 1.5kg) in weight.

“Profound Beauty has 54kg in the Melbourne Cup and Sans Frontieres will now be asked to concede her 3.0kg if they both travel to Australia for the great race.

”With 57kg Sans Frontieres has the same weight as the reigning Melbourne Cup champion Shocking and another European entrant, Rite of Passage, who won the Ascot Gold Cup in June. The 2009 Irish St Leger winner Alandi heads the weights on 58kg.”

The winner of the Irish St Leger has only been liable for a penalty since 2005 when Collier Hill won the race as a seven-year-old and was penalised 1.5kg, rising from 55kg to 56.5kg for the Melbourne Cup, however the horse did not contest the race.

Yeats (2007) and Septimus (2008) were not penalised for their wins in the Irish St Leger as both were already at the head of the Melbourne Cup weights at the time of their victories with 59kg and 58.5kg respectively, Carpenter said.

The Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes (registered name John F. Feehan Stakes) has quickly become the best guide to the Cox Plate.

While the Group 1 Yalumba Stakes (wfa, 2000m, Caulfield), run two weeks before the Cox Plate, has provided 12 horses to complete the double, only four of those have come in the past 27 years.

In the same period, nine Dato Tan Chin Nam winners have gone on to win the Cox Plate – the most recent is El Segundo in 2007.

Obviously, the fact that trainers are targeting the Dato Tan Chin Nam to give their horses a feel of the tight Moonee Valley track is one reason. Another is the fact that the race fits nicely in the fortnightly race sequence with the Group 2 Liston Stakes (wfa, 1400m, Caulfield, August 14) and Group 2 Memsie Stakes (wfa, 1400m, Caulfield, August 28).

The three main combatants in this year’s quality Dato Tan field – Typhoon Tracy, Shoot Out (pictured) and Whobegotyou – clashed in the Memsie Stakes. ‘Tracy’ and ‘Whobe’ were first-up; Shoot Out, as predicted by trainer John Wallace, has raced every two weeks after winning the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (wfa, 1200m) first-up at Caulfield on July 31.

With the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (wfa, 1800m) run at Caulfield next Saturday, these three star gallopers are likely to clash again in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 2.

In the Memsie Stakes, an unfit Typhoon Tracy led the field, but found the class of So You Think and the strength of Whobegotyou (second) and Shoot Out (third) too much for her as she weakened to finish fourth. Trainer Peter Moody is predicting the brilliant mare will still be short of her peak at the Valley, but this time she won’t have So Yo Think nagging at her tail as she dictates the tempo.

Typhoon Tracy was a dominant dual-1200m winner at Moonee Valley earlier in her career, so the track holds no fears for her … this distance does. So far, 1600m is her optimum distance (even Moody doubts she can run further), and she will need to be close to her top to hold off a more race-hardened Shoot Out, and track lover Whobegotyou, who won this race last year in brilliant style.

My tip is Shoot Out. He had a stroll around the track on Tuesday – the surface was very heavy – which seemed to concern some onlookers, but trainer John Wallace only wanted the entire to have “feel” of the tight circuit. It’s worth noting that Shoot Out will be having his third run since winning the Bletchingly. He has a level of fitness that gives him a big advantage over his rivals, who are both second-up.

I can envisage Shoot Out tracking Whobegotyou and proving a shade too strong in the sprint to the line.

There was a fair bit of criticism of Stathi Katsidis’ ride on Shoot Out after he sat five wide midfield, but Katsidis is in for the long haul on this horse and he didn’t want to risk interference, nor did he want to reef the horse around as the first 800m was run in a slow 52 secs.

The good news is that the rain that has fallen in Melbourne in the past two days has missed the Valley, so track manager Martin Synan believes the surface can improve from its Friday morning rating of slow6 to be in the dead range by Saturday afternoon.

Here are some of the interesting results from this week’s trials around Australia.

Morphettville Parks

Young stallion California Dane’s first trial winner came in Adelaide when California Devil (b f 2008, ex Devils At Play, by Devaraja) won her 1000m event on a slow track.

California Dane (pictured), by Danehill from the Seattle Slew mare Storminwinter, was a brilliant Group 2 winning sprinter for trainer Lee Freedman and the stallion’s first-crop yearlings were very well received for their athleticism and balance.

California Dane stands at Baerami Thoroughbreds in the Hunter Valley at a 2010 fee of $13,750.

His trial-winning daughter, trained by Phillip Stokes, has an interesting double cross of Vain on her dam side through Devaraja, whose granddam is by Vain, and California Devil’s granddam Engrossed (by Vain).

Wyong

Trainer John O’Shea produced the extremely well-bred colt Freyberg to win an 800m trial by 1.5 lengths in 51.60s on a dead surface at Wyong. The 3YO colt is by Pins from Escada (by Centaine), making him a half-brother to Group 1 winners Vision And Power (Carnegie) and Glamour Puss (Tale Of The Cat), Group 2 winner Rare Insight (O’Reilly) and the Listed winner Escadaire (O’Reilly).

Freyberg had one start as a 2YO for an encouraging fourth behind Choiseul (by Choisir) in a 1200m maiden at Kembla Grange in May.

Freyberg wasn’t sold as a yearling and remains in the ownership of his breeder Gary Chittick, the owner of New Zealand’s Waikato Stud. A brother to Freyberg was sold at Inglis Easter this year to Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Australia for $350,000.

Belmont

The High Chaparrals are winning far and wide, and they are showing surprising speed for a son of Sadler’s Wells. In Perth, the unraced 3YO The Underworld scored impressively over 1000m in 1.01.16 on a firm surface.

The Underworld, trained by Chris Gangemi, was originally sold as a yearling for only $NZ8000 at the 2009 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Select Sale, but resold later that year at NZB’s Horses in Training Sale to agent Justin Bahen for $NZ50,000.

The 3YO gelding’s dam Rune is a sister to triple Group 1 winner Sky Chase (sire of champion Saintly), by Star Way from Vice Reine, a half-sister to former champion galloper and sire Vice Regal.

Neville Parnham took the Darley-bred Longevity to Belmont to win a 1000m trial at the colt’s first public appearance.

Longevity is a bay 3YO by Lonhro from Danislew, a Danehill daughter of Ada Slew, who in turn is a half-sister, by Seattle Slew, to the great Kingston Town.

Parnham paid $65,000 for Longevity at the 2009 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale in January before the youngster’s sister Deer Valley stepped out to win the Group 3 Silver Shadow Stakes at Randwick in February.

Traralgon

The first trial winner at Traralgon gets a tick for his name alone – Calombaris. The 3YO gelding is by Happy Giggle from the Ignatius mare Very Long Lunch.

Calombaris, trained by Butch Bourne, is named after the Melbourne-based celebrity chef George Calombaris of Masterchef fame, who also is known for his infectious laugh.

Calombaris’ time for the 1000m dash was 57.84s, one of the quickest of the day – he did have first use of a heavy track.

It’s worth noting the Bourne travelled across the state from Seymour to run Calombaris in the Traralgon trials, suggesting he has a good opinion of the youngster.

Also in the well-named list from the Traralgon trials was Santana, an unraced Darley bred and owned gelding by Lonhro from the Encosta De Lago mare Busking. Santana, named after legendary rock musician Carlos Santana, is trained by Lee Freedman and he won his trial in good style, suggesting he is a winning chance when Freedman sends him to the races.

The news from Singapore is that Brazilian jockey Joao Moreira has been granted a one-year extension on his current visiting jockey’s licence, which will allow him to ride through all of 2011.

The decision is hardly a surprise as Moreira has been something of a phenomenon in Singapore this year, as he leads the jockeys’ premiership by 37 wins – 94 to Vlad Duric’s 57.

Moreira, who rides at a handy 51.5kg, is set to smash Noel Callow’s record of 106 wins in a Singapore season.

The 26-year-old is rated by many Singapore trainers as possibly the best jockey in the world. He is lauded for his classic, low crouching style and his tactical sense.

The Joao Moreira profile:

Joao Moreira, 26, is one of those young emerging riders from Brazil where he has won 1200 races, mainly in Sao Paulo before relocating to Singapore in 2009.

Moreira was an instant hit with Kranji racegoers, finishing third on 69 wins at his first foray despite joining only in March and missing out about a month at the end of last year. He won two Group races with Given Vision in the last two Legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge. In Brazil, Moreira began his career in 2000, and has already won five wins at Grade 1 level.

Among his most famous wins in Brazil are the Grade 1 Grande Premio Diana and Grande Premio Henrique de Toledo Lara, both captured in 2008 with top filly Bubbly Jane at Cidade Jardim.

Moreira also rode Brazilian champion Eu Tambem to success in the Grade 1 Derby Argentino in Palermo, Argentina in 2006. Moreira has also ridden in France, Dubai and Uruquay and is a two-time Brazilian Eclipse Award (Trofeu Mossoro) winner (2006/7 and 2007/8). He also holds the record of most wins in one meeting at Cidade Jardem when he scored eight wins from the 11-race card in March 2006.

Photo: Joao Moreira in classic style, winning on Anak Miri at Kranji in July.