Bits & Pieces

WE SAW IT

New Zealand’s champion apprentice James McDonald had three wins on his flying visit to Singapore at the weekend. McDonald, riding outside Australasia for the first time, won on Noble Manor on Friday and on Big Minako and Recycle King yesterday.

The 17-year-old, featured in The Thoroughbred magazine’s winter edition, had two wins for Singapore’s champion trainer Laurie Laxon, the New Zealander who trained the 1988 Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose. Recycle King, trained by another ex-pat New Zealander Stephen Gray, was a pickup ride. 

McDonald, apprenticed to his father Brett, a former jumps jockey, had 125 wins in New Zealand last season to win both the senior and apprentice jockeys’ titles. It was only his second full season of riding. He won the junior title in his first season with 90, which placed him sixth overall.

After Big Minako’s win Laxon told turfclub.com.sg: “I never gave him any instructions. Good jockeys don’t need instructions and bad jockeys never follow them.

“He is a very polished rider for such a young man. There hasn’t been anyone in New Zealand to do what he has done in such a short time. Champion jockeys like Jim Cassidy, Shane Dye, Greg Childs and the like didn’t have a record like he has so early.”

McDonald, who rode at a Gold Coast meeting in May, said he went to Singapore to gain experience while it was not a busy time in New Zealand. Both meetings were on Kranji’s artificial surface, the Polytrack.

Laxon leads the trainers’ premiership with 65 wins from Australian Michael Freedman (41). Local Saimee Jumaat (72) heads the jockeys’ table from Brazilian Joao Moreira (44) and Austalian John Powell and South African Robbie Fradd (both 43). The season ends in December.

Singapore’s Cox Plate entry Jolie’s Shinju  (B m 2005, Jolie’s Halo (USA)-Endearing Quality (USA)) arrived in Melbourne on Saturday and has settled into the Sandown quarantine centre, and Australian sprinters Scenic Blast and Apache Cat are among nine international entries for the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes (1200m) in Japan on October 4.

International focus, however, has been on York’s Ebor meeting, where potential Melbourne Cup runners went around. Aidan O’Brien’s Changingoftheguard (B c 3, Montjeu (IRE)-Miletrain (IRE), by Marju (IRE)) should have won the 2800-metre Ebor Handicap, finishing a luckless second to the roughie Sesenta. Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Judgethemoment disappointed when 14^th in the Knavesmire Handicap (about 3200m) and must be considered a most unlikely visitor.

Godolphin’s Schiaparelli (B h 6, Monsun (GER)-Scarina (GB), by Old Vic (GB) won a Group 2 3000m race at Deauville yesterday – Frankie Dettori rode and spaced the others, but there were only two of them.

In Adelaide, Melbourne Cup chance Rebel Raider’s strong third in the Listed Penny Edition Stakes (1400m) pleased trainer Leon Macdonald.

Spring markets – TAB Sportsbet offers these odds (all in):

Caulfield Cup (2400m) October 17

$8 Predatory Pricer

$15 Vigor, Whobegotyou, Shocking

$17 Speed Gifted

$21 Metal Bender, Nom du Jeu, Gallica, C’Est La Guerre, Rebel Raider

$26 Daffodil, Jolie’s Shinju, Maldivian, Roman Emperor, Schiaparelli, Tuesday Joy, Viewed, Vision And Power, Zipping

Cox Plate (2040m) October 24

$6 Whobegotyou

$11 Maldivian, El Segundo, Predatory Pricer

$14 Pompeii Ruler

$16 Jolie’s Shinju

$18 Black Piranha, Heart Of Dreams, Zipping, Theseeo, Typhoon Tracy, Mic Mac

$21 Racing To Win, Vision And Power, Metal Bender

$23 Ortensia

Melbourne Cup (3200m) November 3

$13 Profound Beauty

$15 C’Est La Guerre, Rebel Raider

$17 Efficient, Changingoftheguard, Viewed

$18 Roman Emperor

$21 Schiaparelli, Precedence, Speed Gifted, Vigor, Zipping, Tuesday Joy

$26 Master O’Reilly, Shocking, Unsung Heroine, Age Of Aquarius

Veteran Idyllic Prince’s back-to-back triumphs in the Listed Goodwood Sprint (1200m) at Belmont on Saturday was good news for trainer Jim Taylor and his family, who have had the Scenic seven-year-old since he was four months old, but the race cast doubts on Melbourne plans for the first-up flop Megatic. Megatic (B g 5, Danetime (IRE)-Mag Role, by Old Spice), the $2.40 favourite, worked hard to race outside Taylor’s other runner Star Laser (who fought on for second), but was gone on turning for home. Perthracing.com.au reported that a planned trip east for the Group 1 winner (the Kingston Town Classic, 1800m, at Ascot almost two years ago) was in severe doubt with trainer Albie Beckett going back to the drawing board.

Steve Pateman was hot on a cold, blustery day at Coleraine yesterday, winning all three jumps races on favourites – Brough Superior ($1.80) won the hurdle, Tookaboy ($2.10) and Royal Laddie ($1.80) the steeples.

THEY SAID IT

“I’ve been fortunate at home I haven’t had one go fast enough to test her, and hopefully we’ve got to wait for a while for it to happen on a racetrack.” Caulfield trainer Peter Moody after super filly Black Caviar (Br f 3, Bel Esprit-Helsinge, by Desert Sun (GB)) returned with a whoosh, making a one-horse affair of the Arrow Training Services Plate (1200m).

“It felt pretty awesome.” Black Caviar’s rider Luke Nolen.

The Group 2 Danehill Stakes (Flemington, 1200m, September 5) will help Moody determine the Group 1 path for the unbeaten filly – the Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 25 or out to the Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 14.

The other first-up flyer at the Valley was Secret Flyer. Colac trainer Mark Young said of the storming winner of the BC3 Future Stars Sprint (1000m): “It’s the aim to win a Group I every time you get out of bed, so we’ll probably proceed there.”  He was talking about the Manikato Stakes, via the Group 3 McEwen Stakes (1000m) on September 12 at the Valley.

“He’s just got that amazing turn of foot,” said jockey Craig Williams. Secret Flyer (Ch g 6, Secret Savings (USA)-Lanadee, by Snaadee (USA)) has won nine of his 20 starts.

 WE’LL WATCH IT

Patinack’s Trusting (B c 3, Tale Of The Cat (USA)-Legible (NZ), by Zabeel (NZ)) was super impressive with a light weight in winning the Group 2 Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Randwick at only his third race start. He will go around in the season’s new Group 1 race, the $1million Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

The headlines came out of the last race – Deer Valley won it by a half-head under hard whip riding from Daniel Ganderton, who lost his winning percentage and was suspended for six meetings. Corey Brown on the runner-up Melito kept to the new whip rules that allow jockeys to hit their mounts on no more than three consecutive strides in the final 200m – Ganderton had a block of four and another of five.

The rules, however, don’t allow a protest over whip matters, so there was no recourse for Melito’s connections, only the lingering question – “would we have won if Ganderton hadn’t gone outside the rules?” Likewise for punters who took the $4.60 about Melito, the favourite. As The Sydney Morning Herald reported, punters took a flogging. The paper quoted Ganderton, asked if Deer Valley would have won without the persuader, as saying: “I don’t think so … she is a very laid-back horse.”

With hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake in rich races, there is a lot more to come before the issue of the new padded whips, and the use of, is bedded down.

Rosehill on Saturday will have strong support races for the Golden Rose, including the Group 3 Concorde stakes (1100m). Caulfield could have a powerful cast in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes (1400m), including Whobegotyou, Mic Mac, El Segundo and Efficient. They also race at Belmont, Morphettville and Doomben.