Weekend Racing Recap 7th March
Forget the start of the footy season, it was racing that stole all the headlines on the weekend with a string of history making achievements by both horse and jockeys that captured the “back pages”.
James McDonald gave a masterclass of riding at Royal Randwick, becoming the first rider since Jimmy Cassidy (1987) to ride six winners at a Sydney Metropolitan meeting. The difference was McDonald’s victories included a Group 1, two Group 2’s, two Group 3’s and a Listed race win. JMac also moved closer to overtaking Damien Oliver as the leading Group 1 rider in Australia, Oliver sits on 129 wins and when Joliestar finished too well to win the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes, McDonald bought up his 127th Group 1 success and within two of who he describes as “the GOAT”.
Down South at Royal Flemington another rider created his own bit of history. The Group 1 Newmarket Handicap has been running for 154 years and in that time no rider had won the race more than 3 times but that all changed on Saturday when Craig “Froggy” Newitt used his inside gate to drive through and lead all the way on the Bjorn Baker trained Caballus. Starting at the nice odds of $19, he was able to hold off the late challenge of outside Gallant Son ($61) and Angel Capital ($12) in what was a sustained show of speed down the famous Flemington straight.
The was another first at Flemington on Saturday when the Godolphin owned Tom Kitten became the first horse to win The All-Star Mile more than once. In what was a peach of a ride by Craig Williams he chimed in at the right time last 200m and proved a bit too tough and experienced for his rivals.
Arguably the most impressive performance Australia wide on Saturday was the dominant win of Sheza Alibi in the Group 1 Randwick Guineas. The only filly taking on the boys, the Moody/Coleman trained daughter of Saxon Warrior (JPN) was ridden patiently out the back by Luke Nolen, but once he had her balanced-up from the corner she exploded and ran over some quality three-year-olds like they were standing still, going to the line winning in a canter. The win was a milestone for Nolen who won his 2000th race when the filly crossed the line.
The Golden Slipper Stakes picture became a bit clearer with the running of two key lead-up races in the Reisling Stakes and Todman Stakes being decided on Saturday. The Bjorn Baker trained Paradoxium catapulted to the top line of betting with a decisive on pace win in the Todman. Likely he will go straight into the Slipper of that win and prove hard to beat.
The win of Chayan was even more destructive in the Reisling. She showed an impressive turn-of-hoof when James McDonald let her down and her time of 1:09.45 was superior to the boys time in the Todman (1:10.37).