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Australia: Unbeaten Kiwi Aegon To Star In Sydney Racing Carnival

Sydney's “Autumn Carnival” of racing is in full swing, with Randwick playing host to seven Group races this Friday night. Two events are at the elite Group 1 level, and an undefeated 3-year-old from New Zealand will be the focus of attention in the $1,000,000 Randwick Guineas. The Randwick card is available for livestream on the new Sky Racing World App and will be broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 8:40pm ET / 5:40pm PT).

The sporting rivalry between Australia and New Zealand has played out on many a rugby field, cricket pitch, and racetrack. Before the globalization of racing, Australia's lucrative purses were susceptible to plundering only by horses from across the Tasman Sea. Trainer Murray Baker, the most successful “Kiwi” raider of all time, has captured more than 20 G1 races in four Australian states. His 2017 Australian Derby winner, Jon Snow, was named for a character in Game of Thrones, whose real name was revealed in the Season 5 finale to be “Aegon.” Now, the Baker-trained Aegon is proving a revelation on the racetrack: after winning his first four starts on home soil, he took Sydney by storm two weeks ago when dominating the G2 Hobartville Stakes.

Jockey Hugh Bowman has endured a topsy-turvy time since the record-setting glory of Winx's career, but has latched onto another potential superstar in Aegon. After the gelding's dazzling Aussie debut, Bowman admitted to being “ultra-impressed … he's got the world at his feet.”

While Murray Baker is remaining in New Zealand due to coronavirus restrictions, his son, Bjorn, is fortuitously located in Sydney, having blossomed into a successful trainer in his own right. Bjorn began his career in partnership with his father and, since relocating to Australia, is ideally placed to provide a launching pad for Murray's charges.

“I'm addicted to Australian racing,” said the elder Baker. “I love the thrill of taking a horse over there and winning one of their big races. I get withdrawal symptoms when I can't find one to take over.”

Aegon, 6-5, dominates wagering for the one-mile Randwick Guineas, the seventh of nine races on Friday night's card.

Second choice at 6-1 is Peltzer, who disappointed as favorite in the Hobartville but has one glaring stat in his favor: a perfect five-for-five record at Royal Randwick. Ironically, Peltzer is trained at Rosehill, scene of the Hobartville, yet is zero-for-four in races at his “home” track. While Peltzer can be expected to put his best hoof forward returning to Randwick, it is doubtful that the best effort of any Australian 3-year-old is sufficient to alter Aegon's upward trajectory – or, if Aegon were to quote another character from Game of Thrones, “A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.”

Friday night's other G1 feature is Race 8, the Canterbury Stakes, a $500,000 weight-for-age sprint at six and a half furlongs. Wagering is deservedly headed by Bivouac (2-1), last seen in Sydney when finishing second in the world's richest turf race, The Everest. Bivouac subsequently won a G1 sprint in Melbourne; the Canterbury Stakes will be his second race this campaign – as was the case in The Everest.

The supporting card includes two juvenile races (the second and third) that warrant close scrutiny as key preps for the March 19 Golden Slipper. In particular, the clash of undefeated colts Profiteer and Stay Inside in Race 2 is a sumptuous prospect – both youngsters are held in extremely high regard and share favoritism at 9-5.

Long established as the world's richest race for 2-year-olds, the Golden Slipper is just one of numerous highlights as Sydney's Autumn Carnival unfolds. In fact, G1 racing will be on tap each of the next seven weeks as anticipation builds towards “The Championships,” a two-day extravaganza in April with purses totaling $21 million.

The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 8:40 p.m. ET / 5:40 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Eagle Farm, Gold Coast and Hawkesbury. All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes: race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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From Eventing To Mongol Derby To The Racetrack: Young Trainer Neasham Takes Aim At Magic Millions With All-Female Team

Just twelve months after playing a key part in the Magic Millions success of Away Game for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Australian-based Annabel Neasham is hoping for a repeat – this time on her own.

Starts are not easily gained in the A$2 million (£1.14m) Magic Millions Two Year Old Classic, restricted to horses bought at the Magic Millions sale, but just six months into her new career as a trainer in her own right, British expat Neasham is set to have two runners at the Gold Coast in Queensland on January 16.

“I have definitely aimed for this,” says Neasham, 30. “There are only 16 starters and there were 1,200 catalogued. To get two in it from such a large pool of horses, we've certainly struck lucky.

“I've got a colt and a filly, Ghostwriter and Queen Of Wizardry. Queen Of Wizardry booked her spot when she won at Eagle Farm on debut last weekend,” she goes on.

“Ghostwriter has had three starts, won his first start at Doomben and although his last start was not ideal, he has been working well and seems to be back on track.”

Neasham, from Croughton in Northamptonshire, spent four years with Maher and Eustace and latterly ran the Sydney arm of their training operation, of which Away Game was a member.

In July she announced she would branch out on her own from a base at Warwick Farm racecourse. The following month her first runner Commanding Missile was also her first winner; she has now trained ten winners at a 28% strike-rate.

With major owners Aquis Farm among her main backers, Neasham has recently taken charge of a number of horses from Chris Waller, including the 2018 French 2,000 Guineas winner Olmedo. Prague, who won a G3 last year under Tom Marquand for Maher and Eustace, has also joined the stable.

Mind you, it wasn't necessarily how she planned things. “The boxes didn't come available 'til June,” says Neasham. “It's very hard to get boxes in Sydney but I knew if I was going to train I wanted to train in the city. Aquis pledged to support me as well so that was a big help.

”I've got just over 40 in work and I've just managed to secure the stables next door as well so will have room for 53. With the sales coming up I will need that little bit of growing space.”

Running her own training operation in New South Wales has not been the culmination of any long-term plan for Neasham, who came into the sport via the showjumping, eventing and point-to-pointing spheres in England.

She went to Australia for a six-month working holiday with Gai Waterhouse and, after joining Maher and Eustace, has not returned.

“I thought I would come out for a year and go back,” she says. “It's a bit surreal really. I am not from a horse background – my Mum is a midwife and my Dad is a lawyer!

“The fact I am training in Sydney probably wasn't scripted but it is where I have landed and I am absolutely loving it. I've always enjoyed being hands on with horses through eventing a lot. I think if I had stayed back home I would have gone down the jumping route.”

Neasham's other big achievement was winning the world's most grueling race, the Mongol Derby, a 1,000km endurance race on horseback across the Mongolian steppe. She completed it in six days after encountering monsoon rain, fog, heat and floods.

“It was an amazing experience,” she recalls. “I was praying I didn't get a sick bug, which a lot of people got. I got good advice from David Redvers to make sure I purified my water and to be careful what I ate. I just drank water and took four cereal bars which lasted me.

“Hopefully I can win a 2,400-meter Derby rather than a 1,000-kilometer Derby one day!”

She is on the right path with Queen Of Wizardry and Ghostwriter helping put her in the spotlight. “It will be good to have runners in the Magic Millions,” she says. “Neither are favourite but the filly [Queen Of Wizardry] is fourth or fifth favourite.”

COVID-19 restrictions may preclude her visiting the Gold Coast, however. “I'm possibly not going to be there because the border may be shut, which would be a shame for my first runners,” she says.

“But I think it's a very open year. It's often ferociously run and there often are horses that don't see out the six furlongs. If they go quick the filly probably won't have the speed to be up on the pace but in that case it wouldn't surprise me to see her storming over the top of them.

“Luke Currie rides Ghostwriter, which is a handy booking because he won on Away Game and has won two of the last three.

“Stephanie Thornton rides Queen Of Wizardry, who is a girls' horse,” she adds. “The filly is owned by Loretta Fung and Lizzie Jelfs, who is an English TV presenter here – and there is a A$500,000 (£285,000) bonus incentive for all female-owned horses, which is split up between the first four to finish.

“So she is trained by a girl, owned by girls and will be ridden by a girl. Hopefully we can be the first all-girl team to win the Magic Millions.”

This feature was originally published by Horse Racing Planet and is reprinted here with permission.

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Australia: Reigning Horses Of The Year Melody Belle and Nature Strip At Flemington

Two reigning Horses of the Year headline a pair of excellent Group 1 races in Melbourne, while early season 2-year-olds are “gifted” a million-dollar purse in Sydney this Friday night. The fourth and final day of the “Melbourne Cup Carnival” at Flemington coincides with Rosehill's $1,000,000 Golden Gift, as both cards wedge neatly between the Breeders' Cup programs in the U.S. With some large Trifecta and Pick 4 pay outs on Melbourne Cup Day, handicappers will be looking to build their bank in Australia on Friday night.

Melody Belle, recently crowned New Zealand Horse of the Year for the second straight season, has taken her incredible tally of G1 wins to 12 with victories in the same pair of races that preceded her successful mission to Australia last November. In 2019, Melody Belle won a G1 for fillies and mares on the opening day of the “Melbourne Cup Carnival,” before a gallant runner-up effort a week later. This year, connections skipped the first of those races and have specifically targeted this Friday night's Mackinnon Stakes.

The 6-year-old brings a superb 17-for-34 career record back to Melbourne, as she seeks redemption for an unlucky second place finish to Aidan O'Brien's globetrotting filly, Magic Wand. Melody Belle (4-1) will be ridden for the first time by 25-year-old Jye McNeil, fresh off his career-defining win for Joseph O'Brien in Monday night's Melbourne Cup (at odds that matched his age). The Mackinnon Stakes (Race 8) is a weight-for-age contest at 1 1/4 miles, almost identical conditions to the prestigious W.S. Cox Plate. Thus, it is not surprising that Melody Belle's stiffest opposition is expected from Mugatoo (4-1) and Arcadia Queen (3-1 favorite), based on their respective fourth and fifth-place finishes in the Cox Plate two weeks ago.

Two races prior to the Mackinnon, Australia's Horse of the Year for the 2019-20 season will be in action in the G1 Darley Classic. Nature Strip returns to Flemington's iconic “straight six” furlongs course, and will try to replicate the most exhilarating performance of a career punctuated by perplexing losses. Australian racing's biggest enigma has now lost three straight races for the first time, yet nobody who witnessed his scintillating performance in this event last year will be brave enough to write him off. As in 2019, Nature Strip finished off the board (his usual modus operandi if not getting his picture taken) in The Everest, before returning from Sydney for the Darley Classic. If his career record of 26,14-3-0 leaves one flummoxed as to which version will appear next, it is worth bearing in mind that the 6-year-old's record down the Flemington straight course is four-for-five (and two-for-two at six furlongs).

Nature Strip shares favoritism at 3-1 with another G1 winner down Flemington's straight course, Bivouac, who comes off a terrific second in The Everest. Further opposition exiting the world's richest turf race is expected from the mare, Libertini, who was heavily bet (8-1 into 5-1) in The Everest but had no luck from the extreme outside gate. Both Bivouac and Libertini contested The Everest second up and are still fresh into their current campaigns. Coincidentally, they finished in the minor placings in the same G1 race (for 3-year-olds) down the Flemington straight during last year's Melbourne Cup Carnival.

While Melbourne holds the Friday night spotlight, Sydney's Rosehill Racecourse will be the scene of an exciting addition to Australia's rich program of juvenile races. The Southern Hemisphere racing season began on Aug. 1 and the first 2-year-old races were run only a month ago, yet an early carrot is being dangled for connections of the most precocious juveniles. The Golden Gift, at 5 1/2 furlongs, carries a purse of $1,000,000. The China Horse Club owns a pair of debut stakes winners, Captivant (3-1 favorite) and Tiger of Malay (7-1). Last year's inaugural Golden Gift winner, Dame Giselle (a subsequent multiple stakes winner), is part-owned by the China Horse Club and came through the same debut race as Tiger of Malay. It's unusual to see 2-year-olds traveling interstate this early in the season, but the lucrative purse sees both Sneaky Five (9-2) and Ghostwriter (10-1) being whisked to Sydney after scoring debut wins in Melbourne and Brisbane, respectively. The race includes three first-time starters, and North American fans will be intrigued by a Chris Waller-trained son of American Pharoah named Head of State (14-1), who has won both of his trials (“training races”). A G2 event for fillies and mares follows the Golden Gift on the Rosehill card.

The Flemington and Rosehill cards will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 10:25 p.m. ET / 7:25 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Doomben and Gold Coast. All races will also be live-streamed in HD with past performances available for free at skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms. Wagering is available via all the major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, AmWager, and BetAmerica. The Pick 7 wager is available on the Flemington (AUS-A) card.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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Australia: Melbourne Cup, The Race That Restarts A Nation

The Melbourne Cup, one of the great horse races on the planet – and probably the greatest cultural event in global racing – will be staged this Monday night (Post Time: 11:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. PT). Long referred to as “the race that stops a nation,” the Cup has famously brought sessions of parliament to a halt. However, as its host city emerges from one of the world's strictest lockdowns, this year's renewal might be more accurately referred to as “the race that restarts a nation.”

Melbourne has been the country's coronavirus hotspot, with a stringent lockdown of almost four months being eased just in the past week. While still unable to attend the races, the public is simply rejoicing in the newly found freedom to visit a pub or enter a TAB (the vast network of off-track wagering facilities, many of which are now contained within pubs – allowing the confluence of two great Aussie pastimes!).

While Flemington Racecourse won't play host to fans, it will welcome eight European horses as part of the 24-strong field competing for an $8 million purse. In a wide-open betting market – even by Melbourne Cup standards – wagering is headed by a trio of Euros. When rain delivered his preferred soft going, Irish import Sir Dragonet landed a betting plunge (12-1 into 6-1) winning the W.S. Cox Plate in his Australian debut. The Cox Plate is a highly prestigious weight-for-age race at 1 1/4 miles, in stark contrast to the two-mile Melbourne Cup under handicap conditions. Jockey Glen Boss, who became part of Melbourne Cup folklore aboard the race's only three-time winner, Makybe Diva, declared that Sir Dragonet (9-1) can capture the Cox Plate – Melbourne Cup double (last achieved, coincidentally, by Makybe Diva in 2005). However, Monday night's firmer footing might be a bigger issue than the race's conditions.

The other Europeans vying for favoritism share two impressive common denominators: the blood of Galileo and the conditioning of Aiden O'Brien. Tiger Moth (8-1) was narrowly beaten in this year's Irish Derby and will be making just his fifth career start. The race's 129-pound highweight is Anthony Van Dyck (7-1), who won the 2019 English Derby and finished third in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Anthony Van Dyck was an excellent second in his Australian debut and could provide a first Melbourne Cup win for Hugh Bowman, regular rider of the great Winx. Similarly, the Cup has eluded Winx's trainer, Chris Waller. Another mare would become Waller's second most famous horse, if Verry Elleegant (12-1) can replicate her victory over Anthony Van Dyck in the traditional prep race, the Caulfield Cup. Waller is also represented by a son of Frankel named Finche (17-1), who has performed consistently at the highest level in Australia since being imported two years ago. Finche has finished on the heels of the placegetters in the past two Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

As racing has become globalized, Australian horses have struggled to withstand the avalanche of international runners. Vow and Declare bucked the trend last year, becoming the first Aussie winner since 2009. Vow and Declare has lost form and is a 60-1 shot to repeat, but last year's winning rider, Craig Williams, has partnered with another Australian horse in Surprise Baby – whose sire happens to be that 2009 Australian-bred winner, Shocking. Surprise Baby was fifth in last year's Melbourne Cup, beaten just a length in a blanket finish, and has strong claims again at 9-1. While Vow and Declare is unlikely to repeat, his trainer Danny O'Brien also has Russian Camelot (12-1) coming off a third-place finish in the Cox Plate (he and Cox Plate winner, Sir Dragonet, are both sired by 2012 English and Irish Derby winner, Camelot).

Three jockeys – Glen Boss (Sir Dragonet), Kerrin McEvoy (Tiger Moth) and Damien Oliver (Russian Camelot) – have three wins in the great race and would equal the all-time record with one more triumph. Also of interest in the riding ranks is Jamie Kah, who currently leads the Melbourne jockey standings. Kah will have her first mount in the Cup and first ride on Prince of Arran (11-1). Her Melbourne Cup inexperience is balanced by the hardy 8-year-old gelding, who has finished second and thirdin the past two Melbourne Cups. Kah seeks to emulate Michelle Payne, who rode through the gender barrier in 2015 on 100-1 winner Prince of Penzance. Longshots abound throughout Melbourne Cup history and the strike rate of favorites is a meager 21%, so play your fancy and enjoy the spectacular spectacle.

The Flemington card will be broadcast on TVG this Monday night (First Post: 6:45 p.m. ET / 3:45 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Randwick, Doomben and Ascot. All races will also be live-streamed in HD with past performances available for free at skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms. The new Pick 7 wager is available on the Flemington (AUS-A) card across races 4-10. Wagering is available via all the major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, AmWager, and BetAmerica.

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