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Australia: Melody Belle’s Farewell Tour Of Australia

There are many American graded stakes races with their own rich history which now serve as preps for the Breeders' Cup. Similarly, Friday night's features at Rosehill have become stepping stones to The Championships at Randwick (April 9 & 16). The Group 1 Tancred Stakes includes the Queen of New Zealand turf, Melody Belle, and other key contenders at The Championships. Be sure to catch all the action live on the new Sky Racing World App or watch on TVG (First Post: 9:45 p.m. ET / 6:45 p.m. PT).

The Tancred Stakes will be the first Australian stop on the farewell tour by mighty New Zealand mare Melody Belle, whose career is of elite status. Striking at a 50% win rate across 38 starts, she recently set a New Zealand record for most G1 wins (14) and will likely set another record when offered at public auction upon her retirement.

Now in the second half of her 6-year-old season, Melody Belle will appear in the catalog for the National Broodmare Sale at the Gold Coast on May 25, where she could attract global interest. Prior to the curtain coming down on her fabulous racetrack career, Melody Belle (5-1) will strive for a 15th G1 triumph in the Tancred, where she will be tested at 1 1/2 miles for the first time. Trainer Jamie Richards is adamant that his superstar mare, who has won from five and a half to ten furlongs, will appreciate the added distance in the twilight of her career. Between the Tancred Stakes and Broodmare Sale, plans call for Melody Belle to contest an undecided race during The Championships at Randwick, before a pair of races in Queensland – her swan song would be a mere three days prior to being auctioned.

Melody Belle will be ridden for the first time by James McDonald, fresh off winning last week's Ranvet Stakes on Verry Elleegant. In the space of a week, “J-Mac” is poised for G1 success on Australia's and New Zealand's best mares – and the 29-year-old would become the fastest rider in Australian history to reach 50 G1 wins. Chief opposition to Melody Belle in the Tancred is expected from Sir Dragonet (9-2) and Angel of Truth (7-1), who were left in the wake of Verry Elleegant and Addeybb in last week's spine-tingling Ranvet. (That pair will renew their intense rivalry on April 16 in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, showpiece race of The Championships and possible target for Melody Belle).

Trainer Peter Moody and jockey Luke Nolen, who enjoyed global fame thanks to the undefeated sprint phenomenon Black Caviar, combine again for the Australian debut of Irish stayer Nickajack Cave (18-1). In stark contrast to the dazzling speed of Black Caviar, each of Nickajack Cave's ten career races have been at 1 1/4 miles and beyond. Moody believes the horse can be competitive in the weight-for-age Tancred, but admits to still learning about him.

“This will give us a guide, as everything we are doing is to try and qualify him for the Melbourne Cup later this year,” he said.

Dreams of the world's biggest two-mile handicap are not misplaced, because Nickajack Cave defeated 2020 Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment at level weights last June in Ireland. The 5-year-old gray had previously finished two lengths behind Sir Dragonet, who won the Cox Plate in his Australian debut last October and is favorite for Friday's Tancred. Nickajack Cave (Irish-bred and now Australia-based, yet named for a cave in Tennessee!) has not raced since winning a G3 in his native land last August.

Moody and Nolen also have an intriguing presence in Friday's other G1 event, the Vinery Stud Stakes (Race 6). Princess Rhaenys (15-1) impressively broke her maiden at her second start, but at a relatively nondescript “provincial” track. Unusually in Australia, she competed at a mile off a layoff (19 weeks after debuting). Moody now thrusts her into a Group One at 1-1/4 miles, so obviously feels the filly is an untapped staying talent. Wagering is logically headed by Harmony Rose (9-5), returning to her own sex after a third place finish in the Randwick Guineas (runner-up Mo'unga subsequently won last week's Rosehill Guineas).

The Vinery Stud Stakes is the key prep race for the Australian Oaks at 1 1/2 miles during The Championships at Randwick. The Vinery's equivalent for colts and geldings is Friday's third race, the Tulloch Stakes, a final lead-up to the Australian Derby.

The Rosehill card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:45 p.m. ET / 6:45 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Kembla Grange, Gold Coast and Eagle Farm. 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 livestreaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Wrona'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. Wrona also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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Australia: With Sydney Carnival Reset, Golden Slipper And Five More Group 1s On Tap

Fans of Australian racing can wager with confidence on Friday night's rescheduled Golden Slipper (Group 1) card in Sydney, as drying conditions were expected across the second half of this week. And, if every cloud has a silver lining, the Rosehill program boasts even more star power after fields were redrawn for the four other G1 races on the card. The “Slipper” card is available to stream on the new Sky Racing World App and will be broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT).

Racetracks in three states have cancelled dozens of programs since late last week, with the biggest casualty being the postponement of last weekend's Golden Slipper, the world's richest 2-year-old race. The entire program has been transplanted on the calendar to this Friday night, pushing back each subsequent card for the duration of Sydney's “Autumn Racing Carnival.” (This means that “The Championships” at Randwick, a two-day Breeders' Cup-style event offering more than $21 million in purses, will now be staged on April 9 and 16). Only the Golden Slipper field remained intact, and the extra week has suited the schedule of several high-profile horses, whose inclusion in the “supporting” stakes races has further bolstered the program's appeal.

The G1 sequence begins with the Ranvet Stakes (Race 4). Quirky and intractable in her younger days, Verry Elleegant has furnished into a top-class professional athlete under the tutelage of Sydney's leading trainer, Chris Waller. The 5-year-old mare has won five G1 races in the past year, exhibiting tigerish tenacity to clinch four of them in heart-stopping photo finishes. Her ½-length loss to English stayer Addeybb in the 2020 Ranvet was the “Race of the Carnival,” and the pair will lock horns again Friday night in the weight-for-age contest at 1 1/4 miles. Each horse follows an identical preparation to last year, with Addeybb (even-money favorite) unraced since winning the G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot in October and Verry Elleegant (9-5) making her third start of the year.

Despite Rosehill's excellent drainage, the surface will still be in the “soft-to-heavy” range after being inundated with some 15 inches of rain. There are few racehorses in the world with a more pronounced preference for wet tracks than Colette (5-1), a Godolphin mare whose record on firm footing is 8:1-2-0 but who seemingly grows an extra leg — or flipper — on wet surfaces (6:5-1-0). The redrawn Ranvet field now also includes Sir Dragonet (13-1), who is struggling for form this campaign but gets race and surface conditions that resemble his triumph in last October's Cox Plate.

Race 5 is the Rosehill Guineas (G1) at 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-olds, a natural progression from the one-mile Randwick Guineas three weeks ago. Mo'unga is 5-2 favorite to turn the tables on Lion's Roar, after finishing a desperately unlucky second behind the 25-1 upset winner of the Randwick Guineas. Lion's Roar is 7-1 to repeat, and each colt has won his only start on a “heavy” track. Splitting them in the wagering are Montefilia and Grandslam (each at 6-1). Montefilia is a dual G1-winning filly who defeated colts – including Lion's Roar – at this distance last year. Grandslam is an addition to the original field who is coming off a six-length G2 win. He is a full-brother to elite staying mare Jameka, winner of the 2016 Caulfield Cup.

Race 6 is the George Ryder Stakes (G1), a weight-for-age race at 7 1/2 furlongs. Wagering is headed by 7-year-old Godolphin warhorse Avilius (3-1), an earner of $3.5 million who is two-for-two on “heavy” tracks. Avilius (whose damsire is Sunday Silence) hasn't won since 2019, but showed his old spark with a close third-place finish off a layoff.

Friday's final G1 race is the most open: The Galaxy (Race 8) is a handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs, boasting co-favorites at 4-1. The Waller-trained Haut Brion Her is primed to enhance her excellent record fresh, while Tailleur is a rapidly rising talent for Godolphin who has won six of eight starts.

The Rosehill card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Doomben, Wyong and Gold Coast. All races will be livestreamed 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 livestreaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Wrona'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. Wrona also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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Australia: Godolphin Primed For Golden Slipper At Rosehill

The world's richest race for 2-year-olds, the $3.5 million (AUD) Golden Slipper, is one of five Group One races on a superb program at Sydney's “Rosehill Gardens” this Friday night. The “Slipper” is carded as the seventh race and is available to stream on the new Sky Racing World App and will be broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT).

The Golden Slipper (six furlongs) is the first leg of a juvenile “triple crown,” staged at two-week intervals over increasing distances. The seven-furlong Sires' Produce is part of “The Championships” at Randwick, a two-day feast of racing early next month with purses exceeding $21 million (AUD). The one-mile Champagne Stakes will be run on April 16, closing day of Sydney's “Autumn Racing Carnival.”

I have witnessed one Golden Slipper, won by Inspired in 1984, when Darren Beadman became just the second jockey to win as an apprentice. In the ensuing 36 years, no “bug boy” has replicated the feat and Beadman – after a stellar career as a senior jockey – is now an assistant trainer and stable representative for Godolphin in Australia.

Godolphin swept the Slipper trifecta in 2019 and has two runners in this year's renewal: Ingratiating (16-1) and Anamoe (14-1). In a race with massive breeding implications, the Godolphin colts fly the U.S. flag as sons of Frosted and Street Boss, respectively. Ingratiating became the first stakes winner worldwide for new sire, Frosted, while Street Boss is a longtime shuttle stallion enjoying an excellent season Down Under. Anamoe's American connection extends to his dam, Anamato, a G1-winning filly in Australia whose trainer, David Hayes, brought her to Hollywood Park for a third-place finish in the 2007 American Oaks.

Anamoe brings a powerful formline into the Golden Slipper, upsetting the season's hottest juvenile race two weeks ago – a day on which nine of the past ten Slipper winners have competed. Of two prep races that afternoon, the Todman Slipper Trial for colts and geldings – named after the Golden Slipper's inaugural winner in 1957 – was a highly anticipated showdown between undefeated colts Profiteer and Stay Inside. Anamoe stole the show, yet is again ranked a relative outcast at double-digit odds this Friday night. The reason is two-fold: he enjoyed a perfect trip in the Todman, but has been dealt the extreme outside post position (16) in the Golden Slipper. Conversely, circumstances conspired against both Profiteer and Stay Inside, who lost no luster in the eyes of their respective camps. Both have drawn favorably and share Slipper favoritism at 3-1.

As Godolphin aims for a second Golden Slipper, trainer Chris Waller will attempt to remove a proverbial monkey from his back. Sydney's perennial leading conditioner has amassed 119 Group One wins, but a scant three have come in juvenile races. Only five 2-year-olds have previously represented Waller in the Golden Slipper, without finishing on the board (his most recent pair blossomed as 3-year-olds: Yes Yes Yes winning The Everest and Hungry Heart claiming last week's Phar Lap Stakes). Waller acknowledges the perception that preparing 2-year-olds is his “Achilles heel,” but believes that “in time we will get a Golden Slipper on the mantelpiece.”

To that end, his juvenile team has accounted for numerous stakes races so far (in a Southern Hemisphere season that began in August). Waller's biggest numerical assault on the Slipper comprises Shaquero (25-1), Home Affairs (16-1) and O'president (17-1). While the best racehorse names are lauded for their ingenuity (Profiteer is by Capitalist; Ingratiating is out of Obsequious), none is more eyebrow-raising than O'president, whose dam is O'marilyn.

Two hours before the Golden Slipper is run and won, an example of Chris Waller's prowess with maturing horses will be displayed in a marquee renewal of the G1 Ranvet Stakes (Race 4). Quirky and intractable in her younger days, Verry Elleegant has furnished into a top-class professional athlete under Waller's tutelage. The 5-year-old mare has won five Group One races in the past year, exhibiting tigerish tenacity to clinch four of them in heart-stopping photo finishes. Her ½-length loss to English stayer Addeybb in the 2020 Ranvet was the “Race of the Carnival,” and the pair will lock horns again Friday night in the weight-for-age contest at 1 1/4 miles. Each horse follows an identical preparation to last year, with Addeybb (4-5 favorite) unraced since winning the G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot in October and Verry Elleegant (6-5) making her third start of the year.

Friday's other Group One races are the Rosehill Guineas (R5, 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-olds), the George Ryder Stakes (R6, 7.5 furlongs at weight-for-age) and The Galaxy (R8, 5.5 furlongs under handicap conditions). Although predicted rain leading up to last Friday night's card did not eventuate, Sydney is being deluged this week and a “heavy” surface is inevitable.

The Rosehill card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Eagle Farm, Goulburn and Ascot. 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.

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Australia: Winx Immortalized At Her Home Track Of Rosehill Gardens

Fillies and mares will be spotlighted this Friday night in Sydney against the backdrop of Australia's greatest ever mare – Winx — being immortalized in bronze at her home track Rosehill Gardens. The Group 1 Coolmore Classic heads a nine-race program at Rosehill which is available for livestream on the new Sky Racing World App and will be broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 8:35 p.m. ET / 5:35 p.m. PT).

Sydney's “Autumn Carnival” moves to Rosehill for the next three weeks and, in advance of this Friday night's Coolmore Classic card, a magnificent statue of Winx has been unveiled and will greet racing fans directly inside the track's main entrance. The 1,500-pound monument to the racing legend and her regular rider, Hugh Bowman, is 110% of their actual size: literally “larger than life.”

Bowman was quite moved at the ceremony – on International Women's Day – crediting the “extraordinary detail and accuracy” captured by renowned sculptor Tanya Bartlett during her 14-month labor of love. Winx's part-owner, Debbie Kepitis, marveled how “it is so touching that every time I walk through the gates at Rosehill now I can say hello to Winx!” And the grand mare's trainer, Chris Waller, echoed his champion's lasting inspiration by saying, “Winx is proof that dreams can turn into reality in this sport.”

As Waller's base of operations, Rosehill was Winx's “home track.” However, she never contested a Coolmore Classic and the race remains one of the few gems on Australia's racing calendar to have eluded Waller. The New Zealand native, firmly ensconced as Sydney's premier trainer, will saddle Madam Rouge (18-1) and Subpoenaed (11-1) in this year's renewal, carded as the seventh race at 9:15 p.m. PT.

One of Waller's biggest obstacles to a first Coolmore success is 3-year-old filly Forbidden Love (5-1 favorite), a last-start G1 winner against her own age. The filly has already acquitted herself admirably against elders, finishing a close third at G1 level last October (the Australian racing season begins in August). Forbidden Love is also adept on all track conditions, which will stand her in good stead with rain forecast for the second half of this week in Sydney.

Second choice in early wagering is lightly-raced 4-year-old Chaillot (7-1), who finished only a head behind Forbidden Love in the aforementioned Group One last October and has a massive 21-pound weight swing in her favor under the two races' respective conditions. One query against Chaillot is her never having raced outside of Victoria – the Coolmore will be her first experience in Sydney's clockwise direction – but, on weights alone, she will take a power of beating.

A week that began by globally celebrating women's achievements could end with a G1 victory by an Australian mare named for an American woman who reached the pinnacle in her chosen field: Krone has won her last two races at 30-1 and 15-1, and is a 16-1 shot to make it a third straight stakes upset in the Coolmore Classic. Colonial Affair was similar odds (13-1) when Julie Krone became the first female rider to win a Triple Crown race. And Krone's crowning achievement, the 1993 Belmont Stakes, occurred in similar rainy conditions that are relished by her equine namesake Down Under.

Finally, in a week that featured International Women's Day, it's fitting to reflect on the career of last year's Coolmore Classic winner, Con Te Partiro. A graduate of the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the $130,000 purchase won races at Keeneland, Saratoga, and Royal Ascot when trained by Wesley Ward. She was subsequently acquired for $575,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale by a partnership of U.S.-based SF Bloodstock and Australia's Newgate Farm, and Con Te Partiro transferred to Australia's “Queen of Racing,” Gai Waterhouse. After a G3 win, she was retired but failed to get into foal. Brought back into training, the mare won consecutive G1 races, beginning with the 2020 Coolmore Classic.

An incredible journey came full circle when Con Te Partiro returned to Kentucky and was offered at last November's Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, although she was passed in after not meeting her reserve. The 7-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy has been privately purchased by Sheikh Fahad of Qatar Racing for $1.6 million, with plans for her to be served by a stallion in England.

The Rosehill card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (first post: 8:35 p.m. ET / 5:35 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Gold Coast, Gosford and Ipswich. 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. Wrona'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. Wrona also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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