Dunn confident Boys Night Out can end with Big Dance
Boys Night Out has five wins and six placings from 16 starts and has amassed more than $200,000 in prizemoney, and Dunn believes he is capable of stepping up in grade.
'He's been racing very well,' Dunn said, while adding Boys Night Out would be his only runner in the South Grafton Cup.
'He won at Rosehill two starts ago. It was in Highway grade, but the manner in which he did it was certainly very impressive. And then he came out and got the job done at Ipswich at his latest start.'
Boys Night Out has the outside barrier to contend with in the South Grafton Cup, and Jake Bayliss takes the ride with the son of No Nay Never having the minimum weight of 54 kilograms.
He faces stern opposition in the shape of the Joseph Pride-prepared Headley Grange, which has 62 kilograms to contend with. Headley Grange has eight wins and seven placings from 18 starts and has won almost $600,000 in stakes.
Adam Hyeronimus, who was on Headley Grange when he resumed with victory at Randwick, is back aboard in Sunday's feature. The galloper lines up on the back of a last-start win in the listed Civic Stakes in which Jason Collett was in the saddle.
Annabel and Rob Archibald will be represented by Sibaaq in the South Grafton Cup with Kyle Wilson-Taylor taking the ride, while the Ciaron Maher stable has Vivy Air in the event with jockey Ashley Morgan in the saddle.
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Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Waller celebrates special first Godolphin win with idol by his side
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Yesterday we went through the runners different to how we did before, trying to make the race day a little bit easier.' Dream win for rookie trainer Wyong trainer Denim Wynen was in disbelief after a former Yulong filly bought for $85,000 delivered her a first city winner on Saturday at Rosehill. Sunshine Law, having her first start for Wynen, hit the lead 150m out and scored a half-length victory over Super Norwest in the 1400m benchmark 78 for fillies and mares. It gave Wyong apprentice Anna Roper a double and Wynen a career highlight. Wynen, who has been training for owners for two years and has 16 horses in work, was given the Alabama Express mare after clients bought her online. Trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald, Sunshine Law won two starts heading into the sale. 'I still can't believe it's true,' Wynen said of the $82,500 win. 'Credit to [the owners], they picked it. They've been a big support to my stable the last six months. 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Freedmans weigh up Four Pillars Will Freedman quipped he 'might have to lock in an apprentice now' to take weight off Cold Brew in the $500,000 Four Pillars Midway (1500m) on November 1 at Rosehill after the four-year-old cruised to victory at the track on Saturday. Backing up first wins at Hawkesbury and Newcastle, Cold Brew defied a three-wide run without cover under Jason Collett to surge to an almost four-length win in the Midway benchmark 72 (1400m). Freedman, who trains in partnership with his father, Richard, said Cold Brew may go for a spell before a potential Four Pillars shot, although he feared the gelding may get weighted out of the benchmark 68 race. Loading 'His rating might be too big now, but he might be a Four Pillars horse. He's pretty progressive,' Freedman said of Cold Brew, which was rated at 68 before the victory. 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The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
Waller celebrates special first Godolphin win with idol by his side
Waller said it was 'an honour to be regarded as being good enough to train for' Godolphin, who had been his stable's biggest competitor and 'best yardstick'. 'We've taken over from a great operation,' he said. 'Just seeing the horses come into our system, my riders have said, 'wow'. The young horses are so well-educated. Horses like her have just settled in really well. 'I was nervous coming into the race, just to make sure everything went well. It's a good relief.' The opening race victory was fitting given Waller and McDonald's dominance last campaign to win their 15th and seventh consecutive Sydney premierships respectively. Waller, who also won the last when Ravenclaw blitzed his rivals under Tommy Berry, said his team was continually striving to improve their Saturday strike-rate. 'It was last Saturday, end of season, straight into it,' he said. 'What can we do better? Where can we improve? Yesterday we went through the runners different to how we did before, trying to make the race day a little bit easier.' Dream win for rookie trainer Wyong trainer Denim Wynen was in disbelief after a former Yulong filly bought for $85,000 delivered her a first city winner on Saturday at Rosehill. Sunshine Law, having her first start for Wynen, hit the lead 150m out and scored a half-length victory over Super Norwest in the 1400m benchmark 78 for fillies and mares. It gave Wyong apprentice Anna Roper a double and Wynen a career highlight. Wynen, who has been training for owners for two years and has 16 horses in work, was given the Alabama Express mare after clients bought her online. Trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald, Sunshine Law won two starts heading into the sale. 'I still can't believe it's true,' Wynen said of the $82,500 win. 'Credit to [the owners], they picked it. They've been a big support to my stable the last six months. They bought some weanlings and they wanted to get to the races sooner, so they decided to go to the tried sales and picked up two nice horses from Yulong, so I think we're going to have some fun with them.' The 29-year-old said Wyong trainer Kristen Buchanan had been a guiding light. 'I didn't want to go to school any more when I was 14 and my brother was working with horses and my mum said if I got a job, I was allowed to leave school, and I went and worked for Kristen Buchanan,' she said. 'She took me in and she was like a mum to me and that's where I've been since.' Wynen's other runner, Monkhana, was second in the Midway handicap. Pride eyes another dance for Headley Trainer Joe Pride was looking to give Headley Grange another shot at a Big Dance qualifier after he bounced back with a two-length victory on Saturday. 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The Australian
6 days ago
- The Australian
Coffs Harbour preview: Donna's chasing a hometown Cup win
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'He has gone up 19 points in two runs so I have kind of been forced into these sort of situations with him.' One of those benchmark accruing performances came as a result of Ostracised's emphatic on-pace win in the Maclean Cup (1425m). What made the gelding's victory all the more important; the outcome - and the manner of it - was inspiration enough for a tilt at the Cup. That said, Ostracised running a mile is not something anyone would have expected, least of all Grisedale herself. 'We only had him down as a 1000m, 1100m horse completely and then everything just sort of changed because he was just getting run off his legs,' she said. 'So we just stepped him up 1100m to 1200m and it has just gone from there. 'He was strong through the line (in the Maclean Cup) so 1600m is certainly worth a try. 'Six is a good barrier for him, he should be up there on the speed for sure.' Grisedale will also have a runner in the co-feature Daniel Baker Showcase Sprint (1200m), namely Bow. A son of Black Caviar's sire, Bel Esprit, Bow will require a further upgrade in the track it seems to have any chance of capturing the time-honoured annual event. 'He hasn't drawn too bad and again the home track is always good for him,' Grisedale said. 'It is a suitable race for him, it's just that it is going to be wet.' The Coffs Harbour Cup Day meeting coincides with the start of the new season. Grisedale is rightfully looking forward to what the stable's raw but talented now four-year-old Piedi Veloci can deliver in the Rob Young Country Boosted Showcase Maiden Plate (1400m) and throughout 2025/26 up to an including even the Country Championships. 'He is going to go out after Friday's run and I dare say he will come back a more furnished horse and certainly a lot more switched on and hopefully not doing so many things wrong,' says Grisedale. 'He just needs to mature. 'He'd have to win a couple of races and he is certainly capable of doing that so if he can come back and put one or two wins together (the Country Championships) would be ideal for him.' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ The weather, the weight and the lure of a crack at a $3 million race on the first Tuesday in November are the three reasons why It's A Knockout will be at Coffs Harbour and not at Rosehill this weekend. The Ciaron Maher-trained It's A Knockout is a red-hot favourite for both her city and country (proposed) missions off the back of a booming first-up win at Royal Randwick followed by her honourable third there at her subsequent start. While the daughter of Triple Crown winner Dundeel will have a 1000km round trip on the first day of the new season, it could pay off in spades both in the immediacy and later in the year, November 4 to be exact. 'It's a business decision,' said Dean Watt, the founder of Dynamic Syndications, who bought the stakes-placed mare at the Gold Coast for $150,000 as a yearling. 'First of all, we have got one eye on the weather but that's not the be all and end all however, whether Rosehill gets all-the-way through on Saturday is a question mark. 'And Coffs (Harbour) at this stage has only had a sprinkle of rain that Sydney has had so you know the races are going to go on up there.' Watt, who has won a Golden Slipper and a Blue Diamond (among other features), was also keen to shield It's A Knockout from any potential huge rise in her benchmark rating should she have won in Sydney on the weekend. 'The Coffs Harbour Cup is Big Dance eligible and if you don't win it but you run second, you're Little Dance eligible,' he added. 'And there is only six grands worth of difference (between Rosehill and Coffs Harbour). 'Her benchmark is still going to go up but the horse becomes eligible to run in a $3 million or $1 million race.' The 2024/25 season concludes the 20th season that the ubiquitous Dynamic Syndications silks have been worn (including in this year's Everest). Watt's clients shared in 61 winners for the season, 20 of them city winners, taking his firm's overall tally close to 1000. In that time, Dynamic horses have returned a 90 per cent winners to runners while a phenomenal 98.1 per cent of the string earned prizemoney.
