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Mystery Island's hopes in Warrnambool Cup hinges on weather

Mystery Island's hopes in Warrnambool Cup hinges on weather

Herald Sun30-04-2025

Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The weather has a firm hold over Mystery Island's hopes of a second straight Warrnambool Cup win on Thursday.
Mystery Island last year's Warrnambool Cup on Soft 6 ground from barrier one but faces tougher circumstances for his bid for back-to-back triumphs.
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A heavy shower on Wednesday pushed the track down into the heavy range for the last three races with cold conditions to hinder any track improvement on Thursday.
'We don't want it really wet, a Soft 5 or Soft 6 would be perfect,' Mystery Island's trainer Shane Jackson said.
Mystery Island won from barrier one in 2024 but jockey Harry Coffey will contend with gate 17 this time.
Jackson said Coffey would not change the way he rode the Japanese-bred stayer because of the barrier.
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'He's flying but he's one of those horses that everything needs to play out in his favour,' Jackson said.
'He's drawn a terrible gate but Harry can work that out.
'You can't force him to be in a winning spot anyway. He has to be ridden where he's happy.'
Mystery Island has had four runs in 2025, finishing two lengths from the winner at Caulfield in March before a strong second in the Terang Cup on April 15.
Jackson said the Terang Cup run was an indication Mystery Island was racing in terrific form.
'His run in the Terang Cup was huge,' Jackson said.
'If he was a pair closer, he wins the Terang Cup.
'Everytime we run in a race we think he can win, they go too slow then he gets outsprinted.'
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Mystery Island will carry 54kg on Thursday, the same weight he carried to his first win in the feature event.
However, Jackson said Mystery Island was not the only well-weighted horse in the Warrnambool Cup.
'He's back in on 54(kg) so he's well weighted,' Jackson said.
'(Mornington Cup winner) Bankers Choice not accepting also helped because he was getting in well with 60kg.
'But there's still a couple well in at the weights.'
Mystery Island is on the fourth line of Warrnambool Cup betting at $8.50.
Immediacy is the favourite at $2.80 ahead of the Terang Cup winner Ziryab at $6.
Mystery Island will attempt to give Jackson a win on each of the three days of the Warrnambool May carnival after winning jumps races with Highland Blaze on Tuesday and Jekyll'n'hyde on Wednesday.
Originally published as Mystery Island will need track to stay in soft range in bid for back-to-back Warrnambool Cup wins

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Spot the Aussie: 2025 Winter Cup field at Rosehill Gardens a showcase for imports
Spot the Aussie: 2025 Winter Cup field at Rosehill Gardens a showcase for imports

News.com.au

time25 minutes ago

  • News.com.au

Spot the Aussie: 2025 Winter Cup field at Rosehill Gardens a showcase for imports

It will be almost a case of 'spot the Aussie' when the Winter Cup field goes out onto the track at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday. There are 14 stayers entered for the Listed $200,000 race over 2400m with 12 of them born overseas including topweight Changingoftheguard, a son of the greatest European stallion influence this century, Galileo. Changingoftheguard is among four Irish-bred stayers in the race, while there's five from France, two from Great Britain and one from New Zealand. The only colonial stayers in the Winter Cup are Steel Blaze and Whisker To Whisker – and they are the rank outsiders at $71 and $151 respectively. But this is hardly a new phenomenon. Stayers born in the northern hemisphere make up the bulk of runners in feature Australian distance races these days. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Just look at the make-up of the Sydney Cup (3200m) run earlier this year. Of the 20 starters, 19 were born overseas including the winner, Arapaho. The only horse in the race that was Australian-bred was Zardozi – and she was conceived in England. Godolphin mare Chanderi was served by champion English sire Kingman to southern hemisphere time and sent to Australia in-foal where she gave birth to Zardozi in the spring of 2020. In the Brisbane Cup (3200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday, the 11-horse field has only two locally-bred stayers including last year's defending champ Alegron. Kris Lees, the champion Newcastle trainer who prepares Changingoftheguard, conceded the northern hemisphere stayers were generally superior to locally-bred stayers. 'The European horses are natural stayers, it is in their DNA,'' Lees said. 'Their aerobic capacity seems to be a lot stronger and they have such stout staying pedigrees.'' This is one of the reasons Lees has no issue starting Changingoftheguard first-up in the Winter Cup. 'He wouldn't show up in a race under 2000m,'' Lees said. Changingoftheguard, formerly trained by Aidan O'Brien in Ireland, is a rising seven-year-old but has only had 12 starts, winning the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and finishing fifth in the 2022 English Derby behind Desert Crown. Williams sent Changingoftheguard down under last year and the stayer has had only one preparation for Lees, contesting three races last spring culminating with a good second in the Colin Stephen Quality. 'He ran a great race that day but we just felt he needed more time to fully acclimatise,'' Lees said. 'So, we gave him that opportunity, deliberately missed the autumn and he's coming up well. 'But the plan is to give him the one run then back off and put him away for spring.'' This is a blueprint owner Lloyd Williams has used often with his imported stayers he hopes could develop into Melbourne Cup contenders – one start in the second half of the season then concentrate on the spring carnival. Changingoftheguard back on the Roodee! Aidan O'Brien's Chester Vase and Royal @Ascot winner will make his return in the Ormonde at @ChesterRaces on Thursday... — At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 9, 2023 • A Winter Cup at Rosehill seems a long way from the famous Flemington two-miler on the first Tuesday in November but it is not out of reach. Natski, who just happened to be an imported stayer, won the Winter Cup for the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Denham then later that year ran a close second to Empire Rose in the Melbourne Cup. This was about the time when Williams started looking overseas for stayers. He had already won the Melbourne Cup twice that decade with Just A Dash (1981) and What A Nuisance (1985) and he wanted more. But it took Williams nearly 40 years to get it right before he won the Cup four times in eight years with imported stayers Green Moon (2012), Almandin (2016), Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020). Williams has owned a record seven Melbourne Cup winners – he also won the race with Efficient (2006) – but believes the days of the European-bred horses dominating Australian staying races could be numbered. • 'We're all devastated': Super stallion Snitzel dies 'One of the things you will find from this point onwards is there won't be as many stayers from Europe coming here,'' Williams said. 'They are breeding more 'mile' horses over there now. It won't be easy to go over there and buy a stayer in years to come, you won't find as many.'' Williams has two Irish-bred stayers with Lees he hopes could make it to the Melbourne Cup – and both have the bloodlines of the great Galileo coursing through their veins. Galileo, the sire of Changingoftheguard, is also the grandsire of Adelaide River who is also due to have one run this winter in the Listed McKell Cup (2400m) at Rosehill in two weeks. Adelaide River, a Group 3 winner in Ireland, is a rising six-year-old who has only had 14 starts but has been gelded since he finished fourth in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes last spring. Williams remembers seeing Galileo race and also standing at Coolmore Stud in Ireland and describes the stallion as 'extraordinary''. Galileo, who was superbly bred by the mighty Sadler's Wells out of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea, won six of his eight starts including the 2001 English Derby. But as good as Galileo was on the racetrack, he has been even better at stud. He was leading sire in Britain a record 12 times and is the only stallion to sire over 100 individual Group 1 winners before he passed away in 2021. • 'This wasn't a decision I made lightly': Cummings on shock Hong Kong switch One of those was Niwot, winner of the 2009 Winter Cup who trained on to contest two Melbourne Cups finishing unplaced in both before his 2012 Sydney Cup win, defeating the Williams-owned Efficient. 'When Galileo died, I thought Aidan would struggle to win the (English) Derby but he has won the race two years in a row without a Galileo,'' Williams said. Well, almost. Lambourn, winner of the Derby last weekend, is by Australia, the 2014 Derby winner and himself a son of Galileo. O'Brien's Derby winner last year, Auguste Rodin, was by Japanese superhorse Deep Impact but was out of Galileo's daughter, champion filly Rhododendron. 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In latest TAB Fixed Odds betting on the Winter Cup, the favoured runner of the Galileo breed is Touristic at $4, then Changingoftheguard $8, Speycaster $26 and Sir Chartwell $41. 'Changingoftheguard is a dogged sort of stayer, very one-paced but he has ability. We will see how he goes on Saturday,'' Williams said. 'I was talking to Kris the other day about Adelaide River and told him to give that horse one run this winter then bring him back for spring. I think he's a pretty decent horse, too.'' â– â– â– â– â– Emerging sprinter ready to take next step Trainer Kris Lees believes the emerging Tasoraay can negotiate the step up to city grade when the sprinter chases a hat-trick of wins in the Racing And Sports Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday. 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2025 Stradbroke Handicap: War Machine unders, owner says
2025 Stradbroke Handicap: War Machine unders, owner says

Courier-Mail

time34 minutes ago

  • Courier-Mail

2025 Stradbroke Handicap: War Machine unders, owner says

Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Prominent owner Rupert Legh says his Stradbroke Handicap favourite War Machine is silly odds in the betting market and he couldn't possibly back him in the famous Queensland Group 1 on Saturday. Legh knows he has a talented and progressive horse on his hands but can't believe bookmakers have the Lindsay Park galloper the raging $2.70 favourite with a huge gap to anything else in the Stradbroke market. While War Machine was dominant in winning the Group 3 BRC Sprint, Legh said he was unproven at Group 1 level and was far from the finished product. He questioned whether War Machine's stranglehold on Stradbroke betting spoke more to the quality of the field in the $3m race. It doesn't shape as a vintage Stradbroke. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 'I won't be backing him, I think he's 'unders',' Legh told Racenet. 'Is that a true price? 'I think it must be a reflection of the actual quality of the race. 'Given another three or four starts with some more experience, he will get better and better this horse. 'But is still unproven in this sort of class.' • Stradbroke Handicap field and news In War Machine's only previous Group 1 attempt, he finished 11th when being beaten almost eight lengths by fellow Stradbroke contender Kimochi in last November's Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield. War Machine races in Legh's striking colours and the owner is aiming to score his fourth Stradbroke. He has previously claimed Stradbroke glory with Tofane (2021), Santa Ana Lane (2018) and Mr Baritone (2008). Legh has never been on track at Eagle Farm to witness any of his Stradbroke wins and he said maybe it was a good luck omen that he would not be there again, instead heading to England for the famous Royal Ascot carnival. Lindsay Park is searching for its first Stradbroke but it should not be forgotten that the Hayes boys – Ben, JD and Will – got to train War Machine after legendary trainer Mike Moroney's sad passing earlier this year. • 'Pressure is your friend': Cejay's tip to conjure Stradbroke fairytale It would be an emotional moment if War Machine won and Legh said his great mate Moroney always thought he had a special horse in the making. 'We got War Machine out of New Zealand and Mike gave me a call one day and said 'I think I have got the right horse for us',' Legh recalled. 'He had a big opinion of him, he really liked the horse. 'He is a horse who used to over-race a bit and the reality is, he is still learning his craft. 'Mike thought he was a horse who could one day stand up and run in a big race, but could he get to a Group 1? 'No owner or trainer knows until you go through the grades and start racing against better horses, which is what he is doing. 'He couldn't have done any more than what he did last start, it was a pretty dominant sort of win. 'You would like to think there's more to come and he will only get better. 'But this is a big Group 1 – it's a Stradbroke.' War Machine was elevated to Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap favouritism after his dominant win in the BRC Sprint. Picture: Grant Peters / Trackside Photography • Grafterburners primed for JJ Atkins decider against Cool Archie War Machine has won five of his 12 starts and rocketed into Stradbroke favouritism when destroying the Group 3 BRC Sprint field in a blistering two-and-a-half length win. War Machine carried 56.5kg in the BRC Sprint and now drops to 53kg in the Stradbroke with Tim Clark to ride. The four-year-old gelding, a son of Harry Angel, drew barrier 13 at Tuesday's night's barrier draw function. 'I don't actually mind barrier 13, it gives Tim Clark more options,' co-trainer Ben Hayes said. 'There will be a lot of horses crossing from out wide, so he should be able to get into that three-wide line and get a nice run in transit.' Originally published as 'I won't be backing him': Owner Rupert Legh questions odds for his 2025 Stradbroke Handicap favourite War Machine

Perth Scorchers sign West Australian quick Bryce Jackson on one-year deal for Big Bash League
Perth Scorchers sign West Australian quick Bryce Jackson on one-year deal for Big Bash League

West Australian

timean hour ago

  • West Australian

Perth Scorchers sign West Australian quick Bryce Jackson on one-year deal for Big Bash League

West Australian breakout quick Bryce Jackson will be given the chance to press for a Perth Scorchers debut, handed a one-year contract extension after the departure of Jason Behrendorff. It means Jackson — who starred for WA in one-day cricket last summer — will be in the queue of quicks vying for a spot after Behrendorff left to take up a three-year deal with Melbourne Renegades. The Scorchers are expected to bolster their pace stocks at this month's Big Bash League draft. Jackson spent most of last season on the Scorchers' list. He signed on the eve of the season as a local replacement player for Mitch Marsh, which meant he fell out of the squad when the star all-rounder returned late in the campaign. He has already shown some loyalty to the Scorchers. The 25-year-old knocked back an offer from Brisbane Heat to stay in Perth last season. In just four one-day cup matches for WA, he took 12 wickets at 15.58, to finish second in that competition's player-of-the-year voting. The Albany product is in Queensland training with Australia A ahead of a series against Sri Lanka A in the Northern Territory. 'It's exciting to be back with the Scorchers and signing a full contract this year is another step in the right direction,' Jackson said. 'I got a nice taste of things from being the local replacement last season by training with the group, working my own craft and learning plenty about the tactical side of things.' Jackson said his first year on the list taught him how the best players in the State prepare for matches. 'The preparation, in particular, was a huge takeaway,' he said. 'It's different to domestic cricket with all the travel and tight turnarounds, so I'll benefit a lot from learning those routines and prioritising certain aspects of my preparation. 'Hearing the noise at ground level on game day was another thing, and The Furnace is unbelievable. 'It is so, so loud and incredibly exciting to be out there when someone takes a hanger or bowls someone.' The Scorchers have three spots remaining for local players. Nick Hobson, Matthew Spoors, Sam Fanning and veteran Andrew Tye are all without a deal for next season.

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