Brad Waters' horses to follow and forgive from Caulfield
Herald Sun racing writer Brad Waters runs his eye over Saturday's meeting at Caulfield, finding five horses to follow and forgive from the card.
â– â– â– â– â–
FIVE TO FOLLOW:
KALEO: Kaleo did so much wrong at the start but showed his quality with his emphatic win in the first race at Caulfield. He ended up at the back of the field after a moderate getaway but showed a neat turn of foot to work around the field on the home turn. He shot clear early in the straight and scored comfortably. He's a colt with a bright future.
ATLANTIC SPIRIT: Atlantic Spirit drew the outside and went back to the rear to get early cover before improving on the inside from the 500m. However, the Tom Conlan-trained mare was held up on the inside behind the leader nearly all the way down the straight. She was only beaten 1-½ lengths and will have more luck soon.
Rogan dives late under @pattymoloney & grabs the brave Stylish Secret right on the line 😯 pic.twitter.com/YJZQu5b5Fe
— Racing.com (@Racing) May 3, 2025
JUST FOR SHOW: The Lindsay Park-trained three-year-old made a good return at Caulfield on Saturday. He showed good speed to race behind the leaders before improving rounding the home turn. Just For Show hit the front in the straight but was no match late with a combination of his lack of race fitness and giving away 4kg being his downfall.
DUBLIN JOURNAL: Dublin Journal improved rapidly when a touch unlucky at Caulfield second-up. He ran fairly over 1400m first-up at Caulfield first-up and was much fitter for his second-up assignment. He followed the winner Immediacy into the race but was held up a touch in the straight. He'll be fitter and he's ready to win.
MOLLYNICKERS: The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained mare can be hard to catch but her Caulfield run was promising. Mollynickers raced three wide with cover to the home turn and let down well to hit the lead at the 200m. The four-year-old tried hard late but was only grabbed late while giving away weight. She could notch a win soon.
Sunshineinmypocket stalked Mollynickers around the bend & just nabs her in the final event at Caulfield ☀ï¸� @cmaherracing ends the day with four winners at Caulfield, while @Ethan_Brown8 finishes with a hat-trick ðŸ'� pic.twitter.com/YhUyNhvFsU
— Racing.com (@Racing) May 3, 2025
â– â– â– â– â–
PRESTIGE OLE: Questionable whether he threatens the winner Kaleo with a better run, but Prestige Ole should have finished closer. He was held up and found himself last in the small field on the home turn. He chased honestly when clear at the 300m, but the race was over.
UNITED NATIONS: He's had a few chances in Australia, but he had genuine excuses on Saturday. He went back from the wide gate and improved steadily from the 600m to the home but was held up all the way down the straight. It was his first run for 10 weeks so he will be fitter.
OXFORD BLUE: Beaten favourite but far from disgraced over 2000m. Despite drawing barrier seven, Oxford Blue had no luck early and was forced to work forward three and four wide until he got up near the lead at the 1400m. The early work told late but Oxford Blue fought on well for fourth.
Immediacy ($1.60) got clear air on the bend & the @busuttin -trained galloper makes it two wins on the trot ðŸ'° @blake_shinn grabs a race-to-race double ðŸ'° pic.twitter.com/24GouNuiv3
— Racing.com (@Racing) May 3, 2025
STEWARDS SAY:
SYMPHONY OF COLOUR (Unplaced Race 3) – A post-race endoscopy detected a degree of internal Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Super stallion Snitzel has died aged 23 leaving behind a remarkable legacy on world thoroughbred racing
Arrowfield Stud's super sire Snitzel, the nation's four-time champion stallion, has died. He was 23. John Messara, Arrowfield's chairman, told News Corp Snitzel passed away just after 11am on Wednesday. 'We are all devastated by what's happened,'' Messara said. 'Snitzel had not been well over the last 12 months with a liver complaint but he has gone downhill rapidly the last few days. I'm still in a state of shock.'' • 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! A former outstanding sprinter, Snitzel won the 2006 Group 1 Oakleigh Plate before retiring to stud where he forged a deserved reputation as one of the all-time great stallions. Snitzel has sired 23 individual Group 1 winners and more than 150 individual stakes winners including three Golden Slippers, two The Everests, a Cox Plate, two Golden Roses, four Guineas', a Flight Stakes, two Magic Millions 2yo Classics, an Inglis Sires trifecta and most of Australia's feature sprints. The acclaimed stallion's best progeny included Redzel, Lady Shenandoah, Trapeze Artist, Russian Revolution, Shamus Award, Snitzerland, Switzerland, Wild Ruler, Sweet Idea, Estijaab and Marhoona. Boasting more than 1600 race wins as a sire, his progeny won just $273 million in stakes. Snitzel was a four-time Australian Champion Sire, four-time Champion 2YO Sire, two-time Champion 3YO Sire, and five Inglis Easter sale-toppers and 71 yearlings that have sold for $1 million or more. The super stallion has averaged 24 stakes wins every season for a decade and at the southern hemisphere's premier yearling sale, Inglis Australian Easter Sale, he had seven $1 million-plus lots, including a $2.7 million full brother to Switzerland for a sale-high average of $708,000 for his 32 yearlings. Snitzel, like his sire and former Arrowfield great Redoute's Choice, is creating his own legacy with 17 stakes-siring sons and his broodmare daughters are already the source of 46 stakes winners. The great Snitzel is currently fourth on the Australian Champion Sires rankings for 2024-25 with more than $20.7 million but is also the leading sire for individual stakes winners and stakes wins. There was a real poignancy to Snitzel's last winner before his death – a two-year-old first starter at Seymour on Monday called 'Job Done'.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Corey Munce's career as a horse trainer is flying, despite his dream to be a pilot stuck at the terminal
Ever since he was a kid, a starry-eyed Corey Munce wanted to be a pilot. And although that dream never came to fruition, he's still flying sky-high - only now as a thoroughbred trainer alongside his dad and former champion jockey Chris Munce. 'I am loving it and I wouldn't do it any other way,' Corey said about his first season of training with his dad and Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Chris. 'I love working with him and he's taught me just about everything I know. 'We work extremely well together as a team. • 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 sort of struggled with the idea of partnerships and why they're necessary. 'But now I see why because there are two sets of eyes looking at everything and making sure it all runs smoothly, and that's the power of a partnership.' It's easy to see why the affable Corey is loving life as a trainer, with the Munce stable crushing it during this year's Queensland Winter Carnival, and they're not done with yet. Team Munce train the $4 favourite Cool Archie in the Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) and also boast $34 chance Payline in the prestigious Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) feature at Eagle Farm on Saturday. It's been a whirlwind introduction to training for Corey, who achieved his childhood dream of gaining a pilot's licence before Covid hit but then struggled to land a job in a cut-throat industry. 'For the life of me that's all I ever wanted to do,' he said about becoming a pilot. 'I always genuinely loved (horse) racing but I wanted to do what I thought was right for me at the time and I achieved that. 'But I found it very difficult to get a job and any pilot will tell you it's the first job that's the hardest (to secure). I couldn't get one so I started working with the horses. 'I've always loved racing but never really knew how to get into it. 'When you're at school and you go to the career expos, you don't see too many horse trainers there, do you? 'That's why it's so prevalent for family members and what-not to go through that system because there's no real avenue to being a trainer. I'm very privileged and lucky that Dad is a trainer.' And did Chris ever put any subtle pressure on his son to head in that direction where early starts on cold winter mornings can make trainers question why they're even in this game? 'Never at all, it was all me wanting to go that way,' said Corey, who turns 30 on June 22 - the day after Ipswich Cup Day. 'There was expectation that I knew everything and I didn't and it's taken me a long time to feel very grounded. 'I never became a trainer too early in my opinion. This was the right timing for me, Dad and the business.' Corey describes the partnership with his 56-year-old father as like 'yin and yang', with him being the cool, collected type and Chris more having the fire in the belly. 'I'm very much the cool one, although maybe not in the early days when I had my moments,' Corey said with a laugh. 'This game is extremely levelling. I read somewhere the other day that winning and losing are both temporary. 'You enjoy the good days but you never get ahead of yourself. We're just having a really good winter carnival. 'I can bet you anything that if you did an average value of horses in stables then we'd be certainly down the bottom which means we're overachieving with the horses we've got.' So what would it mean if Corey can share the exhilarating feeling of winning a Group 1 this Saturday with his proud father Chris. 'I'd probably be a little bit emotional after the race,' he said. 'It'd mean the world to me and to do it with Dad would just be the cherry on top.'
Herald Sun
3 hours ago
- Herald Sun
2025 Stradbroke Handicap barrier draw boosts Ben Hayes' confidence with favourite
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Co-trainer Ben Hayes declared Lindsay Park had its 'best hand' to secure a first Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) following the barrier draw on Tuesday night. Hayes was delighted when the stable's pair War Machine and Rise At Dawn drew barriers 13 and three. • 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! War Machine has a stranglehold on Stradbroke favouritism at $2.70 with TAB fixed odds, while stablemate Rise At Dawn is the only other runner in single figures at $9. 'It is a race that has eluded us,' Hayes said. 'We had our (brother Ben, Will and JD) first runner last year and he (Here To Shock) unfortunately didn't go as well as we had hoped. 'But I think this year we've got the best hand we've ever had, and hopefully with a couple of nice draws there, we should get every chance.' • 'Pressure is your friend': Cejay's tip to conjure Stradbroke fairytale Hayes' nerves finally settled when War Machine's name was finally drawn with only four numbers left - 1, 2, 13 and 15. 'I don't actually mind barrier 13, it gives Tim Clark more options,' he 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.' Hayes said Rise At Dawn was 'definitely a danger' to the favourite. 'He gets a big drop in weight and he was bouncing this morning,' he said. 'We are confident he can run really well and barrier three gives him an opportunity to have a great run.' Several local contenders drew inside gates with three-year-old filly Spicy Martini drawing four, The Inflictor six, Payline seven and Yellow Brick eight. Trainer Craig Cousins, who only has three horses in work, said his fairytale horse The Inflictor is a big chance from his barrier. 'I've taken the week off driving trucks and I'm delighted he has drawn barrier six,' Cousins said. 'It is surreal I have a horse in the Stradbroke. I have turned 60 and it's been the greatest year of my life. 'If we win, I will be bawling my eyes out. Win, lose or draw on the weekend I am the happiest man in the world. From that barrier, we are a big chance.' • Lloyd's dad to be trackside shot at Stradbroke history Toby Edmonds, trying to win his second Stradbroke, said barrier four could be tricky for Spicy Martini. 'Look, it's good, but it could be detrimental too. There's a lot of speed out wide and we are a three-year-old filly towards the inside,' he said. NSW trainer Matt Dale was lamenting barrier 20 for Front Page after connections paid a $90,000 late entry. 'It's not ideal, you come here thinking we are a chance but now we will have to dissect the field and the speed and go back in history and all those kind of things,' Dale said. Rothfire, who still face more vets' scrutiny through the week, drew barrier 17, Private Eye received barrier 10 in his bid to win the Stradbroke first-up, while third favourite Golden Mile will jump from barrier two. GROUP 1 STRADBROKE HANDICAP (1400m) $3m | Saturday, June 14, 2025 Horse | Barrier | Trainer | Jockey | Weight 1. PRIVATE EYE | 10 | Joe Pride | Nash Rawiller | 57kg 2. ROTHFIRE | 17 | Robert Heathcote | James McDonald | 55.5kg 3. DESERT LIGHTNING | 1 | Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman | Tommy Berry | 54.5kg 4. KIMOCHI | 14 | Gary Portelli | Craig Williams | 54kg 5. YELLOW BRICK | 8 | Tony & Maddysen Sears | Andrew Mallyon | 53.5kg 6. GOLDEN MILE | 2 | James Cummings | Jason Collett | 53.5kg 7. WAR MACHINE | 13 | Ben, Will & JD Hayes | Tim Clark | 53kg 8. PAYLINE | 7 | Chris & Corey Munce | Kyle Wilson-Taylor | 53kg 9. PUNCH LANE | 21 | Anthony & Sam Freedman | Rachel King | 53kg 10. FRONT PAGE | 20 | Matthew Dale | Damien Thornton | 52.5kg 11. ROBUSTO | 19 | Bjorn Baker | Kerrin McEvoy | 52.5kg 12. FAR TOO EASY | 9 | David McColm | Regan Bayliss | 52.5kg 13. RISE AT DAWN | 3 | Ben, Will & JD Hayes | Declan Bates | 52.5kg 14. THE INSTRUCTOR | 12 | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Jett Stanley | 52kg 15. BOSUSTOW | 11 | Annabel & Rob Archibald | Zac Lloyd | 51.5kg 16. THE INFLICTOR | 6 | Craig Cousins | Cejay Graham | 51kg 17. FIRESTORM | 16 | Chris Waller | Not Notified | 51kg 18. SPICY MARTINI | 4 | Toby Edmonds & Stephen McLean | Not Notified | 46.9kg Emergencies 19e. COLEMAN | 23 | Chris Waller | Not Notified | 50kg 20e. TRANSATLANTIC | 22 | Tony Gollan | Not Notified | 51kg 21e. WATERFORD | 18 | Chris Waller | Not Notified | 51kg 22e. PIER | 15 | Darryn & Briar Weatherley | Mark Du Plessis | 51kg 23e. WARNIE | 5 | Ciaron Maher | Not Notified | 51kg Originally published as 2025 Stradbroke Handicap barrier draw boosts Ben Hayes' confidence with War Machine and Rise At Dawn
