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News.com.au
28-04-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Quirindi, Narromine previews: Trainer Scott Singleton eyes 400-win mark
Trainer Scott Singleton is on 396 career wins as he prepares to saddle up four horses at Tuesday's Quirindi meeting. He's won bigger races in his time than Tuesday's Willow Tree Cup Maiden Plate but if successful, it would be a peacock-sized feather in any trainer's cap. Singleton's runner is Closetothinkitover who is herself close to ten. The daughter of High Chaparral made headlines when she made her debut at Scone a week before Christmas, at the age of nine. To put her maturity into perspective, she was foaled on September 14 in 2015 which is exactly four years to the day after Winx saw first light at Coolmore Stud. Not surprisingly perhaps given the circumstances, Closetothinkitover touched $101 at her first start yet ran way above most people's expectations, finishing fifth of the 14 runners in the 1300m Maiden. • 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! 'She was almost like a three-year-old having her first prep last prep, just because she'd never sort of done a lot but I think she has come back just as good, if not a little bit better, and that would have to have her pretty competitive on Tuesday I'd say,'' Singleton said. 'Once she gets up towards ten furlongs (2000m), she'll be better but I think (today) is a winnable distance range for her and I thought she trialled good enough to be very competitive.' Any chance of winning an Oaks is well behind Closetothinkitover but her classic pedigree makes her a very appealing broodmare for later on. Aside from being by So You Think's sire, High Chaparral, Singleton's mare counts two Derby winners as close relations namely Bde Murray's AJC Derby winner Universal Prince and Robert Sangster's VRC classic winner Blevic. Singleton is forecasting a bold bid from the stable recruit Enterprise Lassie when she steps out for the just the second time since relocating to Scone from Queensland via South Australia. 'I was really happy with that first run we gave her,'' Singleton said. 'We missed out on a couple of meetings since just with rain and what-not, but she gets there on Tuesday in really good shape and if she goes just as well as she did last start, she'd have to be in the mix somewhere I would think. 'A bit of rain probably gives her a better chance.' Enterprise Lassie runs away with it in the 5th at the Sunny Coast! @kendrickracing1 — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 26, 2024 There will be few outright faster horses in action at Quirindi today than Too Darn Lovely who is sure to give her rivals something to chase down in the Gowings Toyota Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1000m. 'She struggles to get the 1000m but she has won at Quirindi over the 1000m as a two-year-old,'' Singleton pointed out. 'And I think if she is ever going to run it, it will be at Quirindi because the last half is downhill. 'She'll certainly be competitive in that grade of race.' Singleton can bring it home for his supporters in the last race on the card where he is represented by the three-times winning Shamus Award mare, Insightful Award. 'We missed out on a couple of runs with her since she won at Scone,'' Singleton said. 'I was happy enough with how she went that last start at the provincials but she is certainly better placed in country grade there on Tuesday. 'She's also won at the track. You give them a big tick when they've been around Quirindi and performed well there because it is a tricky track and not a lot of them want to let down there because it is downhill.' â– â– â– â– â– The prospect of a wet track at Narromine on Tuesday hasn't dampened the prospects of Diggers Cup contender Plenitude, according to his trainer Clint Lundholm. Today's meeting was due to be conducted on Sunday but was postponed due to heavy overnight rain. Tuesday will be the first time Plenitude has raced on a heavy track (it was given out as a 10 on Monday) but Lundholm is cautiously optimistic the son of Kermadec will handle the conditions. 'When he won the Silver Goblet as a two-year-old, it was a Soft track,'' Lundholm said. 'I think he'll get through it not too bad. 'But still in all, the horse is racing well and he's fully fit. From the soft draw he is going to get every chance.' A local victory for Plenitude, who just kept on coming. — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 9, 2023 A son of George Ryder and Doncaster winner Kermadec, Plenitude has been on an upward trajectory during his current, high intensity campaign. 'He is a horse that just took a little bit more racing this time,'' Lundholm explained. 'Obviously we wanted to have him right for the Championships and a few things went against him there. He just didn't get the perfect preparation leading into it and he probably just went there underdone. 'His run at Orange the other day; he sat in a nice position but it just seems to be an on-speed day and he just couldn't peg the leaders back. 'I thought it was a good run and he's come through it well.' Lundholm is anticipating a forward showing on debut from the well-bred Matilda Of Tuscany who has sent out some positive indicators in her latest two trials in the Central West. 'She is a nice progressive type,'' Lundholm said. 'I think she will get out over a little bit further but she has shown nice gate speed and looks to be a chance.' Lundholm stable-recruit Willinga Karisma, meanwhile, looks ideally placed on multiple levels to score her first win since her change of address when he contests the Qube Agri Narromine Benchmark 50 Handicap. 'She does look like she gets through alright,'' Lundholm said. 'She had a long time off, she's had the two runs back at 1000m, so stepping into a 1300m now she should be near enough to her best.' A daughter of the Bart Cummings-bred, Mike Moroney-trained All Aged Stakes winner Tivaci, Willinga Karisma's lone win was at Scone in mid-November on a Heavy 9.
News.com.au
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
It is hoped a special screening of the Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time' will spark renewed interest in the film
Director David Waddington hopes a special screening of the highly anticipated Darby McCarthy documentary 'In a Life Time' in outback Queensland this week will spark renewed interest in the project which desperately needs an injection of funding. A director's cut of the film will screen in the 30-seat Railway Cinema in Cunnamulla, where the Indigenous trailblazing jockey was born, on Tuesday (fully booked) and Wednesday night. Waddington and producer Chris O'Reilly are about $94,000 short of the $200,000 needed to make the film which tells the extraordinary tale of the late, great McCarthy, who rode more than 1000 winners around the world. 'This is not the final version of Darby's story,' Waddington said about the director's cut being screened in Cunnamulla, about 750km west of Brisbane. 'I'm calling it a biopic. We've still got re-enactments that we need to shoot and we need funding to do that. 'The time frame (to finish the film) has gone out the window so many times. It's so demoralising, I can tell you. 'It's all the people that are involved and put in their time and effort - actors, technicians, whatever - and it's been a very difficult road to be on. 'We haven't got any money from Queensland in the production, except for Racing Queensland who were the first cab off the rank. 'The reason the screening is happening at Cunnamulla is because Darby was born there and rode his first winner as a jockey at age 10 at Thargomindah, which is up the track a bit. 'I'm hoping something comes from this (in terms of funding for the film) because it's such a positive story. 'I've been making films my whole life and this particular film is all about becoming something from nothing which Darby did. He was an incredible human being. 'The story needs to be told and the only way to do that is what we're doing now.' Waddington said a prominent Indigenous organisation had offered $100,000 in writing to help fund the film but the money never materialised. 'I'm talking about a huge organisation,' he said. 'There's going to be a federal election (on Saturday) so there's still hope. 'Everyone who's out there now and the previous politicians, they all knew Darby one-on-one and he was highly regarded, not just for his riding ability but as an uneducated kid out of Cunnamulla who made it to the top.' McCarthy later moved to Brisbane to try his luck as a teenager and success came quickly for the Indigenous jockey, who eventually went to Europe where he rode for the Rothschilds and mixed with Hollywood royalty, including Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Lee Marvin. He won the 1969 AJC Derby and the Epsom on the same day in Sydney and rode in three Melbourne Cups. McCarthy died in May 2020 at age 76. He was inducted into Queensland Racing's Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for his services to racing and his work with Indigenous youth.
