Merchant Navy - New Winner

Herald Sun Caulfield Charity Family Day recorded its highest attendance in more than a decade on Saturday, with 9,438 racegoers attending Caulfield for the Melbourne Racing Club’s flagship community race day.

Some mares have a freakish knack for producing fast horses and one of those is Meerlust, who has given us triple Group I winner Duais, plus Group winners Baccarat Baby and Philia with her considerable record improved on Tuesday with a promising new winner at Kembla.

Classy juvenile Landlock turned a few heads when pushing million-dollar colt Return to Conquer right down to the wire in Saturday’s Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m), but the performance came as no surprise to his trainer Cody Cole.

Landlock came desperately close to landing an upset earlier this month at Ellerslie and the talented juvenile will have another shot at Group One glory as a key player in Saturday’s Courtesy Ford Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).

The famed colours of Sir Peter Vela’s Pencarrow Stud were in the winner’s circle at Kembla on Tuesday carried by a well bred daughter of Savabeel.

Wrote is enjoying another standout season, with results flowing both on the racetrack and in the sales ring.

A colt that wins the Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) is invariably offered a chance at a commercial stud career and champion sires Redoute’s Choice and Extreme Choice have set the bar high in that regard.

The first foals by Mr Mozart are on the ground, and the reports from breeders have been overwhelmingly positive.

The West Australian breeding ranks were boosted in 2023 by the arrival of three superbly bred stallions – Aysar (Deep Field), Lightsaber (Zoustar) and Marine One (Capitalist) – and the trio have strong representation at the Perth Magic Millions Yearling Sale which kicks off on Thursday.

Cody Cole had been quietly confident heading into Saturday’s Pilet Contracting LTD / Pioneer Seeds 2YO 800 with Landlock, and the debutant duly delivered in an exciting juvenile contest at Wanganui.