Farnan - New Winner

At the start of August we ran a story about the 3YO’s that were entered for this year Cox Plate and aside from the usual suspects there were some ‘Cox Plate’ dreamers and one of them was unraced Lonhro colt Attica, who made a winning debut at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.

The TAB Racing Club’s silks were to the fore at Ruakaka on Wednesday, with three-year-old filly Transcend carrying them to victory in The Homestead Sports Bar & Bistro 1200.

Daring Dame broke through for an elusive win when taking out the Kensington Tavern 1200 at Ruakaka on Wednesday.

One of the most interesting young stallions that we saw on the recent Victorian stud tour was at Swettenham Stud and it has not taken long for the big baldy face of Lofty Strike to find it’s way on to one of his first foals.

We usually associate the Mark Walker stable with the tangerine colours of Te Akau racing, but it was John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds colours in the frame for the astute Kiwi trainer trainer at Benalla on Tuesday carried by blueblood Frankel filly Chateau Eze.

Champion Sydney trainer Chris Waller has 27 of the 120 entries for this year’s $10million Melbourne Cup, which equates to more than 20 per cent of the total, so it’s probably worth having a closer look at them.

With a plethora of Group racing for colts and geldings last weekend and fillies to take centre stage Sydney on Saturday for the Group II ATC Furious Stakes it was interesting to see a Caulfield trial on Tuesday morning that featured six stakes-winning 3YO’s.

South Africa will tackle the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday night and earlier in the day a horse named after one of their favourite sons will be vying for Group One glory down the road at Ellerslie Racecourse.

A member of one of New Zealand racing’s most famous and successful families has died, with the recent passing of Tony (Anthony) Dennis, aged 86.

Kia Ora Stud’s Farnan added a new winner to his tally on Sunday at Seymour where Blethyn saluted as a short priced favourite.