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) BALLYDOYLE TEAM EYE LEGER JOY
Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle empire attacks Saturday's Ladbrokes St Leger with a quadruple strike, but key members of the team are gathering behind likely favourite Honolulu.Macarthur, Acapulco and Mahler, third, fourth and fifth respectively in last month's Great Voltigeur Stakes, also head for the Doncaster Classic, but the money has spoken for the final member of the foursome.
Honolulu finished a gallant second with a big weight behind Purple Moon in the Ebor Handicap at the same York meeting.
Derrick Smith, who along with John Magnier and Michael Tabor owns a piece of each colt, said: "We have to hope we are going there with a big chance - and they are all there with a big chance.
"Acapulco might want the ground a little softer, but there is not much between the four of them. More>>
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) Vic Racing urges vigilance after Sydney horse flu find
Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls says news of further cases of horse flu in Sydney is a concern and highlights the importance of Victoria remaining vigilant to the threat.The New South Wales racing industry is reeling after five horses from Sydney's Rosehill track tested positive to equine influenza overnight.
Rosehill is now in lockdown.
Mr Hulls says it is important the Victorian industry adheres to the strict measures that are in place to ensure the state remains free of horse flu.
"We have to continue to be vigilant, as I said, vaccination is not the total solution for equine influenza," he said.
"Containment and eradication has to continue to be our policy and we have to make sure we keep it out of Victoria."
A 'blow' to NSW
NSW Primary Industries Ian Macdonald says the state's racing industry has been dealt a body blow with news of the equine influenza cases. More>>
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) O'Brien Hunting Derby With Barbaricus
Flemington trainer Danny O'Brien's love affair with the stallion Lion Hunter may have inadvertently led him to his first AAMI Victoria Derby winner.Lion Hunter's progeny are characterised by their great speed, as shown by the best of his progeny, Gold Edition.
O'Brien has built up a great affinity with the breed having trained the likes of stakes winner's Ferocity and Leone Chiara as well as several other good city-class performers.
It was his love of Lion Hunters that saw him a purchase a yearling by the stallion for $80,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sales in 2006.
Unlike the other dozen Lion Hunter horses O‘Brien has trained since Leone Chiara entered his stables five years ago, this yearling struck him as different to the rest as he looked like he was a stayer from the outset. More>>
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) CHAPPLE-HYAM CAN'T SPLIT PAIR
Peter Chapple-Hyam is anticipating a bold show from Tariq and Dutch Art in Saturday's Prix de la Foret but admits he would have preferred not to pitch them against each other."I tried and tried not to run them together as I'm very fond of them both," he said.
"Tariq has been trained specially for this race and his work has been really good building up to it. He'll like the ground and seven furlongs is probably his best trip.
"Dutch Art has looked as though he's always wanted seven furlongs so we've decide to have a go and he's got his ground at last."
Chapple-Hyam finds it hard to pick between his duo, but admits he would like to see Dutch Art regain the winning thread after the Medicean colt has gone close in a succession of top-class races this season. More>>
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) After Arc triumph, Fallon in court over race-fixing
Irish jockey Kieren Fallon won one of the world's top horse races to tumultuous acclaim in Paris yesterday (NZ time). Today he was in London's historic Old Bailey court accused of race-fixing.In a case that reads like the plot of a Dick Francis racing thriller, Fallon sat impassively in the dock listening to the prosecution open its case against him, two other jockeys and three other men.
They are accused of conspiracy to defraud customers of the betting exchange Betfair.
For Fallon, the contrast could not have been more stark.
At the weekend, he rode Dylan Thomas to a thrilling victory in the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe but then had to wait an agonising 30 minutes before surviving a stewards' inquiry that could have cost him the race.
Prosecutor Jonathan Caplan alleged that Fallon, six-times champion jockey in Britain and three-times winner of the Epsom Derby, was involved with two other jockeys in agreeing to cheat in 27 races and make their mounts lose. More>>