I can't wait until we have NZ's best horses running at Group 1 level on it... 😑

Despite being defeated by Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Journalism's Preakness Stakes (G1) triumph has lifted him back to the No. 1 spot in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Top 3-Year-Old Poll.View the full article

Graded stakes-winning trainer Larry Demeritte, who inspired many in battling cancer while training 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) starter West Saratoga, died May 19 in Louisville, Ky., according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He was 75.View the full article

Jockey Junior Alvarado, fined $62,000 and suspended two days for violating riding crop rules in guiding Sovereignty to victory in the May 3 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, appealed the sanctions May 19, and a stay has been granted.View the full article

He is a prime example of a horse who thrives on the still relatively new synthetic tracks.View the full article

Foxton would at this point be closer to racing than Levin, due to having at least on decent grandstand. I too heard that the powers above are too pig headed to admit that they got it wrong about Foxton.........it would be money well spent to get racing back there again.......as the surface is great. Sad really,  as I remember great race meetings there on Queens birthday Monday.......Foxton cup and Castletown stakes raced on this day......big crowds as it's only an hour and a bit from Wellington and people had the day off work. 

The Lockinge review to follow but another busy week approaching. Saturday sees the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh for which English 2000 Guineas runner up FIELD OF GOLD is 8/11. The supporting Group 2 is the Greenlands over 1200m. In England, the main card is at Haydock where there are two Group 2 races - the Sandy Lane for the 3-y-o over 1200m which has become a recognised trial for the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot and the Temple over 1000m for then older sprinters which is a trial for the King Charles III. Sunday sees the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh with a supporting Group 2 over 1600m for the older fillies and mares sponsored by Lanwades Stud. More on these as the week goes on.

That wont happen because they are too mule headed to admit they got it very wrong.

And you know what NM nobody not a single solitary one of them will be held to account...sorry but f... up after f...up and nothing changes another report another waste of time and energy printing the shit...and they expect us as industry stakeholders to keep on taking this shyte...give me a break...in any type of decent corporate operation these type of useless bloodsuckers would have been kicked out the door long ago...how do they all get to keep their jobs. Some may get upset with me saying this but its the bloody truth...so many on huge salaries for what????

Obviously nowhere near long enough. 

Simple solution- reopen racing at Levin and Foxton.

Time to look back at last week's Dante meeting at York which took place under largely benign skies. The good weather appeared to bring out a decent crowd to the Knavesmire and the ground, after our exceptionally dry spring, was Good to Firm (Good in Places) (watered) for the first cvouple of days tightening to Good to Firm all over on the final day. The opening day highlight was the Group 2 Duke of York over 1200m and the field of eight was dominated by last year's 3-y-o sprinters returning. Commonwealth Cup winner INISHERIN had seen his form tail off after Ascot despite a fair run in the July Cup but he looked very well as did ELITE STATUS, in the same ownership (Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al Maktoum) but with Karl Burke. They raced up the far side and although at times looking to be struggling, INISHERIN got the job done getting home by a neck from FLORA OF BERMUDA, who, not for the first time, ran well  at York but for the first time ran really well on quick ground. The winner had a wind op in the winter - I'm not sure how much difference it made as he was entitled to win this on his early season form of last year. He's 6/1 for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee at Ascot. FLORA OF BERMUDA is 16s for both that race and the 1000m King Charles III at Ascot and you'd fancy her if you thought the heavens were going to open between  now and mid-June. The front two finished nearly four lengths of the others and the rest, to be honest, were a bit disappointing by comparison, Both NIGHT RAIDER and ELITE STATUS ran well until tiring in the final 200m while KERDOS is obviously a 1000m horse at best. The French sprinter LAZZAT is 5/1 favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee and at present the older sprinting division lacks a bit of quality - INISHERIN might provide that but he'll need to come on from this (and he should). The Group 3 Musidora over 2000m was the significant Oaks trial of the meeting and the Aidan O'Brien domination of the trials continued as WHIRL turned out a convincing winner coming home by five and a half lengths. They went very quick in the first half of the race according to the sectionals and it was much more of a stamina test than is often the case. WHIRL heads to Epsom according to Michael Tabor and she's 9s for the classic. If it turns out to be a solid gallop, she's well placed to be a contender. SERENITY PRAYER and the beautifully named GO GO BOOTS (a white "stocking" on each hoof) followed the Ballydoyle runner home. I think the second, who was only having her second run, looks a filly of potential and I hope they avoid the Oaks in favour of the Ribblesdale. The second afternoon was noticeably cooler and cloudier but the quality contined with two Group 2 races. The Middleton for the older fillies and mares saw a highly impressive performance by SEE THE FIRE who won by twelve lengths. You don't often see that in Group races and the key, based on the sectionals, was the turn of speed between 1600m and 1800m which showed her accelerating as the others were starting to paddle. To be slightly churlish, it might be you had a Group 1 filly winning a Group 2 against Group 3 or Listed class types and that exaggerated her superiority - SEE THE FIRE was second in the Nassau, third in the Sun Chariot and fifth in the Champion Stakes last year so a Group 2 should have been hers for the taking. Indeed, I'd argue the 8/11 offered at the off was a very good price - she's in the Irish Pretty Polly at the Irish Derby meeting at the end of June and you'd have to think races like the Nassau might be on the agenda but post race there was talk of the Juddmonte which would be flying about as high as it gets. It's also worth remembering a certain BLUESTOCKING won this last year and we all know where she ended up. The other Group 2 was the Dante, named after the last northern trained winner of the English Derby and the second most significant trial (after the 2000 Guineas in my view). THE LION IN WINTER had impressed in the Acomb last summer and had gone into the winter as favourite but Aidan O'Brien stated publicly he had been slow to come to hand and they had struggled to get hime ready for the race. Nonetheless, given the O'Brien dominance of the trials, THE LION IN WINTER went off 4/5 against a decent home challenge which included the 2000 Guineas fifth WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE and some unexposed types coming off single wins in maidens. It was a messy race with a slow early and a dash from 600m down - whether this told us much about what would happen at Epsom over 2400m I'm not sure. Ralph Beckett prodiced the winner in PRIDE OF ARRAS who is by New Bay out of an Oasis Dream mare. He'd won on debut at Sandown (the meeting after RULING COURT had won on his debut) and produced a nice turn of foot when the sprint started to put thrtee or four lengths on the others. DAMYSUS had to come via Tadcaster and ran home strongly for second (and a nice each way draw) with WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE ran another solid race in third. THE LION IN WINTER pulled hard early and never really threatened finishing sixth after which he was kicked out to 6s for Epsom but yesterday he was backed into favourite (5/2) once again. Yes, he'll come on a lot for the race, no question, but with less than three weeks to the Derby, can he improve that much? You're relying on the genius of Aidan O'Brien and we know he has done it before but when the likes of AUGUSTE RODIN and CITY OF TROY won the Derby, that was after poor runs in the 2000 Guineas and they had much more time to recover than THE LION IN WINTER. DAMYSUS ran really well again and I'm sure the 2400m will help but placed Dante runners have an appalling record at Epsom. WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE is going to be our form barometer - she was six lengths behind RULING COURT at Newmarket and three lengths behind PRIDE OF ARRAS here so what does that tell us about the quality of the two races? Not sure but something to consider between now and June 7th. The Gosdens also had DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (fourth and more likely to go to Ascot) and NIGHTWALKER (fifth and 50s for Epsom). The real disappointment was the Godolphin runner ALPINE TRAIL who came into the race unbeaten in three but trailed home last and the drawing board beckons... A final thought - it was interesting to hear Ralph Beckett opine after the race PRIDE OF ARRAS had more speed than his Derby runner up WESTOVER. I look at that and the breeding and I have my doubts as to whether PRIDE OF ARRAS will get the 2400m at Epsom and on that basis, wrong as I no doubt am, he wouldn't be carrying the Stodge pennies. On to Friday and Ladies' Day which saw the largest crowd and the best weather. The feature Group 2 was the Yorkshire Cup over 2800m. Only five went to post butn the clear favourite was the Godolphin globetrotter REBEL'S ROMANCE for whom this was a first run in Britain since the King George at Ascot last summer. Needless to say, the plundering of big prizes in places like Hong Kong, Germany, Bahrain and the Unted States have earned over £10.5 millon in win and place money. He went off 11/10 and his principal opponents looked to be the confirmed stayer SWEET WILLIAM and the former Leger winner CONTINUOUS. This was REBEL'S ROMANCE first try beyonf 2400m so you might think the others (all confirmed stayers) might have decided to make it a stamina test -  apparently not. Instead, we had a sedate gallop and a sprint from 400m and there was only going to be one winner of that. The five finished split by two lengths and to be honest REBEL'S ROMANCE made hard work of it with William Buick coming back and immediately saying he's a 2400m horse, not a stayer. He's 8s for the Coronation Cup at Epsom but that is starting to look a decent renewal. Of the others, EPIC POET was second and SWEET WILLIAM ran okay until getting outpaced in the final 50m and finishing third, beaten a length. He's the best British runner for the 4000m Ascot Gold Cup at 7s but the market has been transformed by strong money for ILLINOIS who is now 6/4 favourite ahead of KYPRIOS at 5/2. The latter won the Levmoss at Leopardstown on the same Friday evening but didn't impress those who had backed him at 1/14 and there were signs of some lameness post race. The other Ballydoyle runner in the Gold Cup mix is JAN BRUEGHEL who beat ILLINOIS half a length in the English Leger last year. IF all three run at Ascot, it will be fascinating to see which one Ryan Moore chooses - it may not be a straightforward decision.

Lost in the mail....

The experts caused this issue from the start by not listening to those who know and not force them to race out so wide for the first meeting...now its a cluster.....

So where is the report on the AWT's Matt ??? 2 months and waiting .  

No one should be surprised by this . They are going to fix this to have the track ready for late August . Yeah Right !! Winter is always the best time of year to doing track remediation . I suppose it was the "Experts" who suggested that it was the perfect time to be doing it .

I am not prepared to comment, but it's big.

What was that?

The bizarre thing is they are now saying that it needs organic matter to build beneath the surface?? If that's the case, why not put it there in the first place? An earlier report said they were going to add more sand. WTF?

Thats what you get when you have so many "experts" advising a huge mess...18 months out and possibly many many more to get a decent track. I never understood why it had to be a sand based track, has anyone ever said why???