Tale Of The Cat dies aged 30
On Tuesday morning, Coolmore announced that Tale Of The Cat had died aged 30, from the infirmities of old age. “Tale of the Cat was a brilliant servant; he was a wonderful stallion and has turned into a very good broodmare sire. He was a great horse to get a young mare off to a good start,” said Dermot Ryan.
“Tale Of The Cat has been at Ashford for 25 years, so was very much part of the family, he was a great character who was loved by alL, and I would like to thank Richard Barry and all of his staff past and present who cared for him over the years both during his stud career and during his retirement.”
The late Tale Of The Cat | Image courtesy of Coolmore
The son of Storm Cat won five races including the G2 King’s Bishop S. and was placed at Group 1-level several times. He sired 109 stakes winners globally led by Australasian Group 1 winners Glamour Puss (NZ), Tell A Tale, and Gathering. His sire sons include Lion Heart (USA) (45 stakes winners), Gio Ponti (USA) (16 stakes winners) and Meal Penalty (USA) (16 stakes winners).
Registrations Now Open For TBA’s Management Skills Workshops
Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA) is calling for industry participants to register for its upcoming nationwide management workshops, which offer stud farm workers the opportunity to advance their leadership and communication skills.
“We’ve had great success from the past management skills workshops. These sessions are key to developing our industry’s workforce, ensuring farm managers and senior management have the skills to deal with challenging situations on farm,” said Madison Tims, TBA’s education and projects manager.
The cost of the training is fully funded by TBA and will be held on July 11-12 in Launceston, Tasmania, July 15-16 in Toowoomba, Queensland, July 24-25 in Scone, NSW, July 30-31 in Nagambie, Victoria, and August 5-6 in Hahndorf, South Australia.
Pharari to skip this weekend and head for stakes company instead
Pharari (American Pharoah {USA}) will likely skip Caulfield on Saturday, and be aimed at the Listed Creswick Sprint Series Final at Flemington next Saturday. “The race has been a really good launching pad and Dan O’Sullivan’s data has her numbers very good (for a Creswick S.) except for Passive Aggressive’s year,” First Light Racing’s Tim Wilson said.
“So, she probably has to improve if she bumps into another Passive Aggressive, but if not, she might be it and she’s really on the right trend to be hard to beat.” Pharari has won her last two in succession and has a record of two wins from four starts.
Treble for Mertens at Ballarat
Jockey Beau Mertens rode a treble at Ballarat on Tuesday, winning the first three races on the card. He won on Mitch Freedman trained 3-year-old filly Sontay (The Autumn Sun), Anthony and Sam Freedman trained 2-year-old gelding Eject (Street Boss {USA}), and Patrick Payne trained 3-year-old filly Hell Of A Trip (Hellbent).
Second winner for Castelvecchio
Annabel Neasham trained 2-year-old filly Verona's Cleopatra (Castelvecchio) won on debut at Hawkesbury on Tuesday to give her first season sire Castelvecchio his second winner.
She is out of an unraced daughter of Group 1 winner Egyptian Raine, making Veronica’s Cleopatra’s dam a half-sister to Group 3 winner Egyptian Symbol.
Purton to celebrate 10,000 ride in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s six-time Champion Jockey, Zac Purton will celebrate his 10,000th ride in the jurisdiction aboard the W Y So-trained Go Go Go (NZ) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) in the opening race at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
Zac Purton | Image courtesy of the Hong Kong Jockey Club
Glassout wins on debut
Brad Widdup trained 2-year-old filly Glassout (Headwater) won on debut at Hawkesbury on Tuesday to become the 11th juvenile winner for her sire this season. The win puts Headwater into fourth on the 2-Year-Old Sires list by winners, behind Written Tycoon and Snitzel (who both have 13 winners) and Too Darn Hot (GB) who has 12.
Headwater | Standing at Vinery Stud
Juvenile winner for Street Boss
Anthony and Sam Freedman trained 2-year-old gelding Eject (Street Boss {USA}) won at Ballarat on Tuesday for Godolphin. He debuted in the Listed Talindert S. and now has a win from three starts.
He is the third foal and third winner for Group 2 winner Banish (Lonhro).
Jockey given four weeks for racist comments
Apprentice jockey Tyler Leslight has been banned for four weeks after admitting to saying a racist remark towards a fellow jockey on May 25.
“Given his confirmed riding engagements, stewards ruled that this suspension to ride in races is to commence midnight Saturday, June 29, 2024 and conclude midnight Saturday, July 27, 2024,” a QRIC stewards report said.
“In assessing penalty, stewards considered Apprentice Leslight's, guilty plea, his apology and genuine remorse in relation to the matter and that he provided evidence that he had since completed a training course on racial discrimination.”
Faithfull nearly hits personal goals this season
Jockey Natasha Faithfull is fourth on the WA jockey’s premiership with 101 wins and has three goals for the season. “I set some personal goals at the beginning of the season,” Faithfull said to The Races WA on Tuesday.
Natasha Faithfull | Image courtesy of Western Racepix
“I wanted to ride a 105 winners, to get past 103, pay my house off and run 10km. I’ve paid my house off and I’m close to 10km, not quite there yet and hopefully I can get to 105 winners. I’m really enjoying it, really enjoying my riding.”
Faithfull brought up her century at Port Hedland on Saturday where she rode four winners.
SAJC G3 Sires’ Produce S. moves date for 2023
This season’s G3 Sires’ Produce S. has been moved by Racing SA to July 20, to give trainer’s one last chance at securing prized Black Type status before the end of their debut season, the new date being a product of the restructured Adelaide Racing Carnival 2-year-old program.
“With the changes in the 2-year-old Autumn program, we are looking forward to hosting the last Black Type 2-year-old race of the season. We expect to receive a lot of interest in the race and we hope that results in good nominations from local and interstate trainers,” Racing SA, Racing Operations Manager, Greg Rudolph said.
“The change also improves the flow of the 2-year-old program, allowing trainers to target the Oaklands Plate this weekend and then three weeks to the Sires' next month, which we think should work well.”
Hospitality package for The Kiwi makes money for charity
A hospitality package for eight people for The Kiwi sold at auction for NZ$15,500 last week at the Dunedin Supper Club, Dunedin’s annual fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). “Supper Club came to me and asked if I could put something together around racing for their fundraiser,” Otago Racing Club president Sharyn Anderton told Loveracing.nz on Tuesday.
NZB The Kiwi hospitality package auction at the Dunedin Supper Club
“Supper Club run this annually and it is a fundraiser for a Ronald McDonald House to be built in Dunedin. They have been raising the money and they have now bought some land and they are going to proceed to build. Each year the money goes towards the building of a Ronald McDonald House here in Dunedin, it is a really good cause.”
Antipodean unbeaten in six starts
Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn) took his unbeaten record to six in Singapore on Sunday. Purchased by trainer Simon Dunderdale for NZ$23,000 from Regal Farm at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, he has earnings over S$152,241 (AU$169,000).
His trainer, Dunderdale, leads the premiership in Singapore and told Loveracing.nz on Tuesday, “Antipodean is a superstar. He has another gear when it looked like he was under pressure. Thanks to Pinheiro for another good ride.”
Owners still waiting get horses out of Macau
Three months after racing in Macau ended, owners are still waiting to get horses exported. The Macau Jockey Club (MJC) initially told owners that moving horses to Australia or New Zealand would take place in June or July but is yet to offer horse owners any clarity and is now suggesting a flight in August or September is the best-case scenario.
MJC will pay a HK$200,000 (AU$38,400) subsidy to help owners with export costs but it may not cover all the transport costs as well as the estimated HK$50,000 (AU$9605) to cover the mandatory 28 days quarantine in Macau and 14 days in New Zealand.
“I think the biggest disappointment is nothing was in place to send horses to New Zealand when they announced the sudden closure of racing,” owner Jenny Chapman told scmp.com.
Royal Ascot coverage down on last year
ITV reported on Tuesday that Royal Ascot viewing figures were steady for the first three days, but down on the last two due to a clash with football. 1.03 million viewed the opening day (down from 1.09 million in 2023), while 1.22 million on Wednesday and 1.06 million on Thursday were an improvement on 2023. Friday only had 825,000 (down from 1.07 million) while 740,000 watched the final day (down from 1.25 million in 2023).
“Overall we're very happy,” said ITV Racing's racing editor Paul Cooper. "We got a peak viewership of more than one million on the first three days. The magic million is our benchmark for Royal Ascot and to hit that on days two and three – which sometimes don't always get up to that figure – was very pleasing.
“We can't get away from it. There's a clash with the football, which switches us to ITV4 when it's being shown on ITV, while we also clashed with the BBC's coverage. We have to accept European and World Cup football will always drive huge figures, which does compromise us when we move to ITV4.”
Crystal Black is a potential Melbourne Cup runner
After lighting up Royal Ascot, a tilt at the Melbourne Cup could be on the cards for Crystal Black (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), with Ireland's reigning champion jockey Colin Keane explaining how the gelding has provided his father “with a new lease of life” after a horror fall in 2021 almost left the trainer paralysed.
“The boys are talking big-they're talking about the Melbourne Cup and everything. The Ebor has been mentioned as well but we'll have to see what the handicapper does. He has to be a black-type horse now anyway,” said Gerry Keane.
“I don't know whether we start thinking about travelling with him or thinking about stakes races here. He can go either way with the trip-I think he can go up or down. There are loads of options with him so we will let him freshen up this week and have a chat together in a few days but Melbourne could be an option.”
BBC drops daily racing tips
Daily tips will no longer be a feature of BBC Radio 4's Today program, it was announced on Monday. The tips, which were read out during the sports bulletin each morning, had been a feature for over 40 years.
Presenter Amol Rajan said, “There's no racing tips today because we have decided to break the tradition and reserve the tips for the biggest days on the racing calendar. We will very much continue to cover horse racing, as we do so many other sports, not least through interviews with leading lights in the racing world. And we will sometimes continue to broadcast from the big ticket events like the Grand National or Cheltenham Gold Cup week.”
