Daily News Wrap

Vale Johnathan Parkes

On Saturday morning, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing announced the death of highly respected jockey Johnathan Parkes overnight. “Our thoughts are with Johnathan’s closest family and friends at this time. Johnathan was one of our best, riding over 1000 winners in New Zealand. Parkes won 62 black type races including 12 Group 1s.”

Historic St Leger Stakes won by Athabascan

One of Australia’s earliest races, the St Leger S. was first run at Homebush in 1841, and was won by early luminaries like Yattendon, Robinson Crusoe, Poseidon, Phar Lap (NZ), Peter Pan, Tulloch (NZ) until 1959. It wasn’t held from 1960 to 1979, then from 1980 to 2001, it was run at Group 2 level before being dropped from Group classification. This year, the race has been nominated for an upgrade to Group 3, but this is yet to be ratified.

John O’Shea and Tom Charlton trained Athabascan (Fr) (Almanzor {Fr}) won this year’s edition on Saturday at Randwick by 0.11l. He will run next in the G1 Melbourne Cup, where he is currently 20th in the order. Ridden by Tommy Berry, he won from second placed Wyclif (GB) (Archipenko {USA}) with Matthew Smith trained Waltham (GB) (Roaring Lion {USA}) in third.

Ducasse and Vivy Air book ticket to Big Dance

By virtue of providing the quinella in Saturday’s Big Dance Wild Card, both Michael Freedman trained 4-year-old entire Ducasse (Trapeze Artist) and second placed Ciaron Maher trained 4-year-old mare Vivy Air (Hellbent) are through to the Big Dance in a fortnight.

Lekvarte wins Angst

Randwick’s G3 Angst S. was won by 5-year-old mare Lekvarte (NZ) (Reliable Man {GB}), trained by Joseph Pride and ridden by Joshua Parr. She won by 0.36l from Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman trained Quickster (Shamus Award) with the favourite, Chris Waller trained Hinged (Worthy Cause) in third.

Lekvarte took her record to nine wins from 31 starts with earnings over $920,000. This was her third win at Group 3 level.

Mighty Ulysses wins the Moonga at Caulfield

Trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald rounded out a good day with the win by imported Mighty Ulysses (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}) in the G3 Moonga S. at Caulfield. They also won the Silver Eagle at Randwick with Ostraka (Pariah). Mighty Ulysses took his record to six wins from 15 starts with earnings over $530,000. He was previously a Group 3 winner in England.

Consistent mare Niance prevails in Alinghi Stakes

Trainer Grahame Begg combined with jockey Jordan Childs to win Saturday’s Listed Alinghi S. at Caulfield with 5-year-old mare Niance (NZ) (Swiss Ace) who won by 0.3l from Emma-Lee and David Browne trained Pondalowie (Deep Field) with Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr trained Expressiveness (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}) 3l away in third.

Niance took her record to five wins from nine starts with earnings over $220,000 and this was her first win at black type level, making her the 21st stakes winner for her sire Swiss Ace.

WA’s Eurythmic Stakes won by Comfort Me

Playing God earned his 19th stakes winner when 8-year-old gelding Comfort Me won the G3 Eurythmic S. first up this campaign. Winner of eight of his 41 starts, Comfort Me hadn’t won since November 2021, but despite this, was well seen by punters at $6.50 equal second favourite.

Trained by Rhys Radford and ridden by Holly Watson, Comfort Me won by 1l from Super Smink (Super One) with Magnificent Andy (Magnus) in third.

Five for Stanley at Rockhampton

Jockey Justin Stanley nearly rode the whole card at Rockhampton on Saturday, winning the first five races on the six-race card, unfortunately, running last in the last. He won on 3-year-old filly What A Doozy (Unite And Conquer), Hellish (Hellbent), Kathy’s Beau (Turffontein), Fractional (Santos) and Magic Game (Rubick).

Around The Nation: Saturday’s highlights

Away from the two big meetings at Randwick and Caulfield, there were several performances of note. In a weird coincidence, all six winners at Queensland’s Barcoo meeting were born in 2018 with Bowie Of Dubai and Euphrates Dream both by Pride Of Dubai. At Mitchell, 3-year-old gelding Alldaburgers (Dracarys) became his sire’s 15th winner.

Rockhampton’s meeting saw 3-year-old filly What A Doozy (Unite And Conquer) back up her last start win with another to take her record to three wins from eight starts.

Bendigo’s meeting saw Bombora Downs Group 2 winning sire Soul Patch get his first winner when Ken and Kasey Keys trained 3-year-old gelding Purler Patch won at his third race day start. At Wodonga, Ben Brisbourne trained 3-year-old gelding Rowdy Anthem (Starspangledbanner) won on debut.

In NSW at Narromine, Brett Thompson trained 3-year-old filly Sorrento Palace (Pierata) won at her second start to give her sire his 14th winner. At Newcastle, 3-year-old colt Tuned (Zoustar) won on debut.

Jockey John Kissick rode four winners at Wagga aboard Roman Hands (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), 3-year-old gelding Rocket Rudee (Rubick), who was on debut, Valspar (Spieth {NZ}) and Bon Frankie (Bon Hoffa).

Big couple of days for apprentice Johnstone

Tasmanian apprentice Taylor Johnstone won her 100th race on Friday night at Launceston on Bunker Boy (Widden Valley), then added a winning double aboard Winning Revolution (Winning Rupert) and Pearl Adios (Rebel Raider) at Morphettville on Saturday.

Mare in foal to Justify on SH time for sale

April Vintage (USA) (Vino Rosso {USA}), a stakes-placed mare who is pregnant to Justify (USA) on Southern Hemisphere time, will be on offer by WinStar Farm in the Inglis Digital USA October Sale, taking place Tuesday, October 29, the online auction company said in a press release on Friday.

“She was a talented, stakes placed, 2-year-old, and she has the physical makeup to suit the Australian market,” said Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm.

King Of Steel retired to stud

Amo Racing's King Of Steel (USA) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who provided Frankie Dettori with a fairytale ending to his riding career in Britain by winning the G1 Champion S. this time last year, has been retired to Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland.

“It was one of the most memorable moments of my racing career,” Dettori said. “King Of Steel excelled and gave me the perfect Ascot finale. I have no doubt he'll become a stallion to be reckoned with, and I'm deeply grateful to him for helping me close my Ascot career in such an incredible way.” King Of Steel's stud fee will be announced in due course.

Ramatuelle to Fasig-Tipton

Ramatuelle (USA) (Justify {USA}), recent winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret S. at ParisLongchamp, headlines the latest group of supplemental entries to Fasig-Tipton's November Sale which will take place on Monday, November 4 beginning at 2pm ET in Lexington, Kentucky, the auction company said in a release early Friday morning.

The 3-year-old daughter of the Triple Crown winner and top sire will be offered as Hip 310 and is consigned as a racing/broodmare prospect by Bedouin Bloodstock, agent.

Tough ending for Tattersalls October Yearling Sale

The contrast could not have been more stark. From the high-flying bids of Book 1, the wave of a hand or catalogue was harder to spot on Friday as Books 3 and 4 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale drew to a close. By Friday, in what felt like the blink of an eye, it had become a buyers' market, with a high proportion of those yearlings to have been sold changing hands for less than their cost of production. This is not a new story; it has been repeated through most of the lower-end sales in Europe this season.

Book 3 was conducted in a slightly different format to last year, with around 80 fewer catalogued and the sale conducted over two days. Day-by-day comparisons are tricky, but this pared-down offering overall saw the average rise by 5 per cent to 20,017gns (AU$40,860) and the median hold steady at 15,000gns (AU$30,600). The sale is graded, so the day two average was roughly half that figure at 10,348gns (AU$21,100), and the median was 8000gns (AU$16,300). The clearance rate dropped a little on the second day to 71 per cent, but for Book 3 as a whole it was 81 per cent, with 405 of the 503 horses offered finding a buyer. Turnover was 8,136,700gns (AU$16.5 million).

Book 4 followed on immediately in the dusk. A clearance rate of 54 per cent was pretty much par for the course for Book 4, which ended with 33 sold for turnover of 111,500gns (AU$225,000). The average of 3379gns (AU$6904) (-31 per cent) and median of 2000gns (AU$4086) (-43 per cent) tell their own story.

USA foal crop down 2.4 percent

The live foal crop of 2024 is down 2.4 per cent from 2023, from 18,143 lives foals in 2023 to a current reported foal crop of 17,700 for 2024, according to statistics compiled through October 13 of this year, The Jockey Club reported in a press release on Friday.

The organization estimates that the number of live foals reported so far is 85-95 per cent complete. In 2023, 1181 stallions covered 28,104 mares in North America which yielded 17,700 live foals in 2024.