Racing mourns the passing of Bebe Murray, a person that will be long remembered as a thorough gentleman and a popular racing identity.

Bebe was a regular at the Victorian Yearling Sales each year; however, he missed this year due to obvious illness.

He had a log innings as a trainer, 53 years first at Conjola, on the South Coast of New South Wales, before moving onto Kembla Grange 12 years later, where he enjoyed a lot of success.

The Australian Derby, Spring Champion Stakes, Canterbury Guineas and Ranvet Stakes, with Universal Prince, Victory Vein , Half Hennessy, Hussar’s Command and a host of others all stakes winners.

Bebe Murray was a great traine,r and a gentlemen, he will be surely missed, he is survived by his wife, Edie, and sons Paul and Graeme and their families.    

Mates, Steve Richards and Steven King, were back in business at Flemington Saturday, doing what they do best, training and riding a winner.

It has proved a successful partnership between the pair, going back several years, long before they won Group races with the good filly Rostova.

They combined again Saturday at their favourite stamping ground, Flemington, winning the first race on the card, the Saintly Handicap with Lazumba.

That was her second win, having previously won at Werribee, she will make into a nice filly during the autumn and seems certain to get further, at least a mile, there are a lot of handy races about at that distance at this time of the year.

The filly had recovered from a virus and had worked well since, with the stable confident she would run a good race, and the market indicated that.

In a field of nine she sat about sixth in running, until the top of the straight, from there she improved her position remarkably, that saw her in a positive spot for the final run in.

She drew right away; the result was never in doubt thereafter, she won by a length and a quarter, recording a welcome change of luck for the stable.

Lazumba winning the Saintly Handicap

Capitalist Disappointing

There can be no excuses tendered for the defeat of Capitalist in the Group 2 Todman Stakes, except to quote, the long break since his win on the Gold Coast has not done him any favours.

He looked listless at the barrier before the event, and that is how he raced, there was no spark about him whatsoever.

Weatherly looked pretty good winning at Flemington and pretty ordinary at Randwick, he can be best left home in the stable, he could hardly win The Slipper now on that run.

Mick Price has a firm grip on the Slipper now with the unbeaten Extreme Choice; he has a high cruising speed and can accelerate at the drop of a hat.

If Flying Arties can draw a gate he will give the race a shake, he has done nothing wrong in his preparation leading into the race.

Kiss And Make Up goes into the race with a sound pedigree, More Than Ready, who has already sired two winners will go into the race with his record intact.

More Than Ready has previously sired multiple Golden Slipper winners in Phelan Ready and currently leading sire, Sebring.

Palentino doesn’t shirk an issue, he has had two fights in as many weeks, the score won one, lost one, and could back up again next week.

He is a remarkable colt, as tough as flint, yet not over raced, that was just his sixth start, Darren Weir will make a decision, if Palentino shapes up, for a start in the Australian Cup over 2000 metres, at one stage it was decided over 3600 metres, the longest flat race in Australia.

As usual Palentino settled well back in the field, at the 800 metres there was more horses in front of him than behind him.

Once Mark Zahra got him out into the open, at the top of the straight, he worked himself into the race very quickly, at that stage he actually had the Derby winner, Tarzino, in front of him.

Both Palentino and Tarzino are excellent colts and likely to be the stars of the spring, graduating to weight for age.

However, the same is not likely to be said of the New Zealand colt, Xtravagant, grossly over rated at this stage, a lot was promised but little received.

He is a lovely individual, but looks don’t win races, he was quite unsettled in the paddock, a stallion chain was added to the gear, even that didn’t have the desired effect.

The anticipation pre post was electric, it didn’t take long to fizzle out, as for connections of the colt it was a non event, very disappointing.

Palentino was bred in Tasmania and offered at the 2014 Magic Millions Tasmania Yearling Sales, he sold for $85,000 and has returned $606,710 in stake earnings.

Palentino wins the Guineas

Malaguerra Retains Form

Malaguerra has earned a trip to Sydney after his brilliant win in the Bob Hoysted Handicap at Flemington.

The gelding, trained by Lee and Anthony Freedman, provided the stable with the first leg of a winning double, the gelding will go to Sydney now for the Sebring Stakes, followed by the Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane, at Eagle Farm over 1400 metres, if renovations there are not completed in time Doomben will be the alternative venue.

He has now put together three wins on the trot, all at Flemington, and he is now on the trail for more lucrative prizes.

There was a lot of authority about the 1000 metres win; he was sitting back on the fence with Ben Melham having a lot horse underneath him.

The son of Magnus has now put together five wins from his last six starts since being gelded.

He has quite an interesting pedigree, his dam, Tennessee Morn, is by Bletchingly, from Tennessee Vain, by the incomparable Vain.

Malaguerra winning the Bob Hoysted

Tomorrow the Victoria Racing Club honour Francis Tressady, the last filly to win the Victoria Derby, and completed a rare double winning the Derby and the Oaks.

Francis Tressady was the last filly to win the Derby for possibly a good reason, as very few have opposed the male sex over recent years.

She was by Tressady, the only classic winner sired by that horse, however, she descends from the mare White And Blue, bred in Germany, imported in 1880, she was a highly successful import, Carlita was from that family, she also won the Derby and Oaks a few years earlier, plus a number of weight for ages races.

About the last filly to take on the colts in the classic was San Fairy Anne, she was trained by the late Lou Robertson, and ridden by Alby Olsen.

The 60^th running of the Golden Slipper Stakes from an original stake of $20,000, over those 60 years the stake has steadily risen to $3.5 million, making it the richest two year old race in the world.

When entries closed midway through last year, 2006 horses were nominated , the highest entries ever, at least a third of the foals born in a single year are entered ,“ The Slipper “,as it is affectionately known, is the dream of every race horse owner, dreams of a race that can turn an owner into an instant millionaire.

If the winner is a colt, a deal is often done to stand him at stud, before the presentation of the trophy you cannot allow the grass to grow too long under your feet.

A total of 304 horses are second acceptors, at present that number will be considerably reduced to 16 at post time, with four emergencies.

The Slipper was the brain child of George Ryder, he had developed Woodlands into a highly successful stud and as he was a committeeman of the Sydney Turf Club, he was always looking at ways to promote the race Club.

In that era the Sydney Turf Club was struggling, they didn’t get big fields for reasons unbeknown, Ryder set about coming up with a new name for a race, the idea was alright but he was lost for a name.

He was for weeks trying to find a name for the race that was suitable, but without much success.

Driving up to Woodlands, his stud at Denman, he turned to his wife, Dorothy, asking, “what would be a special gift for a new born baby?”

“A slipper she said,” “what sort of slipper”, he asked? she replied, “ a golden one,” he didn’t want to hear any more, that was the birth of the Golden Slipper, the dream of every owner.

The very first Golden Slipper Stakes of 1957 was won by Stanley Wootton’s colt, Todman, trained by Maurice McCarten, the only person ever to win a metropolitan jockey’s premiership and a trainer’s premiership.

Todman was ridden by Neville Sellwood, the colt was by Star Kingdom who sired the first five winners of the Golden Slipper.

Star Kingdom has proved a dominant factor in the pedigrees of Golden Slipper winners, at least a third can be traced to the son of Stardust.

Lee Freedman trained the winner in four successive years, Danzero, Flying Spur, Bint Marscay and Merlene.