An excited Charlotte Littlefield trained her very first winner when Miss Mandito won the Lielani Series Final at Flemington, and 86 minutes later Melodeon, having her first start, won impressively at Echuca.

Sunday wasn’t a rest day either, races were at Pakenham and the winning run continued when Sebeat, by Seabring, made it three winners over two days for the Pakenham based stable.    

Melodeon is possibly one of the few runners sired by Glass Harmonium, he was impressive in winning the L K S Mckinnon Stakes, Derby Day, some years ago, and has since sired eight winners.

Ten horses are currently going through the training system, and another ten are not that far away, the training program is working well producing winners, that is all that counts.

Charlotte is a very capable young lady with an excellent personality, and a fresh face in racing will do her no harm.

Michael Walker gave the mare the run of the race, he was an outstanding jockey in his homeland, New Zealand, and he still retains that magic touch.

Charlotte Littlefield

Racing continues to boom in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, where 10 and 11 races are programmed, and as you would expect field sizes are holding remarkably well.

Last week’s meeting saw 11 races programmed at Sha Tin, with Zac Purton riding 6 winners, more than half the program .

Whilst Danny O’Brien was taking a well earned break, they are always short in racing stables, Ben Gleeson filled in the role of saddling up Second Bullet, winner of the VRC –CRV Cup Tour Trophy over 2000 metres at Flemington last week.

Ben has been attached to the stable for just over a year, ultimately he will join the ranks of trainers when the time is ripe.

That time might be four or five years away, he is under a very good master, he is a good clean cut young man with a lot to learn, he has the advantage of being attached to a leading stable that producers winners.

Ben Gleeson

George Hope is 94 and still plays a round of golf each week with Alan Simpson, who would be pretty close to 90 himself.

George was apprenticed to Fred Hoysted at Mentone, he was a great trainer, particularly of two year olds, Ungar, Usage, Hindu Prince and Fred found a box for Rising Fast when he first came from New Zealand.

Mentone should never have been have closed, it was a good track; it broke up a lot of good family trainers.

The Robbie Laing trained colt, Fabulanski, opened his winning account in the Taj Rossi Series Final at Flemington, he has broken his maiden status and a Derby start is now under discussion.

There is still a long way to go, its only July, a lot of water will flow under the bridge before the sunny days of spring appear, and the blue riband is decided.

Falulanski is by the 2013 Victoria Derby winner Polanski, no Derby winner to this stage has sired a V R C Derby winner, and in fact geldings were declared ineligible after the win of JohnnIe Jason in 1931, the ban was lifted in 1967 for the win of Savoy.

Robbie Laing with Linda Meech

However, we will keep that story for another day.

Casino Prince is due for a name change as he is among the most consistent sires we have seen in almost an era.

For those wishing to break into the blood horse breeding industry, he is the only horse, under $27,000 service fee, that has sired 100 winners in the last three seasons.

He came up trumps again on Saturday when Baccarat Baby won the Group 3 Sunshine Guineas on the Sunshine Coast.

Casino Prince is a proven sire of sires and he has the score on the board, with All Too Hard, a very good racehorse, winning the Caulfield Guineas, Futurity Stakes and placed in the Cox Plate, he has made a successful transition as a sire.

Casino Prince

Queensland based sire, Better Than Ready, has got a strangle hold on the first seasons list, with 22 winners of 33 races to his credit, including a double over the last week-end.

Better Than Ready is a striking individual, he was not over raced, he has a winning strike rate of 50 per cent over his racing career.

He has sired three stakes winners in his first season, he is entitled to a full book of quality mares and will surely get them, he had lightning speed and he has early maturing progeny.

By More Than Ready, who has had enormous success in both hemispheres, he will shuttle again this season to Vinery.

Better Than Ready stands at Lyndhurst Stud Warwick on the Darling Downs, under the care of Jeff Kruger, where champions have been bred and where the greatest sire of stayers stood, The Buzzard 

Better Than Ready

ILovethiscity completed a rare double when he sired King of Hastings at Caulfield, and Filibuster in Singapore, trained by Cliff Brown.

It seems as if Ilovethiscity has been off the scene for ages and has just reappeared, he is standing at Noor Elaine Farm at Euroa.

He won the Randwick Guineas Group 1 at Warwick Farm, and the time honoured Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill, he was a three year old and just seemed to fall off the radar.

ILovethiscity is almost a replica of his sire Magic Albert, both are chestnuts and neither has a white hair on their body.

Although his son, King Of Hastings, is now a gelding and a pretty good one at that,he won’t do ILovethiscity any harm .

ILovethiscity

When we thought we had seen the last of More Than Ready, he is not done with yet, he is coming back for another season.

At this stage you can pencil that one in, he is a remarkable horse and he will receive a warm welcome when he takes up residence in his old box which is so familiar to him.

Following a highly successful breeding season in the Northern Hemisphere, the More Than Ready syndicate have advised that the champion stallion will return to Australia.

More Than Ready covered a book of over 135 quality mares, achieving his usual impressive fertility rate of over 90 per cent.

WinStar Farm’s President, Elliott Walden, has advised that More Than Ready’s health, libido, and fertility, remain as good as ever.

This evidenced by the fact that in 2019 More Than Ready is again one of the leading Win Star stallions by fertility.

“He is truly a remarkable horse and judging by how the horse is doing right now we believe that continuing to shuttle could help keep More Than Ready fit and sound for breeding, we look forward to getting him back at the end of the year.”

“I am obviously delighted More Than Ready will be returning to Australia for the coming breeding season,” said Vinery Stud General Manager Peter Orton.

“He is an amazing stallion that continues to outperform stallions in the breeding barn, he has always been a great traveller and handles the process with ease, in fact I have found that keeping stallions active maintains longevity and health better than standing around for 8 months every year between breeding seasons.”

MoreThan Ready is a proven sire of sires; shown by the ill fated Sebring, and current champion first season sire, Better Than Ready.

This will benefit mare owners who are experiencing difficulties getting into the small group of top stallions this year.

A horse with More Than Ready’s international reputation, and proven strike rate (regarding both fertility and progeny success) provides breeders with an excellent opportunity.

More Than Ready is incredibly important to the Australian gene pool, being one of the most influential outcrosses we have here.

He is a Top 5 stallion of all time by Stakes winners, with 193 individual winners and is the world’s leading sire of winners (1,794) ahead of Champion Danehill (1623), with winners to runners strike rate of over 73%.

More Than Ready continues to buck the trend by getting better with age, which showed  on the racetrack again this year, where he has 10 Stakes winners for the season to date, including two impressive two year olds, Kooweerup and Ready Set Sail.

This was reflected in the sale ring where his 2019 yearlings sold to $600,000, and averaged almost $190,000.

We thought we had seen the last of More Than Ready, but he is going to complete the swan song taking up residence again in his old box at Vinery Stud Scone for another season.

More Than Ready returns

There are better races in store for Rubisaki after her convincing win at Flemington on Saturday last.

She was sent out a firm favourite at $4.20 expecting to be racing on the pace, instead she came from midfield on the home turn with the result that she is likely to get further.

Rubisaki could get further than 1400 metres, even though she is by Rubick, a noted speed sire, there is some depth in the family.

Her dam, Senro Kisaki by Danehill Dancer, won twice at 1600 metres and 1850 metres, so there is a chance Rubisaki may get further.

She is raced by Joe O’Neill and a syndicate trained by Pat Payne, a very capable trainer, and plays it cool, and he places his horses well, he is not afraid to place a horse where it is best suited.

Joe O'Neill all smiles

Simon Morrish and his wife, Susie, were on cloud nine after Chouxting The Mob won his fourth race on end at Flemington last Saturday.

It will come as no surprise if he shapes up again next week at headquarters as he is on the crest of a wave at present, Flemington holds no fears for him.

He hasn’t had that much racing really, just 18 starts and been in the money 12 times, winning twice at Flemington.

Damian Oliver gave the gelding the run of the race, it was the perfect ride, the old master is as good as ever. 

Simon and Susie Morrish