Nikki Burke has always had a good eye for a horse, something she obviously learnt from her father, Barry, who was always a shrewd judge of a horse and its value.

The day she went to the sales expecting to buy a filly for $3,000 to $4,000, but had to pay $10,000, her dad might have frowned a bit, but he let it go through to the keeper.

There are no complaints now, the mare, Nautical, won the Print.Com.Au Handicap at Moonee Valley, turning a $10,000 outlay into a handsome dividend of almost $141,000.

Nautical ridden by Mark Zahra

While she may be no champion she’s the sort of mare that most owners would enjoy racing, from nine starts she has returned nine cheques.

Most punters ignored the sound form of the winner, preferring to send out Double Dee as favourite, after looking some chance on the home turn she finished third.

The race developed into a nail biting finish with New Zealand mare, Chiquada, coming home at the rate of knots, only to be beaten by a nose.

Nautical is by Niello, he was not breaking any sale records at the time, even though he was a stakes winner, and a full brother to Lonhro, the best performed racehorse to become National Champion Sire since the great Heroic nearly 90 years ago.

Nikki Burke and Mark Zahra

Robbie Laing is no stranger to the winner’s circle; he is wearing the path a bit thinner with three winners over successive Saturdays.

Polanski, the colt he bought for a mere $4,000 and turned him into a million dollar earner, started the ball rolling and is hasn’t stopped since. 

Boomwaa’s win at Flemington last week was highly encouraging; he looks a great prospect for the rich two year old races in the autumn.

Whilst there is a lot of upside to Saturday’s winner, Golconda, she had the race won a long way from home; she just coasted to the line. 

Laing believes she could ultimately get to 1600 metres, her dam did, Eureka Jewel, a quality Stakes winning mare with a rare but an outstanding pedigree, she was line bred to Star Kingdom through his champion sons, Noholme and Todman.

With a touch of Black Type to her name already, and the best is yet to come, she is going to make into a valuable mare ultimately

Golconda ridden by Glen Boss.

Caravan Rolls On was in his comfort zone on Saturday over 3200 metres, with a good pace being set he proved by far the better stayer in winning the Sportingbet Sandown Cup at Caulfield.

Mujadale quickly took up the running, as he had at Flemington, the race was made to order for the former English stayer, he just lobbed along in the box seat, no further back than third until it was time for Craig Williams to press the button.

He has now squared the ledger, having earned $108,500 for a win and a placing here, against winning five races in U K for a total of $78,419.

While the majority of the international horses here for spring most will be moving on, he will remain for at least another six months to be prepared by Danny O’Brien for the Sydney Cup, to be run in April.

Punters warmed to Caravan Rolls On after Flemington, he was about the only one making any ground on the winner Mujadale.

Furthermore, he was meeting much the same horses as he had at Flemington over an additional 400 metres, facts and figures pointed in his direction.

Caravan Rolls On was prepared in the U K by Peter Chapple-Hyam at Marlborough.

Caravan Rolls On with Craig Williams up

Matt Laurie is not complaining about the year, two Group winners, plus a listed success, it does not get much better than that.

Everything began to fall into place when he won the S A J C Derby with Escado and only got better when the half sister, Se Sauver, won the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes at Flemington.

Saturday, at Caulfield, was the icing on the cake with Mezeray Miss successful in the Listed City Of Greater Dandenong Stakes.

She is now off to the paddock for a break; she is going out in winning form instead of becoming jaded and crying out for a spell.

That formula is working well for Matt, with the aid of his parents an excellent training setup has been established a quarter of an hour’s drive from the Mornington racecourse.

It is the ideal facility, horses are being prepared in a natural environment with the results achieved to date, the training methods are working well as have shown.

Matt is making steady progress, everything is going to plan, he has a positive attitude towards training, he doesn’t need a big team to get results, a double at the provincials is a reminder he is travelling nicely.

Mezeray Miss winning at Caulfield

The Australian Turf Club and the Australian Racing Board have accepted the $10 million offer, by the New South Wales Government, as a boost to the two day Sydney autumn carnival, increasing stake money to a record of $18 million.

All sounds pretty good, racing is predicted to boom in the harbour city, whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.

We have seen these hair brain ideas fail before, trusting a Government is flawed with danger for very obvious reasons.

Naturally the offer has been accepted as you would expect, however, questions are being asked, is it on going and will it last?

The current New South Wales Government is putting up the cash, but that could soon dry up if and when there is an ultimate change of Government.

We are yet to hear from the opposition; surely they will be barking at the door directly, they are not going to let this one slip through to the keeper, unless they are in the land of nod.

Sydney racing is in the doldrums, has been for years, it is scraping the bottom of the barrel, the crowds have disappeared, that is obvious.

$18 million does not encourage the rank and file, they have to create incentive and gate receipts are not the right recipe.

Racing has lost a lot of patronage in Sydney, Easter Saturday, Doncaster Day, once crowds of 80,000, formerly a four day carnival reduced to two days, and the spring from four to one day, these are hardly signs of progress.

In his address John Messara said, “ it is too late to target international horses for April of next year,” which would be agreed, however, there will be no overseas horses until a quarantine station is built on a racecourse with training facilities.

Werribee was thrown up as a suggestion, surely that could only be a joke.