Tynong is on schedule for the first race meeting to be held on Thursday the 26^th of March 2015.

Tracks to be laid are well advanced and the 18 allocated allotments planned to be sold by Christmas, 11 have been taken and two are currently under negotiation.

At this stage the well known trainers are showing little interest in the project, certainly they will race there but the cost is too expensive for the average trainers.

There is not enough consideration given to the relocation of trainers, it is just not a case of fait accompli, no thought is ever given to families and what effect it has on their lives.

With regard to the allotments more interest is being shown by investors than trainers, two prominent jockeys have purchased land with the possible view of training when they retire from riding.

Trainer Fined $1,000

Tamworth trainer, Stephen Dixon, was fined $1,000 after an inquiry when Dixon was alleged to have deliberately released horses trained by Ms Amanda Mcloughlin—Mullins, without her express permission.

The horses were released from their tie--up stalls, running loose without the knowledge of the trainer.

Beluga Miss Wins In A Breeze

The Geelong synthetic track held no fears for the Matt Laurie trained, Beluga Miss, she has taken to it like a duck to water.

That was her second win on that surface, on the strength of the win she could easily graduate to something better.

Her trainer, Matt Laurie, is putting together a useful team at Mornington, a young trainer definitely on the way up.

Arron Purcell, a quietly spoken young man from Warrnambool, cracked it for a grin after the win of St Jean at Sportingbet Park.

Whilst it was hardly a flash field he despensed with his opposition quite easily, running away for a comfortable win.

At least St Jean has proved he can stay to this stage; he would need to improve his current rating, 80, to qualify for the major cups, however, he will be nominated for both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

He will go to the paddock now for a break, it won’t be a long one as it can get cold down where he is trained and the Spring is not that far off.

St Jean was Irish bred, purchase in U K with the rate of exchange for about $140,000, by Teofilo, a colt with a high cruising speed by Galileo, he won at his only five starts, he was recognised as the champion two year old in Europe.

St Jean, an entire, would have been purchased on pedigree and potential, his dam, Oriental Fashion, was quite a handy mare, she won three races to a shade over a mile including the Group 3 Roma Premio Ribot, she was also Listed placed at Chantilly,Deauville and Maisons Laffitte.

St Jean - A Spring hopeful

Spring Plans For Escamillo

Mick Kent has Spring plans for Escamillo after his win in the Samson Handicap, there is a bit of depth to him, he did a good job in winning up the long straight at Sandown.

The colt will be set for the Norman Robinson Handicap at Caulfield that will determine whether he is up to taking the next step.

Kent was quite bullish when summing up about the win “he fought off all the challenges in the straight and was still strong on the line, the colt has improved a lot from the Flemington run,” he said.

The Samson Handicap, named after a horse that was a frequent winner back in the sixties, was by Nilo, a great sire in that era, he was a three quarter brother to Nasrullah and Royal Charger.

Escamillo with Jackie Beriman up

Griante Strikes Purple Patch

Griante extended her winning sequence to three wins, on the trot, when she led from barrier to box in winning the Le Pine Funerals Plate at Sportingbet Park.

The issue was really never in doubt at any stage of the race; she handled with a minimum of fuss.

Her co trainer, David Brideoake , declared her a good racehorse that makes her own luck and a genuine filly

He has his reservations about a four year old mare going into open age during the Spring, but there will be no options if he is looking for Black Type.

Griante three wins on the trot

Two up and one to go, and if California Chrome wins the Belmont Stakes he becomes the first Triple Crown success, since Affirmed’s epic battles with Alyidar, that has become a part of American folk lore.

The Triple Crown is made up of three separate races, strictly for three year olds, in three different states, not all decided over the same distance.

First stage is the Kentucky Derby run on the first Saturday in May over 2000 metres, it is then on to Pimlico in Maryland for the Preakness Stakes over 1800 metres.

The last leg is the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York state over 2400 metres; the course was established over 120 years ago.

Sir Barton was the first horse to win the Triple Crown; in fact he won the Kentucky Derby as a maiden.

The races associated with the Triple Crown are worth a lot of money, however, money cannot buy the four magnificent trophies, a sight to behold.

High priced filly, Belle Couture, is causing headaches for her connections after another inglorious display at Flemington on Saturday last when she only beat one horse home in the Trevor Clarke Handicap.

At least it was a slight improvement, (pardon the pun), when she finished stone motherless last at her previous start, also at Flemington.

So much for the high priced yearlings, the perfect recipe for disaster, from the 32 yearlings sold at the Sydney Easter Sales, for a million dollars or more, only one has shown a return above its purchase price.

As we have been told so many times she is half sister to Black Caviar, a champion winner of 25 races, almost $8 million in stakes, she was purchased for $210,000, bidding ceased at $2.6 million when Belle Couture was sold.

The big winner out of it all was the breeder, the purchaser was living in the anticipation of lightning might strike twice in the same spot, but it hasn’t to date.

The chemistry between the half sisters is different, each is by a separate sire, the genetic balance may be similar but there are no rules or guarantees one successful generation is invariably not the yardstick to follow as illustrated so often.

Helsinge, the matron of the family is now rising 13; she was unraced, by Desert Sun from Scandinavia by Snippets, which has proved a successful winning family.

The foal to follow Black Caviar was her only full relation to race, Moshe, whilst not in the class of his full sister, won three races from five starts, the following year nature stepped in when Helsinge missed to Churchill Downs.

A break of a full season obviously paid dividends when Helsinge was mated with Casino Prince, the result was the four times Group 1winner All Too Hard ,she has subsequently borne four foals since, she was not mated last season.

Belle Couture has had just the four starts, her first up, second at Bendigo did nothing for her image, while her only win at Caulfield was a fairly weak affair.

After her two shockers at Flemington maybe she resents the straight track, whilst stabled on the course and working there she always looks uncomfortable racing, carrying her head high and not fully letting down.

Maybe it is now decision time, her residual value is falling off in layers, it may be time to pull up stumps and think of the future.

Belle Couture winning at Caulfield

Racing lost a great identity with the passing of former jockey, Kevin Mitchell, earlier this week, aged in his early eighties.

Always entertaining he was a master story teller, he could tell a great yarn without cracking it for a smile, most of the stories were fair dinkum.

Mitchell was born in Deniliquin; he came to Melbourne with the view of being apprenticed as a jockey.

He could not have chosen a tougher profession, the country was just getting over six years of war and every stable in Caulfield had two and sometimes three apprentices, all cheap labour, ten bob a week and your keep, although the money didn’t always show up at the end of the week.

Most of his time was served under Basil Conaghan, the stables were on the corner of Station and Bond Streets opposite the main entrance to Caulfield Racecourse.

Conaghan was a character, he was known to be shouting orders out in the street as to how he wanted the horses worked, while lathering up for a shave.

Mitchell might have come up the hard way, however, he was an incredible judge, when he declared a horse would win he was never wrong, his judgement was impeccable.

Huge betting coups were pulled off when riding horses for Harry Slamen, (the black prince) they were a formidable partnership, bookmakers got the shakes when Slamen appeared in the betting ring.

Besides riding for Slamen he also rode successfully for Felipe Ismael, (The Filipino Fireball) the flamboyant punter who was betting as if there was no tomorrow.

When Ismael turned his attention to English racing he sought out Mitchell to come to Newmarket and ride a gallop before he backed the horse that duly won.

Kevin Mitchell rode against the best jockeys that this country has seen, George Moore , Neville Sellwood, Arthur Breasley, Roy Higgings, and host of others too numerous to mention, however, he claims that Darby Munro was the best he had seen, “Darby was in a class of his own,” he said.

His wife, Vilma, passed away last year, she was the daughter of Wally Shipton who rode successfully in Brisbane before coming to Melbourne.

Kevin Mitchell - A great jockey