2023/24 CALENDAR
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/SCOTT BARBOUR
ANAMOE
An emotional James Cummings compared Anamoe to 1980s European great Dancing Brave after the Godolphin horse opened his four-year-old season with a stunning victory in the Winx Stakes. The win kicked off an outstanding 2022/23 for Anamoe — his nine starts yielded seven wins, six of them at Group 1 level including the Cox Plate. James McDonald was his pilot throughout. With his Winx win, Anamoe became only the second Australian colt/entire this century (after Show A Heart) to win Group 1s at two, three and four.
Photo: BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHERS
ALLIGATOR BLOOD
The reinvention of former boom three-year-old Alligator Blood continued when Group 1 racing returned to Sandown last September. After a disqualification, two stable changes and trouble with the stewards over his ownership, the gelding had broken a 27-month drought in the Stradbroke back in June. Three races later he tackled the Underwood at Sandown, leading in the small field and kicking clear under Tim Clark to score for co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. Alligator Blood would go on to make it three majors for the season, taking the Champions Mile and Futurity.
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/SCOTT BARBOUR
Hopeful (USA)
FIBA World Cup quarter finals
FIBA World Cup quarter finals
FIBA World Cup round of 16
Memsie, Cockram, McNeil, Heath 1100, Heatherlie, Chelmsford, Furious, Concorde, Tramway, City Tatts Club Cup, Jolly Beggar, Sheep Hills Cup, Mendooran Cup, Birdsville Cup, Surat Cup, Mareeba Cup, Kununurra Cup. Wanganui Guineas (NZ), Haydock Sprint Cup (UK), Jockey Club Gold Cup, Pacific Classic (USA).
Moree Cup
Black Nugget Cup Prix du Moulin (Fr) Spinaway (USA) FIBA World Cup round of 16
Sale, Casterton Dubbo
Gundagai
Mount Gambier
Sunshine Coast
Devonport
Apiam Bendigo
Tuncurry-Forster Cup, The Pearl Cairns Amateurs Ladies Day
FIBA World Cup semi finals
Feehan, McEwen, Chautauqua, Atlantic Jewel, Theo Marks, Run to the Rose, Sheraco, Ming Dynasty, Farnley, Griffith Cup, Enngonia Cup, Cairns Amateurs Cup, Weetwood Prelude, Goondiwindi Cup/Gourmet in Gundy, Morven Cup, Thangool Cup, Bedourie Cup
Kalgoorlie, Alice Springs Waverley
Dubbo Gold Cup, Coolgardie Cup Prix du Moulin (Fr), Irish St Leger, National Stakes, Moyglare, Flying Five (Ire), Centaur Stakes (Jpn), Del Mar Futurity (USA)
US Open men’s final, FIBA final
Nowra
bet365 18
Hamilton
25
26
Beaumont Newcastle Grafton Yeppoon
Balaklava Cup
Newcastle Cup, Tibbie Stakes, Cameron Handicap, Hurricane Handicap
Doncaster Cup (UK)
Makybe Diva, Let’s Elope, Bobbie Lewis, Exford Plate, Tontonan, Poseidon, Cap d’Antibes, The 7 Stakes, Tea Rose, Bill Ritchie, The Shorts, Kingston Town, Newcastle carnival day two, Wylie Handicap, Well Groomed Raceday, Pink Ribbon Cup, Nicopolis , Carnarvon Cup, Bowraville Cup, Pooncarie Cup, Barraba Cup, Dalby Cup, Atherton Cup, Springsure Cup Canterbury Belle (NZ), St Leger (UK) Woodbine Mile (Can)
Grenfell
Te Aroha
Mindarie-Halidon Cup
Great Northern day (NZ)
Arc trials day, Prix Vermeille, Grand Prix de Paris (Fr)
RWC: Australia v Fiji, Saint-Etienne
Flemington Taree
Mount Gambier
Sunshine Coast
24
Ladbrokes Park
Hillside Warwick Farm Strathalbyn Doomben Belmont Matamata 21 Cranbourne Hawkesbury Lismore Ipswich Woodville 22 Ballarat Scone Goulburn Ewan Twin Hills Gore
Lismore Cup, Untamed Sprint
27
Apiam Bendigo
Rosehill Murray Bridge
Ipswich Belmont Cambridge synthetic
Gold Nugget Ewan Cup
Canberra
Devonport
Kalgoorlie, Alice, Tauranga
Derby & Oaks Trials
Bathurst Cup, The Panorama, The Barb, Bill Aspros Cup
Boulder Cup
Preis von Europa (Ger)
RWC: Wales v Australia, Lyon
Dubbo
Moruya, Lockhart
Sunshine Coast
Townsville
Te Rapa
Moir Stakes, Stutt Stakes, Stocks, Scarborough Stakes
Benalla Cup
Bateman’s Bay Cup
Legend of the South Verandah Town Cup Ryder Cup, Rome Celebration Cup (HK)
Newcastle
Wagga
Bundarra
Mudgee
Tabulam
Morphettville Parks
Jamestown Eagle Farm Gold Coast
Mackay
Toowoomba
Charleville
Jundah
Gladstone
Julia Creek Innisfail Belmont
Landor
Hastings Riccarton
30
Epsom, Metropolitan, Flight, Premiere, Dulcify, Breeders’ Plate, Gimcrack, Ansett Classic, Black Heart Bart, Mackay Classic, Bundarra Cup, Tabulam Cup, Wagga Picnic Cup, Jamestown Cup, Jundah Cup.
Arrowfield Stud Plate, Hawke’s Bay Guineas (NZ), Prix du Cadran, Prix de Royallieu (Fr)
AFL Grand Final, Ryder Cup, Rome
TAB meetings in bold type Non-TAB in light type Night meetings Twilight meetings
Not all dates finalised — check state calendars. Please note — all dates for races and sport are local. Races and sporting events in the western hemisphere may be held on the following day by Australian time.
GIGA KICK
The build-up to the 2022 Everest was all about champion sprinter Nature Strip, the reigning champion whose last two starts had yielded wins in the King’s Stand Stakes and The Shorts. The old stager started an odds-on favourite but it was Craig Williams and young Victorian trainer Clayton Douglas who stole the show with Giga Kick at $21. The unbeaten three-year-old settled back before coming with an irresistible run to overwhelm Nature Strip, who weakened to finish fourth. By season’s end Giga Kick had established himself as Australia’s new sprint champion with wins in the All-Aged Stakes and Doomben 10,000.
Photo: BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHERS
GOLD TRIP
The 2022 Melbourne Cup saw imported entire Gold Trip become the first topweight to win the great race since Makybe Diva in 2005. Ciaron Maher thus completed the set of spring majors, following his 2016 Caulfield Cup win with Jameka and the 2020 Cox Plate win of Sir Dragonet, who like Gold Trip was trained in partnership with English expat David Eustace. It was also a first Melbourne Cup for jockey Mark Zahra, after an untimely suspension cost him the ride on Verry Elleegant the year before. Remarkably, this was only the second win of Gold Trip’s career, coming 29 months after his Group 2 success in Lyon, France.
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/PSCOTT BARBOUR
AMELIA’S JEWEL
Amelia’s Jewel graduated to star status and gave trainer Simon Miller his first Group 1 victory with a brilliant win at Ascot last December in the Northerly Stakes (1800m), newly renamed after an earlier WA hero. An outstanding ride from Patrick Carbery saw the $2.90 favourite become the fourth filly to win the weight-for-age feature. Briefly held up at the top of the straight, Amelia’s Jewel burst through a gap to pounce on Ironclad 75 metres out, extending away to score by a length, her sixth win from seven starts. The filly would end her season with a win in the Group 3 Roma Cup and a narrow defeat in the first running of the $4 million Quokka.
Photo: SHARYN WALKER/WESTERN RACEPIX
SKIRT THE LAW
It was a Queensland triumph last January as unbeaten filly Skirt The Law dominated a rescheduled Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast. Skirt The Law ($7) was trained in Brisbane by Tony Gollan, ridden by Queensland-based Ryan Maloney and bred in the Sunshine State by Lyndhurst Stud, using its rising-star stallion Better Than Ready. Skirt The Law led home an all-fillies first five and netted her connections a $350,000 bonus by virtue of her all-female ownership. Unusually the race was run on a Thursday, the previous Saturday’s meeting having been called off by a jockeys’ vote after race two.
Photo: MICHAEL MCINALLY
UNCOMMON JAMES
There were emotional scenes at Sandown last February after popular Queensland sprinter Uncommon James broke his Group 1 maiden in the Oakleigh Plate. It was also a first Group 1 for Queensland-based Victorian jockey Ben Thompson, who declared: “It means so much. It means everything, I’m a mess and I get that from my mother, who’s here. Far out.” Uncommon James, a four-year-old having just his eighth start, was bred and is raced by Lavin Park, near the small town of Cooroy in the Noosa hinterland. He is trained by Steven O’Dea in partnership with Matthew Hoysted, husband of owner/breeder Caitlin Hoysted (née Lavin).
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/MORGAN HANCOCK
IN SECRET
When Dean Holland rode his biggest winner, In Secret in the Newmarket Handicap last March, the circumstances dictated he keep his emotions in check. The popular lightweight had picked up the ride on the James Cummings-trained filly earlier in the day, after a fall that knocked out In Secret’s jockey, Jamie Kah, and hospitalised fellow jockey Craig Williams with a broken collarbone. “First of all, what I didn’t want to do was carry on, win, lose or draw with what happened with Jamie and Willo,” Holland said. “My thoughts go out to them. I’m the lucky one that was able to ride light and picked up the ride on one of Australia’s best sprinters.” Less than two months later, Holland died from injuries he suffered in a race fall at Donald. He was 34.
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/REG RYAN
I WISH I WIN
The old Black Caviar firm of Peter Moody and Luke Nolen scaled the heights together again last season with the boom ex-Kiwi sprinter I Wish I Win. Racing in the Chittick family’s Waikato Stud colours, the black gelding arrived in Australia with a solid but unspectacular record of nine starts for two 1200-metre wins and Group 1 placings over 1400 and 1600 metres. He blossomed under Moody, winning four races from seven starts in 2022/23 including the $10 million Golden Eagle and the T.J. Smith Stakes at The Championships last April. Having landed in Australia with the equivalent of $143,053 in prizemoney, he finished the season with $7,760,553.
Photo: BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHERS
DUNKEL
Patrick Payne and his mate Billy Egan combined for a Group 1 breakthrough when Kiwi-bred gelding Dunkel landed a plunge in last May’s SA Derby. While Payne notched 19 Group 1s as a rider, this was his first major as a trainer. Egan had ridden three Group 1 runners-up but never a winner at the highest level. Backed from as much as $14 into $8 despite a last-start failure in the Alister Clark Stakes, Dunkel rattled home late to reel in leader and favourite Promises Kept, who had looked to have pinched a winning break. “He’s got that killer instinct,” Egan said. “Every horse out there he wants to pass and that’s what he did.”
Photo: AtkinsPhotography.com.au
THINK ABOUT IT
Favourites didn’t have a great recent record in the Stradbroke Handicap but it might just be that Think About It, who won Queensland’s greatest race last June as the $3.60 popular pick, is the best horse to have contested the Stradbroke for quite a while. The Joe Pride-trained four-year-old went into the race with a record of nine starts for eight wins (including the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup at his previous start) and a third. “I’ve waited a long time for a horse like this. He’s pretty good,” said Pride, placing the gelding above past stable stars Terravista, Eduardo and Private Eye. The Stradbroke saw jockey Sam Clipperton improve his record on the horse to seven starts for seven wins.
Photo: MICHAEL MCINALLY
ROCKSTAR RONNIE
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace were expected to rack up another Grand Annual at the 2023 Warrnambool carnival with an Irish import, but punters picked the wrong one. Stern Idol started an odds-on favourite on the back of a 15-length steeplechase win at Pakenham, but top weight and perhaps the heavy 10 track saw him fail to complete the course. Instead it was stablemate Rockstar Ronnie ($6.50) who led all the way under Chris McCarthy to score by 3½ lengths. “The whole race. I’ve never been so lonely in my entire life, but it was the best feeling in the world,” McCarthy said. It was the jockey’s first Annual but the seventh for Warrnambool boy Maher and third for Eustace
Photo: RACING PHOTOS/PAT SCALA
is the first Golden Slipper winner to carry Coolmore’s navy blue.
Everest winner as well. Shinzo, a son of Blue Diamond-winning filly Samaready,
Melbourne Cup. And he is the only member of that club to have trained an
racing’s traditional grand slam — the Slipper, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and
Waller thus joined the exclusive club of trainers to have completed Australian
took the shortest way home on Shinzo ($16) to beat $3.40 favourite Cylinder.
fly-in jockey Ryan Moore. On a day when riders mainly avoided the fence, Moore
Snitzel colt Shinzo took out the Golden Slipper under a rail-hugging ride from
Chris Waller filled one of the few gaps on his CV at Rosehill last March when
SHINZO
Photo: BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHERS