New Hall of Fame inductees

And Brisbane-based bloodstock agent John Foote now has the distinction of purchasing two horse inductees – 2018 addition outstanding jumper Karasi who joins 2006 inductee Makybe Diva.

Winner of nine Hong Kong training premierships in 16 years – plus a tally of more than 1000 wins – Australian expatriate Size made his Dalby admission during an interview with Sky Racing presenter Michael Maxworthy at Hong Kong’s Sha Tin racecourse on Sunday, December 10, last year. Shortly after, Size was celebrating when his horses Mr Stunning and DB Pin ran the quinella in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint (1200m).

Size and Karasi were two of 10 racing stars inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in Sydney, NSW, last Friday, May 18. They were:

The Hall of Fame also elevated trainer Colin Hayes to Legend status. An inaugural Hall of Fame member with 28 Adelaide and 13 Melbourne training premierships plus 5333 winners Hayes joins the elite company of Phar Lap, Bart Cummings, Scobie Breasley, Makybe Diva, Tommy Smith, Carbine, and George Moore.

New Zealand-born Chris Waller has won seven successive Sydney premierships and is also the trainer of Winx – currently the world’s highest rated racehorse on the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings – who has won 25 races in a row.

Waller celebrated his induction the following day by training the Group1 Doomben Cup quinella of Comin’ Through and Egg Tart in Brisbane plus winners in Sydney and Melbourne.

THERE were four champion racehorses inducted into the Hall of Fame – Abercorn, the only horse to beat the legendary Carbine three times, Poitrel who won the 1920 Melbourne Cup carrying 10st (63.5kg), the outstanding weight-for-age galloper Aquanita and Karasi, winner of three Grand Jumps.

Karasi

NOT only was Brisbane bloodstock agent John Foote responsible for the purchase of two former world champions – stayer Makybe Diva and Honk Kong sprinter Silent Witness – he also bought the world’s highest jumping stakes earner Karasi to race in Australia.

With 2006 Hall of Fame inductee Makybe Diva entering into Australian folklore as the first horse to win the Melbourne Cup three years in succession, Karasi carved his own international niche by becoming the first horse to win the world’s richest jumping race, the 4250m Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan, three years in succession (2005, 2006 and 2007) – the final time as a rising 13YO and the oldest horse in the 15 horse field! He then suffered a career-ending injury while in Japan preparing for his fourth Grand Jump.

A son of the English Derby winner Kahyasi bred in Ireland by the Aga Khan, Karasi won three races in succession in England beginning with a 30 lengths romp in a 2400m maiden at Brighton. John Foote then bought the horse for 75,000 guineas at a horses-in-training sale at Newmarket, England, on behalf of an Adelaide syndicate who wanted a stayer for the Melbourne Cup.

Trained by David Hall, Karasi ran second in the 2000 Adelaide Cup and third in the 2000 Brisbane Cup. The following year he again third in the Brisbane Cup, won  the Geelong Cup and then ran fourth to Ethereal’s 2001 Melbourne Cup.

Leg injuries kept him out of racing for almost a year before he ran again in the Adelaide Cup and he was subsequently sold in August 2003 to Melbourne jumps trainer Eric Musgrove. All up, Karasi had 97 starts over a nine year period for 16 wins and 20 placings on the flat and over jumps to earn almost $3.75 million.  

Aquanita

WITH 28 wins, 10 seconds and 9 thirds from 70 starts, Aquanita was one of the best horses to race in Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and is a sentimental favourite of Western Australian racing.

Aquanita was born and raised in the west, and as a two and three-year-old won nine races in Perth, including the now Group 1 rated Railway Stakes. Winner of the WS Cox Plate, Aquanita was a great weight carrier who could both sprint and stay. In his 1962 Futurity Stakes victory he carried 10st 7lb (66.5 kg), while later in the same year he ran third in the Melbourne Cup with 9st 4 lb (59 kg).  Aquanita scored two notable wins in Brisbane – the Doomben Ten Thousand and the WJ Healy Stakes at Eagle Farm.

QUEENSLAND race patrons were fortunate to see new Hall of fame jockeys Malcolm Johnston and WA (Billy) Smith ride in Queensland on many occasions.

Johnston was the regular rider of the great Kingston Town, winning 25 races including the Cox Plate, Tancred Stakes, AJC Australian Derby, Queensland Derby and Sydney Cup. During his celebrated riding career, Johnston rode more than 2000 winners and was three-time Sydney’s premier jockey, including as an apprentice in 1975-76 when he rode a record 107.5 winners.

Now 90 years old and retired on the Gold Coast,  William Arthur “Billy” Smith rode for 40 years as a lightweight jockey, winning the Centenary 1960 Melbourne Cup on Hi Jinx (NZ), the 1961 Caulfield Cup on Summer Fair, the 1963 Sydney Cup on Maidenhead and the 1968 Brisbane Cup on Prominence. He also won the 1965 Brisbane Stradbroke/Doomben Ten Thousand feature double on Winfreux.

A STELLAR performance by 5YO gelding Stellar Knight winning the 1180m Battle of the Bush Qualifier open handicap at Home Hill in far north Queensland on  Saturday, May 19, has gained him a slot in the Battle of the Bush final to be held in Brisbane on June 23.

Trained by Mackay-based Olivia Cairns, Stellar Knight now has three wins at Bowen, Emerald and Home Hill plus a second at Barcaldine from his past four starts to extend his race record to 10 wins and nine placings from 37 starts. His first three wins came at Toowoomba where he was trained by Ben Currie before he moved north to Mackay.

By Chosir’s stakes winning son Choistar, Stellar Knight is from the Kaapstad (NZ) mare Intangible (NZ) which makes him a half-brother to four other winners. Choistar demonstrated his class by winning the 1600m Listed Fernhill Handicap at Randwick as a 2YO before running fifth in the Group 1 Champagne Stakes at Randwick and fourth in the Group 1 TJ Smith 2YO Plate at Eagle Farm. Later that year he then ran third in the Group 3 Vo Rogue Plate at Doomben behind Graceful Anna – who won the Magic Millions 3YO Trophy at her next start – and subsequent multiple Group 1 winner Shoot Out. 

The other feature race on the Burdekin Race Club’s seven race program was the 1830m Burdekin Cup (Benchmark 70) won by Captains Way – a  4YO gelding by Group 1 Epsom Handicap winner Captain Sonador from the Coolong Road (NZ) mare Pearly Way. 

Only a recent addition to John Manzelmann’s Mackay stables, Captains Way now has four wins to his credit – two at Toowoomba when trained by Lindsay Hatch and now wins at Gladstone and Home Hill.

PROLIFIC Roma trainer Craig Smith now has a starter in the Battle of the Bush final courtesy of  Timetus winning the 1200m Charleville Newmarket/Battle of the Bush qualifier at Charleville on Saturday, May 19.

A lightly raced gelding by Time Thief from the El Moxie (USA) mare Elumino, Timetus has now started 15 times for three wins and five placings. Originally based in Victoria where he won a Mornington maiden, Timetus scored an eight lengths first up win for Craig Smith at last year’s Birdsville races.  In fact, Timetus is owned by the Saddlers Knife Syndicate which is managed by Birdsville grazier and hotelier David Brook.

GROUP 1 victories for Comin' Through and Santa Ana Lane on Saturday, May 19, lead a raft of major updates to lots heading to the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Sale which starts Thursday, May 24.

A second Group 1 win for Santa Ana Lane in the Group 1Goodwood at Morphettville provided a timely update to his dam Fast Fleet catalogued at the upcoming National Broodmare Sale. Fast Fleet (Lot 1057) is being offered by Three Bridges Thoroughbreds in foal with a September 1 cover to Tapit's triple Group 1 winning son Frosted (USA). A city winner in Brisbane, the Fastnet Rock mare will go under the hammer on Day Two of the National Broodmare Sale on May 30.

Day Three of broodmares on May 31 will feature two close relations to Saturday's other Group 1winner, the Doomben Cup victor Comin' Through. Newgate Farm will present Our Pride And Joy (Lot 1280) and Mica Be The One (Lot 1210) who have tested in foal to Dissident and Flying Artie respectively.

Our Pride And Joy is a half-sister by Canny Lad to Comin' Through and his half relations Criterion, Varenna Miss and Silently. Mica Be The One, a multiple city winner, is a Bernardini mare from Varenna Miss – a Redoute's Choice half-sister to Comin' Through and Criterion. She's in foal for the first time and is an exciting breeding prospect.