Sires With Winners - Tuesday August 8

The new season is nearly upon us and that means all over the country a new crop of rising two year-olds are taking baby steps in the best stables in the land with the Australian Turf Club announcing this week they had received 1881 entries for the 2027 Golden Slipper, so who is in the race?

The last Autumn running of the CF Orr Stakes in 2025 closed a long chapter when Another Wil narrowly denied Mr Brightside consecutive victories and the historic first running of the “new” race in November last year had a worthy winner in race favourite Jimmysstar, who is back to defend his title.

For such a contentious topic—particularly for participants in the thoroughbred industry—the wait for updated ATO guidance on whether an activity is a “business” or a “hobby” has certainly been a long one.

Lee Callaway shared many jockeys’ rooms with Chris Johnson throughout his riding career, so it was only fitting that the Waikouaiti trainer took out the inaugural running of the Chris Johnson Three-Year-Old Sprinters Challenge (1200m) at Riccarton on Wednesday with Doing Time.

Often considered the pinnacle of racing in Australia, the week-long Flemington carnival draws together four days of outstanding racing with South Australian bred runners playing a strong hand in this year’s results, winning on each of the four days.

Four days of Flemington action are behind us for another year, and what a grand feast of horse racing it was - now Melbourne’s carnival continues with the second running of the MRC's time-honoured G1 CF Orr Stakes, in its new place on the racing calendar.

Darley shuttler Pinatubo (IRE) will have a great chance in the $1million Group III MRC Thoroughbred Club Stakes (1200m) at Sandown on Saturday with 3YO filly Sequinned and overnight in France he added a new stakes-winner to his tally.

The European sister farm to Yulong, Ace Stud have announced the addition of a new stallion to their Newmarket roster with Zeus Olympios to join Shaquille and Lucky Vega, who is finishing his Australian season in the Hunter Valley after switching from Victoria.

There is plenty of hype surrounding promising gelding Thunder In Motion ahead of Saturday’s Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton, and trainer Mark Forbes is hoping he can deliver in the southern Classic.

From our vantage point in 2026, we can look back at modern Cox Plate history and marvel at how quickly the years are passing.