The opening day of The Championships 2021 delivered in style with a couple of the most dominant Group 1 wins you will see at Randwick.
The victories by Anamoe in the ATC Sires Produce Stakes and Nature Strip in the TJ Smith Stakes won’t be forgotten in a hurry while not surprisngly Jamie Kah announced herself in Sydney.
Victoria’s leading jockey guided the enigmatic Cascadian to a memorable win in the $3 million Doncaster Mile.
Another Victorian-based rider, John Allen is fast becoming the go-to jockey for a Derby – claiming a maiden Australian Derby success aboard Explosive Jack.
The Randwick track started the day rated a soft (7) improving throughout the day before being upgraded to a soft (6) following the ATC Sires Produce Stakes.
RSN927
HAWKES HAILS HIGH CLASS HILAL
April 6, 2021 3:59 pm
By Jackson Frantz
Hilal to figure prominently in Saturday’s Group 1
Sires Produce Stakes at
Randwick, despite drawing awkwardly in barrier 10.
Hawkes who trains in partnership with his father John and brother Michael is delighted by the condition of the
Emirates Park bred juvenile ahead of his maiden Group 1 assignment.
He said the son of
Fastnet Rock is peaking into the race and will relish stepping out over 1400 metres.
“We’ve 100 percent earmarked him as our Sires prospect from Day 1, this is the race that he has been set for,” Hawkes told
To paraphrase a successful senior jockey – good riders don’t need instructions and bad ones don’t follow them .
I note this in the wake of another messaging own goal coming from Racing Australia in a seemingly bizarrely timed Good Friday eve statement announcing an amendment to the Rules of Racing in relation to riding instructions.
This is the one that cemented jockeys only receive riding instructions from a trainer or owner of the horse they are riding.
Again in seeking – in RA’s own words – they didn’t want jockeys to be confused by receiving “conflicting riding instructions”.
Where did this come from? Where were the serious concerns raised, discussed, tabled and wrapped into this change? Which were later written away as merely formalising a “chain of command”, if you can get your head around that.
Champion jockey wins whip ban reduction Golden Slipper-winning jockey Tommy Berry had a big win after his whip penalty was reduced on appeal.
Horses by Ray Thomas 1st Apr 2021 7:15 PM Golden Slipper-winning jockey Tommy Berry is free to ride at the $10 million Derby-Doncaster meeting after his two-week penalty for excessive whip use was reduced on appeal. Berry was suspended until April 14 but lodged an appeal with the Racing NSW Appeals panel against the severity of his penalty. The champion jockey succeeded in having his riding ban reduced by five days enabling him to return to the saddle for the Day 1 of The Championships at Royal Randwick on April 10.
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