Why a trainer told me 'this is easily the best horse I've had'

After the recent and sudden resignation of Jamie Barkley as CEO of the Australian Turf Club, discussion quickly switched to who would replace him and someone with a strong history in racing administration has been thrown into the hat.

IS AN OLD FACE SET TO RETURN TO RACING?

No one from the ATC will confirm but the whispers have been very strong that former Hawkesbury Race Club CEO and now Panthers Group CEO Brian Fletcher was quickly sounded out.

Under Fletcher's reign at Hawkesbury the club became one of the state's richest race clubs and was the first to be awarded a stand-alone Saturday race meeting, breaking the city strangle hold in 2006.

Penrith have won two successive NRL Premierships and the Panthers Group business is flying under his watch.

Fletcher oversees 650 staff, five licensed venues and has the number one team in rugby league so it'd be a coup for racing to have him return to the fold.

When I contacted Fletcher this week his only comment was,"I enjoy going to the rugby league".

WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT AND JOKE

The Pattern Committee lost all credibility and all usefulness when it failed to give Australia's Number 1 sprint race, The Everest, due recognition.

By stamping Saturday's South Australian Derby as a Group 1 race, the committee would even have its few remaining supporters cringing.

What a complete joke.

All of us racing fans would love to be united under a genuine pattern recognising the best races with the highest honour but as it stands that isn't the case.

Our fans, racing's customers, don't care for the reasons behind why a race has or hasn't got the status of a Group 1 and that should be the worrying sign for the industry.

If you can't be fair and just when deciding what races deserve what status or you can't put self interest to one side you shouldn't be anywhere near the decision table.

Admit it's broken, fix it and we will jump on the bus.

PUNTERS CHEER PERFECT WILLIAMS

I'm told George Moore used to say the top jockeys are the jockeys who don't get beaten on the good things.

Which brings me to Craig Williams on Giga Kick in the Doomben 10,000.

I know those watching from the cheap seats wanted Giga Kick to blast away and win by five lengths, but this was a hotly contested A-grade sprint and things were not set up perfectly for the $1.65 favourite.

But Williams made them work out perfectly with a brilliant display.

The margin may not have been great but I always sensed Williams was in control and Giga Kick was always going to win.

Top horses and top jockeys do that – they get the job done.

SCONE CARNIVAL'S BIGGEST STAR

Who was the star of the two day Scone carnival?

For mine it was undoubtedly Luke Pepper's brilliant filly Opal Ridge in the Luskin Star Stakes, a Listed sprint that always produces a good class field.

Opal Ridge's finishing spurt was something out of the top drawer and suggests to me that her previous two Randwick runs she was hampered by the heavy tracks.

The official last 600m was clocked in 33.3 seconds and Opal Ridge was a mile off the leader three furlongs from home.

You should note the Luskin Star has been won in previous years by several topliners and Everest contenders such as Lost And Running, Osborne Bulls and Trekking.

REMEMBERIING NATURE STRIP'S ROYAL ASCOT ROMP

Doesn't time pass quickly?

It is almost 12 months since Nature Strip set the racing world alight with his devastating runaway 4-1/2 length win in the King's Stand Stakes (1000m) at Ascot on June 14 last year.

I was lucky enough to be at Ascot that day and it was a sensational feeling to be an Aussie as one of our own toppled the world.

Let's hope there is similar joy in store for the Australian contingent in England this year headed by the Lightning Stakes winner Coolangatta.

The Coolangatta form looks OK now as she beat the subsequent TJ Smith Stakes winner I Wish I Win in that Flemington romp and she is brilliant at 1000m.

I hope you will be staying up late to watch Coolangatta and the other Australian stars do battle with the Poms.

I will be.

"BEST I'VE HAD" – MORGAN

If you only watch races on a Saturday, you will have missed a two-year-old by the name Burling making it two from two and in doing so beating up older horses at Tamworth on Monday.

"He's easily the best I've had. I've had faster but they haven't been sound or as big and strong as well as having a brain," Burling's trainer Cody Morgan told me following Monday's win.

In good news, his next start will be on a Saturday in the Group 2 BRC Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) worth a cool $1m on May 27.

Burling will be taking on all the big guns from Waller, Cummings, Snowdens and Gollan in the feature race but I warn you not to underestimate him.

LUNAR SHOWS MELBOURNE CUP FLARE

How good did Grahame Begg's mare Lunar Flare look in streaking away to a 5-1/2 length win in the Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington on Saturday?

I know it is six months to the Melbourne Cup but you could not imagine a better trial for the big one and Begg will now aim the mare at the Cup, a race she was denied a start in last year when Racing Victoria Veterinary surgeons ruled her out due to a sore hoof.

Begg has shown commendable character by ignoring any controversy surrounding that scratching and getting on with life and getting on with further developing this top mare, who is a daughter of 2013 Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente.

Although Lunar Flare left her rivals with absolutely no excuses I thought there was still merit in the run of the runner-up White Marlin although comprehensively beaten.

At the 400m mark when White Marlin came back to the field it appeared he would drop out and be well beaten.

That he was able to battle on and still beat the other 16 runners to the post showed good resilience and staying power.

I'm wondering if the tearaway tactics adopted on White Marlin were the right tactics?

They are the tactics that have been used in his three runs this preparation that have resulted in a win in the Sandown Easter Cup and losses at Pakenham and Flemington.

In his prior five starts, which resulted in five wins, he was ridden off the pace.

Going forward I am sure that is a thought that will enter the mind of his connections.

BIG FUTURE EVEN AFTER DEBUT DEFEAT

What about all the money for Isthmus in the first at Flemington on Saturday?

Although previously unraced, Isthmus was hammered in the betting from what seemed a conservative opening price on Wednesday of $5 into $2.60.

I am sure those who produced the big bucks knew what they were doing and I think it was mainly greenness that saw the filly beaten into third place behind the two last start winners, Scheelite and Fragile Love.

I promise Anthony and Sam Freedman are going to have plenty of fun with this young lady who is one of the best bred horses in racing being by I Am Invincible from the Fastnet Rock mare and multiple Group 1 winner Shoals.

Isthmus is raced by two of the biggest players in the Australian racing industry, John Messara and Jonathan Munz and wears the Arrowfield Stud black and gold silks.

HEADING OUT OF TOWN A BIG WIN FOR RACING

We are now over the run of out of town meetings at Hawkesbury, Gosford and Scone in Sydney of a Saturday and from Rosehill this week we will be back to a regular diet of Rosehill and Randwick.

For those who think the stand alone out of town meetings are a hiccup on their regular Sydney Saturdays let me tell you they do a lot for racing.

They create loads of interest in the communities where the races take place and sponsorship and interest result in much bigger prizemoney for industry players than would normally be available.

With the rise in point of consumption betting taxes the rise in returns to the industry will go up initially but in the long run there is likely to be a downturn in turnover as many big punters move away from racing and therefore we need all the new players and interest in the sport we can get.

These April-May meetings plus The Hunter at Newcastle and The Gong at Wollongong later in the year do plenty of good.

WALLER PRODUCES A RABBIT OUT OF HIS HAT

Chris Waller would have been devastated on Saturday morning when he had to scratch the short priced favourite Kovalica from the Rough Habit Plate at Doomben.

Lo and behold the premier trainer produced a rabbit out of the hat in the form of a recent stable addition Special Swey and still won the race.

Special Swey looked an out-and-out-stayer as he circled the field and kept going to comfortably beat the favourite The Vowels and the Sydneysider Stroke Of Luck.

Special Swey will now head to the Queensland Derby, but Waller was quite adamant when interviewed after the race that Kovalica is still his Number 1 Derby contender.

Kovalica is in the field to take on Zaaki in Saturday's Doomben Cup and it's then expected he will back up against his own age in the Derby seven days later.

The breeding of Special Swey is interesting.

He is by the Lonhro stallion Sweynesse, who formerly raced in Australia in the Godolphin colours, but now stands at Cambridge in New Zealand at Novara Park.

Whereas Special Swey looks an out and out stayer, Sweynesse's best performed galloper to date is Lucky Sweynesse, who is Hong Kong's champion sprinter and a likely runner in the 2023 The Everest.

BUSH IRON HORSE

Yak isn't a household name but what an iron horses he is.

The seven-year-old gelding continually surprises me how well and healthy he looks every time Michael Lunn produces him on race day.

The son of Animal Kingdom has been in work almost 20 months having raced 26 times and has won just over $105,000 in prizemoney for his owner.

I asked Lunn what he does with the old boy to keep him looking so healthy and happy.

"He just does mostly half and three quarter pace work like a leisure horse," he told me.

"He knows how to gallop."

Don't be surprised if you see Yak and Lunn heading south to Warrnambool for the 2023 Jericho Cup in early December.

Jericho founder and legend Bill Gibbins has been in touch with Lunn and both agree the 4600m is a distance that Yak will love.

YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS

A punter attempted to have $900 on Nick Heywood at $1.45 in the jockey challenge at Parkes on Sunday to win $405 with one of our biggest bookies.

The punter, certainly not me, was given a revised amount that he was permitted to wager. That amount $0.

Heywood four rode winners to win comfortably.

UUUUUUMMMMMMMMM

* I witnessed the funniest moment on a racetrack at Parkes on Sunday. Legendary race caller Col Hodges had to request that the umbrellas on the front lawn be put down during the races so he could see the runners. Hodges broadcast box is approximately five feet off the ground. Hodges deserves the highest praise for his efforts behind the microphone.

* Which jockey at a recent country NSW meeting was ribbed by his fellow riders and others in attendance for the amount of aftershave he was wearing? One thing in the young man's defence is his best days of looking sharp are in front of him unlike some of the others. Hahahaha.

BLACKBOOKER – A WIN IS COMING

SILENT RAINDROPS – Her effort to get so close on Wednesday was incredible considering the steady tempo the race had been run at and the run in transit the favourite and eventual winner enjoyed. Silent Raindrops has only raced six times finishing in the placings on five of them yet she still looks like she has maturing to do. It'd be no surprise if the daughter of Sebring keeps taking giant steps forward.

ROCSTAR BOY– Rocstar Boy is a four-year-old and his best racing is in front of him. He was unlucky not to win at Wyong on Thursday with the bird having flown before he got into the fight yet he never stopped trying after making a long run. Angela Davies will be patient but stick with him as more wins are on the horizon.

STARLINK – She may not have won at Parkes on Sunday but her effort was outstanding signaling she is ready to return to the winners circle. As the day wore on it was difficult to make up ground wide on the track yet Starlink motored home out wide. Stick with this Clint Lundholm mare and rewards will follow.

LITTLE COINTREAU – The son of Contributer has only raced four times and I am confident a maiden win isn't far off. He was honest last week albeit beaten as a short-priced favourite who just had the momentum at the right time. Don't give up on him just yet.