Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
Terry French was just a no-name battling trainer with a poor strike rate until young trainer Alex Ashwood – the man with the highest strike rate of runners to winners in Victoria this season – started dating his daughter. In the four seasons between 2016/17 and 2019/20* French trained just 21 winners in total, at […]
Alex Ashwood at 34.8% has the best winning strike rate of any trainer in Victoria, better than Emma Stewart, better than David Aiken, better than Andy Gath, better than Anthony Butt and Sonia Smith, better than anyone at all. In fact Ashwood’s win rate is so impressive that he would damn near be a certainty […]
Over the past couple of years Brian Portelli has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of NSW leading trainers, and now boasts a stable full of young stars headed by Smaltese and Tasty Delight, who although only two and three respectively have won almost $400 000 between them, with the promise of many more […]
Miss Serena is a four-year-old mare who started her racing life in Western Australia. She had sixteen starts there for just one win and two placings. That sole win was in a lowly late season 2-year-old affair at Northam in a time of 2.01.5. The horses Miss Serena beat in that race have gone on […]
Sometime after her gross flop at Bankstown on the 6th of September, Miss Serena was transferred to the stable of Andrew Ison, who is based in the tiny isolated locale of Warral, located to the south-west of Tamworth. Andrew Ison used to be just a battler, but in recent times had transformed into a miracle […]
Last week an English trainer named Johnny Farrelly was permanently excluded – warned off – from racing after being found guilty of sexually abusing a 19-year-old apprentice jockey under his control and care. To protect the identity of the victim the reasons for his exclusion were suppressed, but that is what they are. The Australian […]
We all know about Ben Currie and why he got disqualified. His stable staff administered boost paste – a totally legal sold over the counter at Garrards Horse and Hound amino acid tonic, with huge therapeutic and health benefits – to a horse named Eight Over on the morning of a race, which was in […]
Isn’t it good to see that Ben Currie seems to have matured, realised the mistakes of his past and put his hand up to them, and actively taken the right steps to make sure that they don’t happen again? The interview he did with Ben Dorries of Racenet yesterday showed us a new side of […]
Dr Andrew Grierson is a qualified equine veterinary surgeon. He is also a harness racing breeder and owner, and a businessman. Andrew Grierson owns 50 percent of Woodlands Stud, the most successful breeding operation in New Zealand. Breeders make money in a number of ways, but two of the obvious ones are by selling stallion […]
The annual Harness Jewels is the most prestigious age based harness racing series in New Zealand, and the richest too. It is the Golden Slipper, the Derby and the Golden Eagle combined. Each race is a Group 1. That means that it is very, very hard to win. Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen – trading […]
