Author: Ben Triandafillou

HORSE RACING MATT Laurie’s progressive mare Sayumi has broken her maiden tag in comfortable fashion with a win first-up at The Valley on Friday 4 December. The four-year-old daughter of Sebring had placed in three of her four starts before being sidelined for eight months with a slight strain to her suspensory. Returning first-up and winning with her ears pricked by half-of-a-length in town, Mornington-based trainer Matt Laurie believes the layoff has made a “world of difference” for the promising mare. “She’s really thickened up into a lovely style of mare now,” Laurie said after Sayumi’s maiden victory. “I thought…

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HORSE RACING CHAMPION Mornington-based racehorse trainer Jim Marconi passed away last Monday 23 November aged 87. Leaving behind a remarkable legacy, Marconi swiftly moved from a late-blooming picnic trainer in his mid-40s in 1978 to becoming a multiple Group One winning professional owner/trainer over the next two decades with the feats of Cossack Prince, Rancho Ruler and King Marauding to name a few. But, it wasn’t just racing that Marconi succeeded at. Despite setbacks throughout his life, he always found a way to turn it into an opportunity. Before immigrating to Australia in his mid-20s, Marconi found a way to…

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HORSE RACING THE New Zealander’s Brett Scott and Michael Walker have combined to take out the $500,000 Listed Ballarat Cup with the inform stayer Irish Flame on Saturday 21 November. Notching up a hattrick of wins in his first prep with Mornington-based trainer Brett Scott, Irish Flame was forced to sit wide for the entirety of the 2000m trip but still proved too tough for his rivals to land a narrow neck victory over the Dan O’Sullivan-trained and race favourite, Affair To Remember. Irish Flame, who had won races at Flemington and Moonee Valley at his past two starts with…

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HORSE RACING JEROME Hunter’s talented sprinter Our Luca has broken his two-year winless drought with a commanding victory at The Valley on Friday 13 November. The Graebar Park-owned gelding had been winless since he clocked up three straight victories at The Valley at the end of 2018, but finally returned to somewhere near his best in the 1200m contest under the hands of Mornington-based apprentice jockey Campbell Rawiller. Bringing up a winning double on the night for Rawiller, Our Luca ran his rivals off their legs by setting up a strong tempo up front before gaining a winning break turning…

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HORSE RACING AFTER suffering setback after setback, Mornington-based apprentice jockey Celine Gaudray has managed to not only ride her first winner, but notch up a winning double at Traralgon on Saturday 31 October. Having fractured her back and knee in a race fall at her fourth race ride in July, Gaudray is still as confident as ever after breaking through to ride her first winner for her boss Pat Carey. Making the most of her four-kilo claim, Gaudray led all the way aboard Pat Carey’s Tippitywichit to win her first ever race by just under two lengths at her 25th…

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