Adam's Australian News Round-up

STYLISH Memphis’ Ladyship Mile defence is right on target.

That’s the word Jack Trainor after he trained and drove her to victory to launch her latest NSW raid at Menangle last night.

Trainor drove superbly to land the one-one trail, but main danger Mach Da Vinci led and blasted home in closing splits of 53.7 and 26.1sec.

Stylish Memphis was simply too fast, someone easily making up a couple of lengths on the leader to win pulling clear by 2.2m in a 1min51.9sec

mile.

“She was ready to go for that sort of class, but the run will definitely bring her on a bit, too,” Trainor said.

“Her next run will be in a mare’s free-for-all (at Menangle) in two weeks. She feels at least as good as she did this time last year.”

Stylish Memphis may need to be better with leading Ladyship Mile contenders including Amazing Dream, Ladies In Red, Spellbound and Maajida.

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THE best version of Im Ready Jet is something special.

Anton Golino’s new stable star stamped herself as a major Great Southern Star contender when she zoomed along the sprint lane to win last

night’s $50,000 Group 1 Maori Mile in 1min55.4sec.

Veteran champ Tornado Valley led and had his chance after a cosy 31.4sec second split, but Im Ready Jet dashed past him from behind his back

and classy Kiwi Majestic Man ran a big race for second.

Brilliant young former US mare Aldebaran Revani’s first dip into the big league proved a nightmare when she was unable to cross Tornado Valley at

the start and galloped out of contention soon after.

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JOSIE Justice created Australian harness racing history at Melton last Friday night.

Justice, the 90-year-old mother of champion horseman Lance and John Justice, became the oldest person to train a winner in Australia when

former Kiwi trotter High In The Sky arrived in time to win.

It was her first training success since 1995.

“It’s just a wonderful thing. I still love my horses as much today as I did years ago,” Josie Justice told thetrots.com.au. “And any minute I get to spend with them has been a wonderful ride.”

John Justice, who took the winning drive, added: “This mare has been a bit of a headache, but Mum backs her horses every start and I told her not to jump off now.”

The humble and much-loved Josie, who was moved to tears, turned the attention back to Lance and John.

“I still call them my boys, I’m so proud of them. Look at the long line of great horses they’ve had, starting with Whirley Dream to Neat Lad, then Tip Top Prince, Smoken Up, Sokyola, Safe And Sound and Shakamaker,” she said.

“That’s why I moved from South Australia to Victoria a while back. They’d both moved here and if they couldn’t drive my horses at Globe Derby anymore, I had to move to where they could drive them.”

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DON’T panic is noticed awesome former Kiwi pacer Magnificent Storm was scratched from the feature race at Gloucester Park last Friday night.

If you haven’t caught-up with why, it was as much a precautionary move as anything by his respected trainer Ray Williams.

Perth endured a heatwave during last week and Williams felt Magnificent Storm, who won brilliantly last Friday week, hadn’t handled the heat as well as he would’ve liked.

It does mean Williams has to deviate from his preferred plan of giving Magnificent Storm a two-week break going into the first of WA’s major races, the Group 1 Fremantle Cup on January 22.

Magnificent Storm will either run next week and back-up a week later or go straight into the Cup, meaning three weeks between races.

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STILL on Gloucester Park and Team Bond had a night to remember last Friday.

With the state’s biggest open-class races looming, Greg and Skye Bond snared the trifecta in a key lead-up race, the $50,000 Pat Cranley Memorial (2130m).

In a scorching affair, it was a blowout for punters with veteran Vampiro driven by Michael Grantahm coming from behind leader and big gun, Minstrel, to win by 1.2m in a 1min52.6sec mile rate.

They smashed the track record of 1min52.9sec held jointly by Beaudiene Boaz and Talktomeurmattjesty.

The race was effectively won when Grantham mustered all of Vampiro’s early speed to cross renowned speedster Hurricane Harley and lead early.

He then took a sit on Minstrel, who just kept rolling in front.

Vampiro came off Minstrel’s back to nab him while another stablemate, Patronus Star, battled fairly into third spot.

High class mare Balcatherine was a sound fourth, while comeback star Chicago Bull just battled into fifth spot and would need to improve to be a genuine Fremantle or WA Pacing Cup hope.

Earlier in the night, Team Bond’s former Kiwi five-year-old Ideal Agent scored one of the biggest wins ever seen at Gloucester Park.
And he beat much-hyped former Kiwi Ragazzo Mach in the process.

Ragazzo Mach was crunched into $1.22 favourite and worked to find the front, but Ideal Agent came three-wide to sit parked and just kept digging in through some scorching splits over 1730m in a heat of the Nights Of Thunder series.

Despite doing all the grunt work, Ideal Agent, with Deni Roberts aboard, overpowered Ragazzo Mach late in a 1min51.9sec mile rate – just 0.3sec outside Chicago Bull’s track record.

Roberts proved a giant-killer on the night, also winning another heat of the Nights Of Thunder on Team Bond’s $126 outsider Double Up.

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IT doesn’t get much crueler than Plymouth Chubb’s career-threatening injury.

Just days after capping the most remarkable of juvenile racing seasons, owner Gary Benson revealed the winner of 14 of his 15 starts had fractured a hind pastern.

“He had four screws put in … according to the vet, in these sorts of operations there’s about a 60 per cent chance they get back to racing,” Benson told thetrots.com.au

“Whether they are going to get back to fulfill their original potential remains to be seen. He might get back to the track and not win another race, too.”

Plymouth Chubb galloped and lost on chance on debut for father and daughter, Peter and Kerryn Manning, then won 14 races on end, most recently in the Group 1 Vicbred final on New Year’s Eve.

He won four Group 1 races and over $220,000 last season. The other Group 1’s were: Breeders Crown final, Redwood Classic and Home Grown Classic.

Literally hours before the injury was revealed, Kerryn Manning described the Vicbred win as one of the most special moments of her career.

“Mum (Barb) cried because it meant so much, the whole thing of Dad and I doing it together and finishing the amazing season with a win like that,” she said.