VICTORIA will host 12 race meetings over the Easter long weekend, starting Saturday and ending on Monday.
The RV MEDIA BULLETIN reports also reports on the comeback of promising galloper Sertorious in Saturday's feature race at Caulfield, the Easter Cup.
If you fancy a day at the races this Easter but think you can’t find one, you’re not really trying. Victoria will host 12 meetings from Saturday through Monday, from Terang to Kerang and Bairnsdale to Warracknabeal.
The Melbourne Racing Club will host the weekend’s three metro fixtures – Caulfield meetings either side of Sunday’s Mornington card – but a range of regional venues will host their signature meetings of the year.
Stawell might be the focus of the athletic world with the running of the nation’s most prestigious footrace, the Stawell Gift, on Monday but the big weekend in the goldfields town also features the $50,000 Centrebet Stawell Gold Cup on Sunday.
It is the feature of an eight-race card that accompanies Stony Creek and the Nullamunjie Olive Oil Tambo Valley Cup at picnic venue Swifts Creek as Sunday’s country fixtures.
The curtain may have already been brought down on Melbourne’s Festival of Racing last weekend but the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) are set to continue the carnival-like festivities with a bumper set of meetings over the Easter long-weekend.
The highlight of the three-day, two-venue festival is Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation Easter Race Day on Saturday where, in addition to quality black-type racing, Caulfield presents Melbourne’s Greatest Ever Easter Egg Hunt.
Easter eggs numbering the hundreds of thousands have been donated by Ernest Hillier for the four hunts, each belonging to a particular age group and conducted in the name of raising awareness and funds for organ and tissue donation, the purpose of Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation and theme of the day.
All proceeds from registrations for the Easter egg hunt – a $5 donation – go directly to Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation and participating children receive a special bucket to collect their bounty.
Sertorius set for Easter return
Geelong trainer Jamie Edwards has some good news for those who have latched onto Sertorius in Saturday’s $150,000 Group 3 Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation Victoria Handicap (1400m) at Caulfield.
The tenacious gelding has been clearly the best-backed runner in the $150,000 Group 3 event, now the $4.60 favourite after opening at $7.50.
Edwards, who trains Sertorius in partnership with Bruce Elkington, said he can’t be too confident of how the stable star will go at his first try at Group level, but if he fails
It won’t be through lack of fitness.
“He’s not there to play cards,” Edwards said when asked if Sertorius could win. “I’ve done plenty with him, he’s very forward and fitness won’t be a query. He’ll run the race right out.”
150 reasons to be at Balnarring
Thousands of Victorian racing fans will take a step back in time on Saturday as the Balnarring Picnic Racing Club races into its 150th year.
Despite holding major meetings throughout this season, the club will officially celebrate the anniversary on Saturday with a host of festivities being planned to give punters a taste of what has made Balnarring one of the most popular picnic racing clubs in the country for the last 150 years.
Club Secretary Neil Heathcote said little had changed at Balnarring in its 150 years of operation with punters still swarming from across the state to enjoy a relaxed day at racing’s grassroots.
One of the oldest Victorian racing clubs in continued operation, Balnarring has hosted at least one meeting every year since its inception, a tradition Heathcote hopes will continue well into the future.
Easter treat for Black Caviar fans
There’s plenty to get excited about this Easter, and we’re not just talking about chocolate eggs and hot cross buns.
There’s another reason to get the taste buds and cheque books flowing and that’s the Inglis Easter Australian Yearling Sale where Australasia’s elite thoroughbreds gather in Sydney to be sold at public auction from Tuesday 9 April until 11 April.
As with every leading bloodstock sale around the world, there’s always a headline act and this year it’s the half-brother to unbeaten world champion Black Caviar. The Redoute’s Choice colt out of Helsinge, regarded as one of the most valuable broodmares in the world, is catalogued as Lot 131 and due to go through the sales ring at approximately 3.20pm (AEST) on Day 1.
The Victorian-owned, bred, born, raised and sold yearling is without doubt the sale’s biggest ever show-stopper which will see him follow in the footsteps of his previous siblings to go under the hammer for $2.6 million in 2012 (current un-raced two-year-old filly Belle Couture) and $1.025 million (current champion three-year-old colt All Too Hard) in 2011.
Siren sounds of Spring sprints
The Spring Racing Carnival sprint form will be tested within 12 hours of each other this weekend.
Sea Siren and Mental, the four-year-olds who fought out the two Group 1 Spring sprints, will be in action on either side of the equator.
Mental, who avenged his Manikato Stakes second placing to Sea Siren at Moonee Valley with victory over that mare in the Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington, is favourite for the Group 1 Golden Shaheen (1200m) on Dubai World Cup Night.
Closer to the scene of their Spring stoushes, brilliant Sydney mare Sea Siren resumes in the $350,000 Galaxy at Rosehill.
Aussie interest in Dubai World Cup
It will be a bleary-eyed Easter for die-hard racing fans this weekend with massive Australian interest around Dubai’s annual Word Cup meeting, run at Meydan in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Some of the Spring Racing Carnival’s biggest stars, including the winners of this season’s BMW Caulfield Cup (2400m), Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) and Patinack Farm Classic (1200m), will be among those in action at the lucrative United Arab Emirates (UAE) meeting.
French star Dunaden, who added last year’s Caulfield Cup to his 2011 Melbourne Cup victory, will tackle the Group 1 Longines Sheema Classic (2400m) for trainer Mikel Delzangles.
A win over the weekend, in a race that also features Japanese Cup-winner Gentildonna and Aidan O’Brien’s St Nicholas Abbey, would see Dunaden’s chances of returning to Australian shores this spring enhanced, with the Cox Plate being touted as a likely option.
RAD Board appeal hearing for Maloney
The Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board will hear an appeal by jockey Ryan Maloney at 10.30am on Wednesday, 3 April 2013.
Mr Maloney has appealed against the decision of the Stewards and severity of the penalty imposed when he was found guilty of a charge of careless riding on his mount Quarterbar in Race 5 the Mitchelton Wines 0-68 Handicap (1309m) at Seymour on Tuesday, 26 March 2013.
Mr Maloney had his licence to ride in races suspended for a period to commence at midnight on Thursday, 28 March 2013 and to expire at midnight on Friday, 5 April 2013 – a total of eight race meetings (three metro, five provincial).
A stay of proceedings was granted effective until midnight on Monday, 1 April 2013.
RACING VICTORIA NEWS BULLETIN COMPILED BY SHEENA COFFEY.
