Racing Industry

Three brothers have embarked on an epic road trip with their horses to this week’s Birdsville races, ticking off a bucket-list item. The lesson from their own hometown is that you can never take for granted racing will be there forever.

As David Eustace looks to build on his impressive first-season efforts in Hong Kong, the lessons learned in Australia in his time working in partnership with Ciaron Maher are at the forefront of his mind.

A planned monthly Racing Australia board meeting has been called off, adding to the growing frustration about the state of flux that the nation’s black type calendar is caught up in.

Australia’s two biggest stables, the Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher operations, have 33 per cent of the 120 entries received for the 2025 Melbourne Cup between them.

Playing devil’s advocate, Bren O’Brien has taken a scalpel to Australia’s feature race program to see what a schedule of 50 Group 1 races might look like.

The Racing Australia board will meet on Tuesday for its September meeting and one of the motions to be debated concerns the proposed implementation of Black Type Guidelines which would formalise the nation’s calendar of stakes races.

Via Sistina extraordinary 2024/25 season has seen her crowned Australian Racehorse of the Year, the first Northern hemisphere-foaled winner since Makybe Diva.