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Tony Noonan’s Mr Optimistic is among a host of Spring Carnival hopes kicking off their campaigns when racing returns to the turf track at Racing.com Park on Wednesday.

A good performance from promising colt Mr Optimistic in the Run To The Rose will be enough to convince trainer Tony Noonan to tackle the Group One Golden Rose.

But Noonan said it would take a supreme optimist to believe Mr Optimistic could win the 1200m Group Two feature at Rosehill on Saturday.

Mr Optimistic will take on the Chris Waller-trained duo Japonisme and Press Statement, as well as Godolphin pair Exosphere and Holler.

“There are some nice horses in it that are better credentialled than him,” Noonan said.

“The horse is going to measure up at some stage, but this is nice race that will test him out.”

While Noonan has a high opinion of Mr Optimistic (pictured below as a yearling), he says he wants to see him match it with top-class horses before he looks to the $1 million Golden Rose.

“He’s such a raw type of animal and it’s hard to evaluate those horses sometimes,” he said.

After a Queensland winter carnival campaign which included a Listed placing, Noonan opted to spell Mr Optimistic in the winter sunshine.

“Years ago the great Victorian trainers used to race horses in Queensland during the carnival and then send them for a spell up there,” Noonan said.

“Over 25 years, all the good horses I’ve trained have got to Queensland and they normally come back better horses.”

Multiple Group One winner Ortensia is just one of the Noonan-trained former stars to have enjoyed a Queensland winter.

Mr Optimistic is the first foal from another Noonan-trained Group winner, Be Positive.

“Some of the people that were involved in Be Positive kept the mare and bred the horse, so there will be a pretty good crew there on Saturday,” he said.

Just Horseracing

With three second placed efforts so far this time in, all were confident that Wide Acclaim, affectionately known as Harry, would break his maiden anytime now.. and that day was Tuesday when the two-year-old contested Race 2: Farrar Legal 2YO C& G Maiden Plate over 1100m.

Team Hawkes saddled up race day favourite Elemenohpee who had had three barrier trials winning all three including defeating Sir Bacchus, the other Laurel Oak runner in the race on Tuesday.

Ridden by Winona Costin, the Gary Portelli-trained Wide Acclaim started the second favourite in the race and from barrier five jumped away well before being restrained and allowed to drift to a mid-filed position.

Sir Bacchus, who had the inside gate was slowly away and settled with only a few runners behind him.

At the 700m mark Wide Acclaim had pulled himself out of the pack and was travelling in three wide position without cover.

Continuing on his forward path, Wide Acclaim found himself hitting the lead at the top of the straight, while the race favourite Elemenohpee was trying to find a gap to set out after Wide Acclaim.

But the son of Congrats had too much on the race favourite as he continued to pull away for an impressive two-and-a-quarter length victory. To view the race win, click the below image.

Sir Bacchus worked home solidly to finishing fifth and with the run acting as an educational experience, trainer Chis Waller is confident he will return a much stronger 3yo.

Racing for a large group of owners; Laurel Oak Bloodstock Pty Ltd, Mr M B Sandblom, Grant Bloodstock Pty Ltd, Mr C P Keane, Mr N Macdonald, Mr B Carlstein, Club Dryden Sydney, Mr R R Cocks, Mr J Racovalis, Mr J V Camilleri, Mr G L Barker, Mrs K A Fraser, Mr R A Wise, Mr K Macdonald, Mr M J Baumann, Mr D A Russell, the Magic Millions Yearling Sale purchase from the draft of Vinery Stud has recorded five top three placed finishes from six starts to date and the manner in which he won suggest a horse with a bright future!

In the past few days, Racing NSW has announced some significant changes to the Benchmark system, as well as a number of initiatives to improve the competitiveness of country-performed horses.

The changes are designed to increase field sizes in Sydney, which have for a long time been way too small. These changes are particularly pleasing to me personally because racing horses regularly in both country and city NSW, we have understood the reasons why metropolitan fields have been so small for so long, and years of lobbying have proven to be very frustrating. Having the opportunity to contribute in a non-official capacity to a consultative process that took place early this year and came up with a raft of recommendations, it is pleasing that many of our suggestions have now become policy. For the sake of racing in NSW, I hope they work!

Without going into fuller detail, the key changes are an increase to the minimum top weight in benchmark races from 59kg to 61kg, with the minimum staying at 54kg. This means that in any given benchmark race, the range of horses that can compete at their correct handicap weight now has a 7kg or 14 benchmark points spread, rather than 5kg or 10 benchmark points. While that may not seem a lot, it is a 40% increase in the available pool of correctly-handicapped horses, so it has to have a natural flow-on benefit to field sizes.

Due to the increased weight that horses will be regularly asked to carry, changes have been introduced to allow apprentices to keep their claims longer, which will give trainers more opportunities to use apprentices and reduce the actual weight to be carried by the horses.

In NSW, metropolitan fields have for some years been drawn exclusively from metropolitan-trained horses. This is simply because country-performed horses were at a huge disadvantage when competing against metropolitan-performed counterparts under the benchmark system. In a simplistic example, a horse may win three races at a country centre like
Taree or Moruya, and be penalised four points for each win. Suddenly, after, say, three wins and a few placings after ten career starts, a handy bush horse has a benchmark rating of 70.

Meanwhile back in the city, a horse may win a provincial maiden and then a midweek race, and throw in a few placings, and it, too, gets penalised four points for each win. However it may now be on a benchmark rating of 66 because it has won two races only compared to the country winner’s three races, even though the former has earned much more prizemoney. So when the country horse came to town for a benchmark 70 midweek race, it would be carrying 59kg under the benchmark handicapping system, while the provincial/metro winner was carrying only 57kg, despite being a far superior horse and having earned more prizemoney. The latter would start near favourite and perform accordingly, while the former would start at 50/1, and invariably perform accordingly.

So in time country horses simply stopped coming to the city as they had little or no chance to be competitive. While I have been pushing this barrow for some years now, because it has been so obvious, there are now finally some rules in place that will hopefully make country-performed horses competitive again against their city-performed counterparts. The key to the changes are that the handicapper now has discretion to alter the weight of a horse moving from the country to the city, or vice versa, from its standard benchmark-linked handicap.

In our example above, if the Taree/Moruya winner now comes to the city, the handicapper has the discretion to give it up to a 6kg weight relief. While we will now see to what extent this will be applied, the reality is that that horse is now much more likely to be carrying 54kg when it comes to town, rather than 59kg. What this will do is make country-performed horses more competitive in the city, which will have the flow-on benefit of more country-performed horses actually coming to the city to have a go because of the greater likelihood that they will be competitive.

Similarly when the 66-rated provincial/city winner went to the country, it wasn’t penalised in any way under the current system, so it invariably started short-priced favourite and stifled betting, because its form was so superior, and it was so generously handicapped. Now the handicapper has the discretion to penalise those horses heading from the city to the country several kilos to give the locals much more chance of remaining competitive.

Further, Racing NSW has announced the introduction of “highway” races. Starting from December, there will become a ninth race on Sydney Saturday race programs run for midweek prizemoney, and exclusively for country-trained horses. This is another huge filip for country-trained horses to help boost their earning potential and indeed give their connections the opportunity of enjoying an exciting day in Sydney.

There are other nuances to the changes, but they are the key points. Racing NSW will review the impact of the changes after six months.

News from Louis

While the temperature might have been a little ‘Arctic’ at Echuca on Tuesday, it was a ‘Dream’ result for her owners as four-year-old mare Arctic Dream broke her maiden status.

Having finished third last time out over 1580m, the step up to the 2100m of the Betfair Murray Mallee Winter Stayers Series Heat 5 really aided the Peter Morgan and Craig Widdison-trained mare.

From the outside barrier in the field of 12, jockey Billy Egan took the mare forward where she sat on the outside of Speed ‘N’ Reef.

A mid-race move came from back in the pack as Gold A Plenty charged around the field to try and wrestle the lead from Speed ‘N’ Reef.

As the field rounded the home turn, Gold A Plenty had got the better of the race leader, and began to assert his superiority and was pulling away from the field.

Having enjoyed a good trail just behind the leaders, Arctic Dream began to make her move and with about 20m to go she got her head in front to record a half-length win, breaking her maiden.

To view a replay of the gutsy performance, click here.

Set to head to stud this season, it was a great to get a win on the board for the well-related daughter of Sebring, as she is also a half-sister to the Group 2-winning, Group 1 placed Hallowell Belle (Starcraft) as well the Group 3-winning Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom), all daughters of the Beautiful Crown mare Bella Inez, herself a full-sister to the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas winner In Top Swing.

Congratulations to all fellow owners on the win of the well-bred mare; Mr M B Christian, Mr B Johnson, Mr B G Christian, Mr R H Soussa, Maniana, Mr A N Fitzgerald, S & K Dean, Mr M W Bristow, Dr P D Braude, Ms J Marretta, Mr D A Russell and Mrs R C Fitzgerald.

While we all love to highlight success, we are confident that ‘Harry’ will make the grade in the coming weeks after recording her third consecutive second placed finish this time in!

Wide Acclaim as he is officially known, returned from a spell to finish second over 1000m at Kembla Grange on June 16, before finishing in the same position just over two weeks later when stepped up to the 1100m at Hawkesbury.

Starting race favourite at Kembla on Tuesday, Wide Acclaim was ridden by leading jockey Blake Shinn and after settling down in third position in the run where upon entering the home straight looked a live chance of taking the win.

With the race favourite, the well-spruiked Egyptian Symbol still in front of him, Wide Acclaim was doing a few things wrong but still set out after the leader.

Narrowing the margin to a half-neck on the line, it was a great effort from Harry and we are confident that it won’t be too long before the son of Vinery stallion Congrats finds himself crossing the line in front!

To view his run from Tuesday, click here.

With five runs under his belt for four placed effort, Wide Acclaim, will slightly frustrating, is proving to trainer Gary Portelli that he is at least consistent.

Purchased from the draft of Vinery Stud at the 2014 Magic Millions Yearling Sale, Wide Acclaim is out of the Hussonet mare Dirty, a winner of the Listed BTC Vo Rogue Plate during her career.

Congrats to fellow the fellow owners in Harry and we hope to be writing about his maiden win in the coming weeks!

Sky Dazzle produced a big effort to lead all the way on debut at Sale for Mornington-based trainer Tony Noonan and triple her purchase price in earnings from just one race.

“She was a $5,000 yearling purchase so Louis Mihalyka at Laurel Oak Bloodstock has really outdone himself by picking out this lovely filly,” said Alfred Chan, Racing Manager for Tony Noonan.

“She’s shown a lot of ability in her jumpouts at home and the Super VOBIS bonus today just makes the win all the more sweeter for her owners.”

Jumping well from gates, Sky Dazzle showed excellent tactical speed under rider Jake Noonan to drift across from barrier 7 and find the lead.

Travelling sweetly, Sky Dazzle ($8.50) gave a kick in the straight to hold on by a head from Magna Rossa ($26) and Rillito ($7) a further two lengths back in third. To view a reply of the race, click here.

“She’s a really nice filly,” Noonan said after the victory.

“I’ve got to give credit to Michael Carson who rides trackwork for Dad and has done a lot of work with this filly.

“He’s always had an opinion of her and he’s done a really good job educating her.”

The win continues the excellent partnership Laurel Oak Bloodstock are having with Noonan-trained horses for Sky Dazzle to be the 7th individual winner for the major syndicator in the Noonan stable this season.

Secured from the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale from the draft of Ultra Thoroughbreds, Sky Dazzle was was offered to clients as part of the Tony Noonan Club Syndicate 2 – moral of the story – take notice next time!

Racing in Victoria will become more viable for owners in the 2015/2016 racing season with a $16.5 million prizemoney increase announced from 1 August 2015. Across the various race types and grades, the increases range from 6.7% up to 71.4%, all very significant percentages which will be very much appreciated by all owners.

Importantly the increases are from maiden grade up to open handicaps which has a greater widespread benefit than the black-type races. A summary of the new prizemoney for each class of race can be viewed here.

This is very welcome news and we are looking forward to the Laurel Oak horses taking home more prizemoney in the future.

In major news for industry professionals like yours truly, Inglis have announced that they will be moving their office and auction facilities to Warwick Farm.

Inglis acquired 26 acres of land adjacent to the Warwick Farm racecourse in 2009 as an option for the future. Now with the rezoning of Inglis’ Newmarket site in Randwick that property will be sold and relocation plans will proceed.

It is expected that the first yearling sales to be held at Warwick Farm will be in 2019.

Sydney will then have a similar set up to Karaka and Melbourne’s Oaklands Junction whereby the industry participants generally stay in the city centre and make the 30 to 40 minute journey each day to the sales complex.

The current Inglis site will be redeveloped to Newmarket Green, a new community for Randwick with a mix of housing, neighbourhood shops and services while retaining heritage elements and all significant trees, including the iconic Moreton Bay fig that dominates the current Inglis auction ring.

To read more about the move as per the Inglis Press Release, click here.