Things to know today
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Soldi won the Listed MRC Debutant Stakes over 1000 metres at Caulfield on Wednesday, the Tassort filly taking the $200,000 juvenile race by a head from Royal Press in 0:57.62 on a Good 4, with Maalefushi third in a field of six. Ben, Will and JD Hayes train her and Blake Shinn rode. She cost $310,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale out of the Segenhoe Stud draft, is the second stakes winner from the six winners produced by Spurs and Sashes, and gives Lindsay Park the race for the third year running (Breednet, TTR AusNZ) |
| 2 |
Affari broke through at Rosehill on Wednesday after four straight seconds, the Home Affairs filly winning a $100,000 maiden over 1200 metres by three and a half lengths in 1:10.37 on a Soft 7 for Chris Waller and James McDonald, with blinkers on for the first time. She was a $370,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling from Glenlogan Park, bought by Star Thoroughbreds and Randwick Bloodstock Agency, and is out of the Hinchinbrook mare Super Too (Breednet) |
| 3 |
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing put $1.095 million from the welfare levy into thoroughbred care and safety in 2025/26. Racing safety and research took $357,556 of it, including $269,490 for the New Zealand Horse Ambulance Trust and $71,621 for research into catastrophic injury. Retraining and rehoming took $321,507 across 260 horses, 239 of which were rehomed, and $98,582 went to direct welfare intervention covering 24 horses in seven cases. Sam Fursdon, general manager welfare and industry capability, said the levy “helps fund care for Thoroughbreds before, during and after racing” (NZTR, Breednet) |
| 4 |
Widden Stud has become the first farm on G1 Goldmine to attach a service fee discount to a pedigree match, with 18 of its stallions standing in New South Wales and Victoria carrying a Match Offer for the 2026 season. The discount appears only to a breeder whose mare returns a Perfect Match or a 20/20 Match against that stallion in the Stallion Match tool, it can run to half of a single service fee, and it is visible on the free membership tier (Breednet) |
| 5 |
A total of 389 two-year-olds breezed at Te Rapa on Monday and Tuesday for the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale, 191 on the first day and 198 on the second, with the two day average 10.89 seconds. The fastest was lot 35, a Tassort gelding from Prima Park, in 10.19 on Monday, from lot 206, a Zousain colt, in 10.24. The track was rated Soft 5 on the second day into a stronger headwind. The sale is at Karaka on 18 and 19 November (Breednet) |
| 6 |
Ethereal is 29 and still at Pencarrow Stud near Cambridge, bred and raced by Sir Peter Vela and the late Philip Vela, and out of broodmare work since missing to Mongolian Khan in 2017. The Rhythm mare, out of the globetrotting Romanee Conti, won the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup, the second of them making Sheila Laxon the first woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner, and signed off in the Group 1 BMW. Stud manager Leon Casey said “we always intended to keep her” (Breednet) |
| 7 |
Liguria goes to the Group 2 Windsor Park Stud Soliloquy Stakes over 1400 metres at Ellerslie on Saturday for Lance Noble and Cambridge Stud, who bred her and race her. The Snitzel filly won the Group 3 Colin Jillings Stakes and was second to Lara Antipova in the Group 1 Sistema Stakes last season, and was second in the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes behind Hawea on her return. Noble said the run “will dictate whether we go to Christchurch or not” for the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (Breednet) |
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