Ballarat Slam Dunk For Bondarenko

11 May 2012

A return to the left-handed way of going in Melbourne saw Bondarenko rediscover her best form yesterday. The Pins mare was having her first start from Troy Corstens, after a previous stint with Kris Lees in Sydney, at Ballarat and she posted a clear-cut win over 1600 metres in the hands of Glenn Boss.

The four-year-old had recorded a win and two placings in her first preparation last season from John Sadlers barn before she moved to New South Wales. She failed to show her true ability there and is back in familiar hands as Corstens purchased her for $40,000 from WS’s 2009 Premier Sale line-up at Karaka.

Bondarenko is out of the unraced Zabeel mare Match Point, who is a half-sister to the Chittick family’s Gr 1 Otaki-Maori WFA winner Critic (Centaine). It is also the family of the Gr 2 Great Northern Guineas winner and Gr 1 New Zealand Derby runner-up, Prince Kaapstad.

Strongside super second-up for O’Shea-Charlton

There was plenty to like about Strongside’s performance at Wyong on Sunday, 31 August, when the full brother to Gr.1 Randwick Guineas winner Linebacker carried Ron Finemore’s colours to a determined victory. Other prominent owners …

27 August 2025

The Corner with Garry Chittick

We live in a vastly different world to the world I was born into 80 years ago. Of course, I would not feel the effects of the political values of the time with any likelihood of understanding, perhaps for 30 years, and yet the environment in which my cousins and I were raised in has had an entrenched effect on our lives.