Victory Crowns Comeback

13 June 2011

The touch of master trainer Bart Cummings was again evident when Rigging successfully returned from a lengthy break at Kembla Grange yesterday. The WS-bred and sold son of No Excuse Needed was back on track after nearly a year off due to injury to win first-up over 1200 metres.

Raced by the legendary horseman and Dato Tan Chin Nam, the five-year-old was making just his seventh appearance and had weighed in on four previous occasions. He was purchased by Cummings for $290,000 out of WS’s Premier draft in 2007 and is out of the Danasinga mare Windsong who is a half-sister to the Gr 2 Surround and Tea Rose Stakes winner Glenview. It is also the family of the Gr 1 South African Derby winner Timber Trader.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, former stud resident Danasinga went close to providing the Matamata farm with a quinella at Sha Tin where Big Winner Again was a class five winner with Sammy’s Fortune claiming third money. The former, bought out of WS’s 2007 Premier Sale line-up by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for $160,000, is a brother to the multiple winner Striptease and the feature names in his pedigree are the Gr 1 winners Anacheeva (Caulfield Guineas) and Headturner (Australian Derby). Sammy’s Fortune, a $190,000 buy for the HKJC from WS’s draft in 2006, is a sibling to six winners including his Gr 2 Waikato Gold Cup winning sister Singing Star.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

Well, I got a bit behind last week, with Friday slipping by without realising it; hence no Corner. I have said on too many occasions that negative messages are of no help to anyone, and yet there seems so often a reason to be concerned. Clearly, this week the well-constructed Guerin Report on the threatened downgrade of our Group 1 races demands our attention.

21 October 2026

Vale Ohope Wins, Ocean Park’s tough, kind and courageous daughter

Long before her Oaks double, Ohope Wins’ greatest victory belonged to the Waikato Stud staff and Matamata Veterinary Services vets who saved her as a desperately sick foal. Taken far too soon at Caulfield, her remarkable story is theirs too.