Bright Track Weekly
In a world where challenges often take centre stage, we bring focus on the positive. Bright Track Weekly highlights a selection of racing and breeding snippets, celebrating the vitality of our great sport.
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Sunshine in Melbourne!
Since her purchase at the 2023 Magic Millions Broodmare Sale, Sunshine in Paris has been a model of consistency and brilliance. She won the Group 2 Sheraco Stakes on her first run for new owners John and Deb Camilleri, a race she won again this season prior to a big run in the $20 million The Everest. She was again close up when second to Bella Nipotina in the $3 million Russell Balding, and then last weekend finally got her well-deserved second Group 1 victory, this time in the Fairway Thoroughbreds colours, when defeating a high-class field in the Group 1 Darley Champions Sprint on the final day of the Flemington Carnival.
Sunshine in Paris has been beautifully managed by her trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald, and this was a spectacular ride from Champion Jockey James McDonald, who kept her covered up until the last possible moment to unleash her outstanding turn of foot.
Congratulations to John and Deb on this richly deserved success — an incredible reward for their astute purchase of this remarkable mare.
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Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale catalogue released
The time certainly flies, and it's hard to believe that in just two months' time we will be once again up at the Gold Coast for the traditional curtain-raiser of the yearling sales season. Gerry and Katie Page Harvey, alongside Barry Bowditch and his team have put together a sensational week of entertainment to coincide with both the exciting sales action from 7th - 13th January and the $14.5 million race day on Saturday 11th January. If you have never been before I could not recommend it more highly for a fun trip.
This year's catalogue features 1401 yearlings selling over six days, including the first "super session" on Friday 10th January, where the sale will continue into the evening to replace the old format of the Saturday night session.
Good luck to all of our clients, with 13 James Harron Bloodstock-managed yearlings entered for this sale, amongst them are plenty by our stallion graduates Capitalist (who has 38 yearlings entered in total) and King's Legacy (with 18 entered).
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Brightside reigns again
Dropped back to 1600m after a pair of creditable runs at 2000m in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes and the Group 1 Cox Plate, seven-year-old gelding Mr Brightside was back to his very best to defeat Antino and Fangirl in an exciting edition of the Group 1 Champions' Mile.
What an outstanding war horse Mr Brightside has proven to be, with 18 wins from his forty starts, and here as good as ever sixth-up into a gruelling preparation where he has faced the best mile to mile and a quarter horses in the country every time. His earnings now stand in excess of $16 million, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
Congratulations to Ben, Will & JD Hayes and their entire Lindsay Park team and also to Craig Williams, with this victory stamping an outstanding season for him, with earnings over $15 million for the third consecutive season.
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Flemington posts crowd increases
It has been a recent feature of the big Australian race meetings to post big crowd figures, and this year's Spring Carnival at Flemington was no exception. With the total attendees across the four days of action sitting at 285,675, marking an 8% uplift on the 2023 figures.
Most notable in recent attendances has been a large number of young people attending, and indeed this was again the case over the Carnival, with 45% of general admission ticket holders being under the age of 35. Overall these are great trends for the industry, with capturing the attention of younger racegoers a key aim of racing authorities.
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