Winning Post

This week in Winning Post

This week's Winning Post is now available online here.

The season is almost over (and the calendar is coming in a fortnight) but the two-year-olds get one last chance at group glory this Saturday in the Group 3 SA Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Morphettville.

The race will allow a promising youngster to add valuable juvenile black type to their pedigree page and is sure to attract interest from interstate as well as SA stables.

There's an interesting two-year-old race at Flemington, too, with the Byerley Handicap (1800m) offering ballot-free entry to the Victoria Derby or Oaks for the winner. The ill-fated Arcora won last year's Byerley, then went on to run second in the derby in spring. The other highlights at Flemington are the Deane Lester Flemington Cup 1849 for the stayers and the final of the Rising Stars apprentice series.

The Sydney action returns to Rosehill for the Winter Challenge, while they're back at Doomben in Brisbane. In the west, the feature is the Belmont Classic.

Our coverage kicks off on Friday with fields, colours, previews and tips for all five TAB meetings.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Flemington in Melbourne, Rosehill in Sydney, Morphettville in SA, Doomben in Brisbane and Belmont in Perth.

Winning Post carries full-colour liftout guides for all those meetings plus bet365 Mildura (Vic/SA edition), Gosford (NSW edition) and Gold Coast (Qld edition), as well as fields, tips, ratings and/or colours for other TAB Saturday cards.

On Sunday we've got liftout formguides for three more TAB meetings (plus Hobart in the Tassie edition), as well as fields, ratings, tips and colours for a stack more Sunday and Monday programs.

Don't forget Winning Post now carries trackwork reports for four Victorian training tracks, three in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide and a general Brisbane report.

Away from the form, we've got news columns from NSW, six Victorian districts, SA and Tasmania.

Our readers have their say on page 4, while further back in the book Shane Templeton reminisces, Paul Richards presents his unique take on the sport, Tony Kneebone brings you his Snippets column and Number Cruncher delivers the stats that matter.

Winning Post costs $6 and is available Thursday afternoon online ($5), the crack of dawn Friday in shops.

... More

Podcast: July 18 .................................................................................................................................................

Download the calendar! .................................................................................................................................................

Tasmania: Kirra-Lee makes it five in a fortnight .................................................................................................................................................

Wimmera: Powering does it the hard way .................................................................................................................................................

NSW country: Leo leaps in grade, Cam collects .................................................................................................................................................

More Stories

Inside Winning Post July 18 edition you'll find liftout form guides for:

Saturday:

Caulfield, Randwick, Morphettville, Eagle Farm, Belmont, Murtoa (Vic/SA edition), Kembla Grange (NSW edition), Gold Coast (Qld edition)

Sunday:

Sale, Wodonga, Muswellbrook, Devonport (Tas edition)

Eye Catchers

Each week Paul Richards identifies horses from recent race meetings that he believes are ready to win. Here we update you when they are about to have their next start.

There are no Eye Catchers this week

Letter of the Week

We are the champions

English clickbait merchant Matt Chapman seems to have forgotten one significant point when he bemoans the Ka Ying Rising syndicate’s “complete lack of willing(ness) to try and create world history” (Matt Stewart, 11/7). Which is that European sprinters aren’t the world’s best, and the sprint races at Royal Ascot are nowhere near a world championship.
If you want to test your sprinter against the world’s best, you run it in the Everest, not the King Charles III or the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee.
History says that when Australia sends a genuine star sprinter to Royal Ascot, it wins more often than not.
Let’s not forget Asfoora won the King Charles III in 2024, when few Aussies would have had her in our top half-dozen sprinters.
She ended up winning three Group 1s in Europe but couldn’t win one in Australia. She was second to Imperatriz in the 2023 Moir Stakes over her pet trip (1000m), and Imperatriz was better at 1200m.
What would Imperatriz at her best have done to them at Royal Ascot.
This year Overpass and Joliestar placed in their big sprints. There’s a case for Joliestar being our best at present, but she’s no Choisir, Miss Andretti, Takeover Target or Black Caviar.
And she was no match for Ka Ying Rising in the Everest.
Remember when the Coolmore tycoons tried using their Everest slot on Aidan O’Brien-trained sprinters?
It only took two years of abject failure for them to realise the futility of that endeavour.
Matt Chapman saying Ka Ying Rising needs to go to Royal Ascot to prove himself is like Australians saying Kyprios can’t be called a champion because he never won a Melbourne Cup (which, unlike the Royal Ascot sprints, is at least worth decent coin).
If the world championship of turf sprinting isn’t the Everest, what is it?
You might think the Breeders’ Cup would have a contender, but its only open-age turf sprint is over five furlongs (1006m) and worth a paltry $US1 million ($A1.43m).
Have a guess how many Australian races from 1000m to 1400m were worth more than that in 2025/26.
The answer is 25.

Dale Scott
Cremorne (Vic)