The Queensland Carnival at Eagle Farm had the pick of Saturday’s action

Winter is here and with it, the standard of racing will soon start to slip. We still have a few weeks of quality action to enjoy in Queensland and the racing from Eagle Farm on Saturday afternoon gave us a taste of what is still to come. 

Saturday is always a busy day across Australia when it comes to horse racing. Lots of meetings to look over but the main stories come from the bigger meetings on a normal week and that was no different this time around with the Group 1 races at Eagle Farm. 

Win grants the wish of Nolan at Eagle Farm 

Peter Moody will have been delighted that Luke Nolan was able to get back on his Group 1 winner at Eagle Farm with James McDonald who had ridden him the last twice on duty in Japan. With the partnership back intact, they swooped late and fast to claim the Kingsford Swift. 
 
The draw in the inside barrier was said to have been his undoing the time before in the Doomben 10,000 and with the draw on the rails again, there was a little bit of unease on the betting sites around his chances again. 
 
That was unfounded though as he ran down Bella Nipotina close home to add a second Group 1 win to his career tally. That mare does not know how to run a bad race and showed once more that she is one of the very best sprinters in the country at present.  

Melbourne Cup a real possibility for Warmonger 

The Queensland Derby was turned into a procession by the Mick Price-trained three-year-old who declared war on his rivals in incredible fashion. Group 1 races are rarely won by 10 lengths so this was a performance out of the top drawer.  
 
He had shown that he was a stayer with promise last time out when runner-up in the South Australian Derby at Morphettville, coming from much further back in the field than the pair who he split. 2400m at Eagle Farm on Saturday on soft ground saw him stronger the further the race went so a further rise in trip will surely be a positive in time. 
 
Michael Kent mentioned the Melbourne Cup after the race and the greatest staying race in the world would look like a natural target for this dour galloper in the spring. A four-year-old won it in three consecutive years from 2017-2019, the most recent of those being Vow And Declare. 

Morphettville belongs to Ben Price 

21-year-old Ben Price had one of the top days of his young career on Saturday when he booted home a treble at Morphettville. He sprung a surprise on $21 roughie Royal Majesty in the first race on the card which set himself up perfectly in terms of confidence. 
 
Favourite Child saluted in race six for Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea, the training team who has provided Price with the most rides so far. The final winner came in race nine when Hajra doubled up for Clarken and O’Shea. The three-year-old filly showed promise for Peter Snowden but is now 2/2 for her new stable.  

Winter weather hits Rosehill and Newcastle 

Heavy rain saw the meeting at Newcastle postponed part way through as the weather turned nasty on the first day of winter. Rosehill also had to stop their meeting on Saturday with heavy rain and mist causing visibility to be reduced too much for racing to continue. The Lord Mayor’s Cup, a Listed contest that was the feature at Rosehill will now be run next Saturday at Randwick. 

Although we are heading into a quieter time of year, this week showed that there is still enough to keep us interested while we close out this season and wait for the spring. There is some more Group 1 action to look forward to in Queensland over the next couple of weeks as well.