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News.com.au
17-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Former star apprentice Vincent Hall chasing maiden Flemington winner with recent recruit Dubai Watch
Successful jockey turned trainer Vincent Hall says racing has been good to him but the game could produce another high for him at Flemington on Saturday. Hall steered home more than 400 winners in a riding career that included winning the Melbourne apprentices' title and riding the great Makybe Diva to her first three Australian wins when his uncle David trained the mare before leaving for Hong Kong. Makybe Diva went on to win three Melbourne Cups for the Lee Freedman stable while increasing weight forced Hall to retire from race riding in 2006. Hall subsequently headed west to work in the mines but racing has been in his family for generations as his uncle Greg and cousin Nick were champion flat jockeys while his father Ron was a star jumps rider. Training is also in Hall's blood as previous generations of his family were successful trainers. 'I did seven years on the mines in WA and, after that length of time over there, I just got sick of it,' Hall said. 'I started a two-week on, one-week on roster, and I started riding work for my good mate Nick Ryan on my weeks off and got the bug back. 'I rode work for a while then started doing pre-training on the side and decided to get my trainer's licence.' Hall has started well, winning seven races from 42 starters, but could notch his biggest win to date with Dubai Watch in the VRC Member Gerald Jongebloed Trophy (1700m). Dubai Watch has finished strongly to win his last two starts to earn a crack at Saturday's $150,000 race. 'He was a bit quirky when he got to us,' Hall said. 'He was a bit funny with his head and did a few things wrong but his trackrider, my fiancee Briar Stobie, has straightened him out and he's more tractable. 'All his three runs for me have been very good. He's just bounced out of the gates, relaxed and his last half has been the best. 'Something has just clicked and he's been a lucky pick-up for us.' The Mornington-based Hall said a lack of suitable options elsewhere prompted him to have a crack at a Flemington race, adding Dubai Watch would be suited racing against his own age after beating older horses at his last two runs. Irrespective of the result of Saturday's Flemington contest, Hall said the aim was to add a few more horses to the seven-strong team he and Stobie prepared. 'I love game and it has been good to me,' Hall said. 'It's pretty tough. I wouldn't say it's an easy game but I'm enjoying it and we're slowly building up. 'Things are going in the right direction, I think.'
The Age
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
An Aussie has lobbed in the winner's circle at Royal Ascot on his way to Ibiza
Star jockey Mark Zahra booked a holiday to Spanish island Ibiza to escape the cold drudgery of a Melbourne winter and has ended up in the winner's circle at Royal Ascot. Zahra was talked into breaking up his long-haul trip to ride Docklands in the opening race of the prestigious three-day English carnival on Tuesday by trainer Harry Eustace and a group of Australian connections headed by OTI syndicator Terry Henderson. He quickly repaid their faith. Zahra won the 1600-metre group 1 Queen Anne Stakes in a driving photo finish, causing connections heart palpitations when he dropped his whip 200m from the line. 'I was so scared about the whip rules I thought it would just be easier to throw it away at the 200,' Zahra joked to ITV after the race. Zahra, who won the 2022 and 2023 Melbourne Cups, was surprised by the level of support in the stands. 'Hearing all the Aussies over the fence – even though the horse is English – you'd have thought he was Aussie by all the screams,' he said. 'Amazing experience for unbelievable people. This just started as a stop-off on the way to a trip to Ibiza, so to turn into a massive win like this is very special. My family back home are watching and they will be absolutely thrilled.' Trainer Eustace has strong Australian connections. His brother David trained alongside Ciaron Maher before relocating to Hong Kong, and they flew Docklands to Melbourne last year to run in the Cox Plate.
Sydney Morning Herald
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
An Aussie has lobbed in the winner's circle at Royal Ascot on his way to Ibiza
Star jockey Mark Zahra booked a holiday to Spanish island Ibiza to escape the cold drudgery of a Melbourne winter and has ended up in the winner's circle at Royal Ascot. Zahra was talked into breaking up his long-haul trip to ride Docklands in the opening race of the prestigious three-day English carnival on Tuesday by trainer Harry Eustace and a group of Australian connections headed by OTI syndicator Terry Henderson. He quickly repaid their faith. Zahra won the 1600-metre group 1 Queen Anne Stakes in a driving photo finish, causing connections heart palpitations when he dropped his whip 200m from the line. 'I was so scared about the whip rules I thought it would just be easier to throw it away at the 200,' Zahra joked to ITV after the race. Zahra, who won the 2022 and 2023 Melbourne Cups, was surprised by the level of support in the stands. 'Hearing all the Aussies over the fence – even though the horse is English – you'd have thought he was Aussie by all the screams,' he said. 'Amazing experience for unbelievable people. This just started as a stop-off on the way to a trip to Ibiza, so to turn into a massive win like this is very special. My family back home are watching and they will be absolutely thrilled.' Trainer Eustace has strong Australian connections. His brother David trained alongside Ciaron Maher before relocating to Hong Kong, and they flew Docklands to Melbourne last year to run in the Cox Plate.
Sydney Morning Herald
11-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cummings to train in Honk Kong as Maher firms for Randwick stables
James Cummings, the grandson of late Melbourne Cup king Bart Cummings, is set to take the next major step in his training career in Hong Kong. The 37-year-old, already a 52-time group 1 winner, was on Wednesday announced by the Hong Kong Jockey Club today as a new trainer for the 2026-27 season, which starts in September next year. Cummings will finish his more than eight-year his tenure as Godolphin Australia's head trainer on July 31 after the racing giant's announcement in late April that it would be moving to a public training model. He was set to build his own team, with support from the likes of Godolphin and Dynamic Syndications, but that plan now looks in doubt given his decision to accept the HKJC invitation. The move also means Cummings has withdrawn from the battle to take over Leilani Lodge at Royal Randwick, where he began his training career with his famous grandfather, who was based there during a career that yielded 12 Melbourne Cups. The 55-box stable complex was vacated after James' father Anthony had his trainer's licence revoked by Racing NSW in February because of his financial difficulties. Anthony and his son Edward fought briefly to keep the stables before the Australian Turf Club called for expressions of interest to trainers in the complex. Top trainer Ciaron Maher, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott team, and James Cummings were the applicants for the stables. The ATC board discussed the applications at a board meeting last month and decision is expected next month.
News.com.au
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
It is hoped a special screening of the Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time' will spark renewed interest in the film
Director David Waddington hopes a special screening of the highly anticipated Darby McCarthy documentary 'In a Life Time' in outback Queensland this week will spark renewed interest in the project which desperately needs an injection of funding. A director's cut of the film will screen in the 30-seat Railway Cinema in Cunnamulla, where the Indigenous trailblazing jockey was born, on Tuesday (fully booked) and Wednesday night. Waddington and producer Chris O'Reilly are about $94,000 short of the $200,000 needed to make the film which tells the extraordinary tale of the late, great McCarthy, who rode more than 1000 winners around the world. 'This is not the final version of Darby's story,' Waddington said about the director's cut being screened in Cunnamulla, about 750km west of Brisbane. 'I'm calling it a biopic. We've still got re-enactments that we need to shoot and we need funding to do that. 'The time frame (to finish the film) has gone out the window so many times. It's so demoralising, I can tell you. 'It's all the people that are involved and put in their time and effort - actors, technicians, whatever - and it's been a very difficult road to be on. 'We haven't got any money from Queensland in the production, except for Racing Queensland who were the first cab off the rank. 'The reason the screening is happening at Cunnamulla is because Darby was born there and rode his first winner as a jockey at age 10 at Thargomindah, which is up the track a bit. 'I'm hoping something comes from this (in terms of funding for the film) because it's such a positive story. 'I've been making films my whole life and this particular film is all about becoming something from nothing which Darby did. He was an incredible human being. 'The story needs to be told and the only way to do that is what we're doing now.' Waddington said a prominent Indigenous organisation had offered $100,000 in writing to help fund the film but the money never materialised. 'I'm talking about a huge organisation,' he said. 'There's going to be a federal election (on Saturday) so there's still hope. 'Everyone who's out there now and the previous politicians, they all knew Darby one-on-one and he was highly regarded, not just for his riding ability but as an uneducated kid out of Cunnamulla who made it to the top.' McCarthy later moved to Brisbane to try his luck as a teenager and success came quickly for the Indigenous jockey, who eventually went to Europe where he rode for the Rothschilds and mixed with Hollywood royalty, including Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Lee Marvin. He won the 1969 AJC Derby and the Epsom on the same day in Sydney and rode in three Melbourne Cups. McCarthy died in May 2020 at age 76. He was inducted into Queensland Racing's Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for his services to racing and his work with Indigenous youth.
