Winx statue to be unveiled at Rosehill Gardens for Golden Slipper carnival

Trainer Chris Waller and jockey Hugh Bowman are expected to be on hand for the statue unveiling, which will sit outside the Grand Pavilion.

Given Winx was trained at Rosehill and one of her most devastating performances came at the track during the 2017 George Ryder Stakes, it was only fitting any bronzed honour be erected in Sydney’s west.

The Moonee Valley Racing Club last year unveiled a Winx statue outside the venue of her four Cox Plate triumphs.

The new grandstand at Royal Randwick, set to be named after the mare which finished her career with 33 straight wins, is also progressing well as racing officials use 2021 as the year to fittingly honour one of the best horses Australian racing has seen.

Van Gestel on lookout for new deputy

Racing NSW’s deputy chief steward Wade Birch has handed in his resignation.

Birch, who has been Marc Van Gestel’s offsider on the Sydney panel since April 2019, is tipped to be announced in a role with the Greyhound Welfare Integrity Commission. Birch’s final meeting will be on Golden Slipper day at Rosehill next month.

It will leave Racing NSW on the lookout for another experienced hand in Sydney to help guide the panel alongside Van Gestel.

Plate serves up a classic

Two things on the Oakleigh Plate: firstly, how good was it as a spectacle? Seventeen horses finishing within a length of each other under handicap conditions, only half-a-length separating the first five across the line.

The dead heat between the promising Portland Sky and Celebrity Queen had stories abounding apart from the suggestion it was the first dead heat in a Melbourne group 1 for 20 years: Matt Laurie’s career highlight, apprentice Teo Nugent’s first major and the wonderful image of Willie Pike desperately throwing everything at his mare in the final stride.

Now, for the negatives.

The Oakleigh Plate is quintessential Australian racing, a big field in a handicap over a sprint distance. In the era of multi-million dollar marketing races, how has this race been left standing still with prize money anchored at $500,000?

And just like the dead heat debate with Hang Man and Defibrillate at Caulfield a few weeks ago, every time I watched the lateral camera angle on replay the more and more I became confused about the result. The camera is clearly past the winning post.

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Not every racetrack around Australia is going to have the main camera aligned with the winning post, but surely at one of the country’s best tracks the punters deserve better.

McDonald delaying Slipper call

James McDonald is holding fire on his decision about which horse to partner in the Golden Slipper.

McDonald has the unbeaten Stay Inside, a second pick for the world’s richest two-year-old race, as a clear favourite, but urged Chris Waller’s Home Affairs to victory in the Silver Slipper at Rosehill.

One of McDonald’s other hopes before the weekend, beaten Blue Diamond favourite Enthaar, had her price more than double for the Golden Slipper after hooning through the first half of the race and scrambling into sixth.

How often do you see a horse under the veterinary microscope all week run below market expectations?