Rye grass at Rosehill Gardens has influenced a tradition of over 70 years to bypass a Sydney Saturday for a provincial.
Now domiciled on the Central Coast where the sun shines brighter and the air is fresh, Wyong gets precedence over the Metrop meeting.
Rosehill will field a strong program, featuring the Winter Stakes, but lacking the depth of the Sunshine Coast, the major in the north.
However, the blight of the Rosehill surface last Saturday weighs heavily: “big fence in-run advantage”, deduced Dan O’Sullivan’s “Smart Racing Service”, following Ron Dufficy’s “huge advantage” assessment of the situation in the Sunday Telegraph.
“There is nothing more frustrating than a track like Rosehill on Saturday,” Chris Roots, my former Sydney Morning Herald colleague, wrote in Betsy.com.au, a sight much fancied by Peter Mair, who is hard to please.
“The winners needed to be in a couple of lanes just off the fence in the straight and they needed to handle shifty ground,” Roots maintained.
“If you got to the centre of the track, it was nearly impossible to win with horses repeatedly looming but not getting near victory.
“It is a regular occurrence in Sydney when tracks are in transition to the rye grass for winter. Rosehill had its post-carnival renovation in April, when the rye grass was cross-seeded, but a dry June has not seen the rye take over yet for the winter.”
Hardly good enough for a Saturday in town with four other racecourses operating: Randwick, the inside Kensington, Canterbury and Warwick Farm. Surely a superior surface could have been substituted, particularly as it backs up this week.
To me it was akin to “Fiddler On The Roof” performed on a stage of wobbly floor-boards.
The rye is expected to sprout shortly and, hopefully, adjustments to the moveable rail will provide better racing conditions this week.
Wyong is hardly unique. Stand-alone provincial Saturdays are good. Memories of my early racecourses flashback. Apart from Randwick, just over the road, through formative years, I could walk to Kensington, Rosebery (down Eastlakes way now) and Victoria Park (Zetland).
Kensington, Rosebery and Victoria Park were pony tracks, horses restricted by size, with a more raffish following that the Australian Jockey Club circuits, but were derelict, made so during World War 2.
Victoria Park and in particular Rosebery were still operating for barrier trials. Rosebery was then regarded as a better wet weather track than Randwick. I saw Wenona Girl as a two-year-old trial at Rosebery. Wenona Girl may not have beaten Winx but she would have given her a hell of a race.
Of course, the champion is hailed with the Winx Stakes at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday. Then programmed in May, it was the first of her 33 race, 25 Group one winning streak.
Knight’s Choice notched the 2023 Winx Stakes before winning the Melbourne Cup a year later. Half Yours, sadly out of form in Queensland recently, scored in the Caloundra Cup in 2026 before taking the Caulfield Cup – Melbourne Cup double.
On Saturday Thebudgiesmugla, trained by Bjorn Baker, is the early favourite ($3.70) for the Caloundra Cup and has to overcome a wide barrier (15) in the 2400 metre staying test. Alas the strength of those he has been beating in Sydney concerns me more than the draw. Jockey Dylan Gibbons can handle it.
Baker is renowned for keeping horses consistent and Thebudgiesmugla will be chasing three successes from his last four attempts and Midnight Dynamite listed at $3.70 for Rosehill’s Winter Stakes.
Midnight Dynamite has won three out of his last four but drew 11. The saddle guidance of Kerrin McEvoy, a master tradesman emphasised recently, can overcome it. McEvoy’s will also be tested again by his mount, Chris Waller’s Nasebah, launching from outside (drew 14) in the TAB Handicap.
The trainer is wary of wide gates. Nasebah is scheduled to take on Mo Chroi, a Tulloch Lodge, French-bred talent on the rise. Mo Chroi comes from the 13 and pilot Tim Clark does not dawdle early.
Finding the right lane was vital at Rosehill last Saturday. I am assured by CEO Greg Purcell the inside at Wyong is like a bowling green, obviously pleasing the eye. But to the hoof?
