Sydney Harbour Stakes?

THIS from the ‘what if’ files; what if we conduct a race meeting across Sydney Harbour Bridge on a ‘drop-in’ galloping surface?

Apparently this is not an April fool’s joke, and Sydney’s racing authorities have quietly looked into the logistics of such a scheme with commercial interests already keen.

One iteration involves racing on a Sunday night under lights and has even caught the attention of Chris Waller.

“As long as it’s safe for horses, jockeys and everyone watching, I would definitely want to be involved and most trainers would,” said Waller. “It would be an amazing event.” The straight track would be approximately 1,400 metres long.

United States to Hong Kong

FORMER Aidan O’Brien-trained The United States, a seven-year-old son of Galileo, has travelled to Hong Kong for the 2,000-metre Group 1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on April 30th.

Trained by Robert Hickmont for Lloyd Williams, The United States is a Group 1 Ranvet Stakes winner whose most recent start was a six and a half-length fourth to Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Another possible entrant was the runner-up to Winx, Hartnell, but John O’Shea elected to send him to the paddock instead.

Freedman also Hong Kong-bound

HAVING established himself in Sydney since returning from an almost 10-year training stint in Singapore, Michael Freedman, the youngest of the four Freedman brothers is off to Hong Kong having trained a winner with his last runner in Australia.

“It’s been a long-held ambition to train in Hong Kong, which is a world leader in everything that it does. It would be an understatement to say that I am looking forward to this,” said Freedman, who takes one of the expat licences vacated by Andreas Schutz and Sean Woods.