Excellent 8 race card set down for Callaghan Park tomorrow.

Early start at Callaghan Park races for Thursday’s eight race program, with the first of the day set to jump at 11.07am. Justin Stanley takes over from Tash Chambers on dual Callaghan Park winner Ask Me Mate in the opening race here on Thursday. Ask Me Mate ran a bottler when a closing second over 1100m to the Leigh Wanless trained That’s Interesting at Mackay on August 10. The latter made the form look good when winning, ironically, under Stanley at Kilcoy last Sunday. The 1200 metres of the Callaghan Park race should prove ideal for Ask Me Mate. Just might gets some odds but beware as it is a very strong race. 

Ryan Wiggins and trainer Ricky Vale are nearing a “team milestone “ of 100 winners together. As it stands they have shared 94 winners so far. They combine with Knight’s Sword in Race 6 on Thursday, the Open Handicap (1300m).

On the horses front, prominent local gallopers Astapor and Top Spy have big city assignments coming up. Astapor, recently transferred from Clinton Taylor to Sydney’s Joseph Pride is enter among the big guns for Rosehill on Saturday. Trainer Graeme Green has a Benchmark 1600m Doomben race pencilled-in for his rising star Top Spy next Saturday week. Top Spy is a very talented mare and if she gets a reasonable weight and favourable barrier, I would suggest Green’s latest talent will be right in the mix. 

There is certainly an enormous depth of talent that will be on display at tomorrow’s Callaghan Park race meeting. I have found over the years that folk are always curious as to how many winners “so and so” has ridden. As best I could, I have researched the 15 riding on Thursday and come up with their winning statistics for your benefit. Remember however, that to the best of my knowledge the best records I have sourced commence at the year 2000. Therefore some of the more senior brigade who were race riding beforehand would most likely have riddenmore winners than those credited to them. 

So in alphabetical order here goes:

Ashley Butler 712; Georgia Cartwright 398; Melea Castle 109; Tash Chambers 215; Sam Collett 1074; Sean Cormack 1259; Tahlia Fenlon 174; Justin Huxtable 391; Adrian Layt 638; Jackson Murphy 304; Warwick  Satherley 163; Adam Spinks 71; Justin Stanley 1644; Ron Stewart 824 and Ryan Wiggins 1469. 

So if my additions are correct that is 9945 winners between them. 

Among their ranks there are four GROUP 1 winning hoops – Sean Cormack (12 in South Africa); Sam Collett (3 in New Zealand); Ron Stewart and Ryan Wiggins one each in Australia. 

Enjoy your day trackside everyone as it genuinely looks like being an excellent race meeting. Happy Horses and farewell from Tony McMahon.