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Things You Might Have Missed – November 21

Horse Racing

Things You Might Have Missed – November 21

by
November 20, 2023February 12, 2023

Here’s a few things you might have missed that were off-Broadway in the wide world of racing over the past week.


QUIRKY (from abroad)

Ten-year-old bolts in for G2 success (NZ)

Age is but a number.

Old boy Gino Severini, who is considered a 10-year-old down under but still a 9YO by his northern hemisphere breeding, gave them a walloping in a weight-for-age Group Two mile race in New Zealand. 

Six-and-a-half years after the maiden win at Naas in Ireland, Gino Severini ain’t slowing down just yet – bolting home by 4.8 lengths (comfortably the largest margin of his eight career victories).

‘Gino’ is a bit stiff to be called a 10yo at the moment – it’ll be 10 years since his foaling on April 26 – still a good five months away.

And for reference, coming in last in this race was a horse called Callsign Mav – who you may remember ran in a Cox Plate (2021) and an All-Star Mile (2022). Also in the beaten brigade was Riodini, a horse who won The Gong this time last year.


Horse caught tail-gating, ends up ‘getting out’ and winning (UK)

The horse, Gaboriot, ran himself a mischief when getting entangled in the tail of a rival runner in this race at Doncaster.

Not to be out-done by the incident, Gaboriot ‘got out’ of the tail to go on and win by 7L in the three-mile event.

The horse he got stuck in, Crystal Moon, finished third, some 14L behind the winner.

Horse nicks controversial lead at start … then pulls up (Ireland)

You ever seen a horse have a ‘crisis of conscience’?

Eikonix, a 33-1 chance, was afforded a big head start in error in this race at Wexford during the week.

Now it was his bad manners that had him away from the pack in the first place, and his bad manners would again strike just as he approached the first hurdle – he said, ‘I’m having none of this caper’ and refused to race.

Or did he just think his head-start was unfair?



QUIRKY (from Australia)

Kementari and his 100% strike-rate

Kementari – or ‘Special K’ as he was widely known – has a storied history with punters. A 100% record is definitely not it.

But he’s had the last laugh in some respects.

The ‘dud at stud’, Kementari didn’t produce many foals as he was found to be sub-fertile, hence why he was then un-retired and raced on.

But the two named foals he did produce have both now won a race – which is fairly rare for any stallion to have a 100% winners-to-runners ratio.

The two horses, named Manwe and La Seule, have carried the flag for him. La Seule, Kementari’s only filly, is French for ‘only one’.


Three siblings race on same day

It was a family affair at Gundagai on Friday, as three progeny of the same mare – Highland Secrets – all had a hit-out.

None of them fired though, with Kimberly Secrets (4YO) starting a notable $2.80F in the $100,000 Snake Gully Cup but finishing unplaced. The other two, Lady Tabloid (6YO) and Show Secrets, finished second-last in their respective races.

Credit to Mitchell for his find here


Full siblings race against each other

It was even better – sibling rivalry! – at Grafton on Thursday, when full siblings Last Not Least (5YO gelding) and Big Hitter (6YO mare) went toe-to-toe.

Despite Big Hitter nearly jumping favourite at $3.40, she was well-beaten into 6th, while Last Not Least ($13) took honours in the family battle when running 2nd in the 2200m BM58.

*Thanks to Aaron Scanes for sending in

Things You Might Have Missed