Platinum Racing

THE NEWS THIS MORNING that leviathan owner Nathan Tinkler and his very promising private trainer Jason Coyle had gone their seperate ways has shocked all in racing and completely dumbfounded me. I had previously lauded Tinkler's "balls" in appointing Coyle and pulling together a young, vibrant and relatively unknown team.

Tinkler, of course, had plucked Coyle from obscurity following his very well publicised split with trainer Anthony Cummings and previous racing manager Roger Langley. There can be no doubt that Coyle's results since taking over reins as Patinack's trainer have justified the confidence in him Tinkler showed.

In a very short period of time, Coyle has had 24 individual winners from just 85 starters, winning 38 races in all. He has also won two group one races, Onemorenomore (Champagne Stakes) and Linky Dink (T.J. Smith).

Of course, the mandatory spin statements were released this afternoon citing the "look forward to working together in the future" but it now raises into real question the stability in Patinack's operation.

Great teams work through problems and come out the other side better congealed and equipped to handle future challenges. And, make no mistake about it, despite the size of the chequebook, Patinack faces many hurdles and a enormous task to set about recovering the gargantuan investment it has in the racing industry.

Sudden changes disrupt many operations and also create uneasy positions for those following after, as organisations in this sport that have constant changes at the top have an uphill battle to create a harmonious and open working relationship- imperative in a sport that is beset with rumours, advisers and media pressure.

Only last week TVN commentator and Winning Post journalist Richie Callendar made a suggestion that Chris Munce was the ideal man to ride the Patinack team in Melbourne over the spring carnival. Who on earth is Callendar to make those suggestions? Peter Robl is Patinack's stable jockey and, unless he too is about to be given the heave-ho, one would think he would retain the ride on horses such as ONemorenomore and Trusting in their Victorian campaigns.

Patinack obviously has problems in maintaining relationships and staff and this can only make it harder for the organisation to attain its goals in the future. Great racing teams like Lindsay Park/Robert Sangster, Godolphin/Saeed Bin Suroor, Bart Cummings/Dato Tan Chin Nam etc survive the media pressure, the coat-tuggers and the rumour mongers in this game. Patinack has now got to prove it can not only forge relationships - it can maintain them.

The story of the split and the installation of John Thompson as the new private trainer for Patinack even made the Racing Post in Britain.

WAGGA TRAINER DAVEY HEYWOOD has been trying to win the Town Plate at the Wagga Cup carnival, but his own admission, for 40 years. That endeavour encompassed both his glittering riding career as well as his training career. As a jockey he came close finishing second on Blow Hard.

Blow Hard rattled home from the tail of the field to just miss catching Ossie Cottam's top class bush sprinter Moab, who was ridden by Jimmy McIntyre. Heywood, who in his riding career had remarkable success and even rode in Melbourne Cups, never won either a Town Plate or Wagga Cup at the Riverina's showcase meeting. As a trainer he has also come close in the Plate with Hillston Exchange, who was unluckily beaten a couple of years back.

Apprenticed in Berrigan to Bert Honeychurch, Heywood moved to Wagga when weight forced his retirement and the city on the banks of the Murrumbidgee has been home for Davey and his wife Kathy for many years.

After his smart sprinter Jewel Colours blew them away at Randwick last Wednesday Davey revealed his aim was to win the Town Plate with the horse.

The son of Marwina is a very promising horse and I was talking to Davbey before the race, and he was confident the horse would be very competitive. He may finally reach his ambition with Jewel Colours.

THE LOCALS REPELLED THE foreign invasion when equal second favourite Getaway (3/1), won the Pries Von Grasser (Gr 1) at Baden Baden (Germany) on Sunday.

Ridden by Andre De Vries for local trainer Jens Hirschberger, Getaway won the Bavarian classic from Godolphin's Eastern Anthem and Michael Channon's Youmzain.

Youmzain, who notched up yet another Gr 1 placing, was not suited by the slow pace of the race according to jockey Keiran Fallon, and according to Channon he will press on to have another crack at the Arc.

Youmzain was somewhat unlucky in the Arc last year when beaten by super filly Zarkava.

RACHEL ALEXANDRA STAMPED HERSELF as an absolute superstar and the best mare in the world when she showed guts, speed and courage to win the Gr 1 Woodward Stakes (9 fulrongs) at Saratoga on Saturday.

In winning she became the first filly, or for that matter mare, to win the prestigious race. She had previously beaten the three year old males in the Preakness and Haskell Invitational, following her demoralising win against the fillies in the Kentucky Oaks.

The sectionals in the race show just what a champion this filly really is. She shared the lead from the outset and they ran the first quarter mile (a full two furlongs, not 400 metres) in 22.85 and the first half mile in 46.21! They are sectionals that would win you most Gr 1 sprints - at the end - let alone at the start of nine furlongs.

The champion filly brought 31,000 people to Saratoga and they screamed themselves hoarse as the 1/3 favourite was challenged by Macho Again but he could not gun down the filly who responded to Calvin Borrel's hard riding. Robbie Albarado, who rode the runner up, said he had a gun run and thought he would run down the filly, but in the ultimate tribute said she could be "the greatest of all time."

Graham Motion who trained the third horse Bullsbay, described Rachel Alesandra as "extraordinary, simply extraordinary." "After everything that was thrown at her today (by the attacker Da'Tara) she had every right to get beat."

She is one super racehorse.

SHANE DYE RETURNED TO TOP FORM at the Mauritius meeting at Champs Del Mar yesterday when he combined with trainer Gilbert Rousset to land a winning double.

Shane won on Red Indian and Skid Row.

THE HONG KONG SEASON kicks off next Saturday and I guess we will have to put up with the nonsensical no television or radio coverage of the first five or six races. SKY Sports Radio has been promoting the advent of the new season in Hongkers with a promo for the racing - but if they are not going to broadcast or show all the meetings how serious do they expect punters to get?

Hopefully when the much vaunted new SKY 1 channel comes into being this nonsense will stop.

In typical go ahead style of the HKJC the club has been granted an additional five race dates for the forthcoming season lifting the meeting tally to 83.

Even more startling is that CEO of the HKJC Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges announced that it was highly likely now that comingling of international pools would be approved shortly by the Hong Kong Government.

This would allow Australia, which currently bets into a miniscule pool in Hong Kong, South Africa, France and US to bet into the HK pools.

It will just take racing that is almost cosmic now to a different level and generate extreme interest in the racing there from an Australian viewpoint.

JOHN SIZE HAS BEEN VERY ACTIVE in the off season in Hong Kong recalibrating his stable. While he has some top class performers in his yard like Sight Winner, Unique Jewellery, Enthused, Special Days, Brilliant chapter and More Bountiful, Size has spent a good deal of the the racing hiatus turning over his yard and ensuring that he has more than half his stable that can start the season in class four and five races (the lower end of the scale in Hong Kong).

These are the bread and butter races where Caspar Fownes excelled last season. John Moore, the third member of the training triumvirate that provided Hong Kong (and Australian racegoers) with a thrilling end to last year's trainer's premiership, has a very high class dominated stable heading into the new season.

The dark horse in this year's trainer's premiership could be Tony Cruz who has also built up a large number of lower class horse for the new season.

The jockey's championship is sure to develop into a battle between Douglas Whyte (looking for his tenth straight title) and Aussie jockey Brett Prebble. The interesting point this season will be to see if boom apprentice Matthew Chadwick can continue his remarkable winning run particularly as his allowance becomes lower.

My pick is he will - he is a very gifted rider.

TRAINER RICKY YIU announced this week that Hong Kong superstar Sacred Kingdom will oppose Aussie sprinter Scenic Blast in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakiyama in Japan next month. He will be attempting to emulate the champion Hong Kong sprinter, Silent Witness, the only Hong Kong winner of the Japanese race.

Brett Prebble will retain the ride on Sacred Kingdom in Japan. John Size also has Enthused engaged for the race but no firm decision has been made on whether he will start or not.

THE TRAGIC MURDER OF the two young British apprentices, Jan Wilson and the super talented Jamie Kyne last weekend continues to cast a pall over British racing. Kyne was headed for the top. The winner of 29 races last season, he had attracted the attention of many leading stables and this ever smiling young lad had endeared himself to all in the UK.

IRISH JOCKEY FERGAL LYNCH, who is currently the leading rider at PZhiladelphia Park in Pensyvania in the US has surrendered his jockey's license to authorities there following the conclusion of a British Horse Authority inquiry where Lynch pleaded guilty to several charges - including one of stopping a horse.

In a plea deal with the BHA Lynch has undertaken not to ride anywhere for the next 12 months and he has given an undertaking to US authorities that he will not apply for a license in any US jurisdiction until he is again cleared to ride in Britain.

At the conclusion of the 12 months Lynch's future will be determined by the BHA licensing committee.