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By Ray Hickson

Beasley Loving Life Since Calling Oz Home Again

Danny Beasley says it’s just as important to him to ride a stakes winner, as he did at Randwick on Saturday, as it will be to sit in the jockeys room at Narrandera on Sunday and help guide the next generation.

Just a few weeks after turning 48, Beasley broke an eight year drought at stakes level in Australia as Ucalledit won the Listed $160,000 Drinkwise Civic Stakes (1400m) – his last was on Divertire in 2015 Group 3 Dark Jewel Classic at Scone.

Danny Beasley returns on Ucalledit (Pic: Steve Hart)

Since Beasley returned from Singapore he says he’s been enjoying his riding and believes it’s showing as he’s collected eight winners in June so far including four at Randwick with Ucalledit bringing up a double for the day.

“I’ve got a very different perspective on riding and racing these days,’’ Beasley said.

“I come here and compete on this magnificent track which brought me so many memories but I go (to Narrandera) tomorrow and I still get a buzz riding a winner for whoever it is.

“It’s great to go back there and sit beside the Holly Durnans and the kids coming through and tell them ‘30 years ago this was me’.

“So I tell them keep dreaming and keep working hard, and hopefully one day this is you.”

It was Beasley’s first win in the Australian Bloodstock colours and he said it always gives him a buzz to ride winners for trainer Kris Lees given his long association with the Lees family.

As for how much he’ll commit to riding in the city from his Wagga base, he said he’ll go where the opportunity comes. Plus, he’ll soon have his own horses to deal with as he’s applied for a dual license to both ride and train horses.

“It’s very easy to travel. It takes about four hours in the car,’’ he said.

“Only this week, because there’s a meeting at Narrandera, I decided to fly and it’s not expensive. Especially if you ride a winner.”

Lloyd Rises To Re-Enter Premiership Battle

It took Zac Lloyd longer to notch his first winner since returning from a month long suspension than he thought it might at Randwick but with an all the way win on Insurrection the teenager has set up what promises to be an intriguing battle for champion apprentice honours.

Zac Lloyd (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The 19-year-old was five wins in front of Dylan Gibbons when he started his suspension and was five behind on return so his 59th city win this season now has him four astern.

Gibbons will return from his own suspension next week so Lloyd said it was important to get some momentum.

“It took me nine races, longer than I would have liked, but it was good to get back in the winner’s stall after a break and hopefully the ball can keep rolling,’’ he said.

“It was a very nice effort. I wasn’t able to dictate the way I would have liked to but he was sharp out of the barriers and very professional.”

Race favourite Iowna Merc found himself near the tail of the field and while he stormed home to run fourth, with a smart 11.62 for his last 200m, it was a torrid ride for jockey Amy McLucas.

She was forced to miss her final ride of the day after striking her head on the stalls after the horse reared before the start, causing a mild concussion, which likely contributed to the three-year-old settling further back than expected.

The starter Dale Jeffs asked McLucas if she was fit to ride prior to the start and she gave him the okay.

Highway Salute A Stepping Stone To Country Championships

Wagga trainer Wayne Carroll may have unearthed a Country Championships prospect for next year after Salute Again posted an upset win in the TAB Highway (1400m) at Randwick.

He’ll look for confirmation in another Highway in two weeks but said the lightly raced four-year-old, now a winner of three from 10, strikes him as a horse well and truly on the up.

It was another Highway win for jockey Danny Beasley as he settled the gelding ($26) just behind the speed, he hit the front just before the 100m and held off Chase My Crown to score by half a length.

“He’s untapped. I’ve trained some nice horses, I trained his mother (Reboot) and she was a hot thing but she could gallop,’’ Carroll said.

“We knew that there’s something a bit special in there and he showed a little bit of it today.

“The aim was to come here and do our best, we’ll come in two weeks time and see what happens and then we put him away.”

Carroll’s Lady Mironton ran second to Bennelong Dancer in the 2019 Southern District Championships but finished near the tail in the Final behind Noble Boy.

The Country Championships Final will be run for $1 million for the first time in 2024.

Import’s Booming Finish Blows Collett Away

Jason Collett had an inkling that Aristonous was above average before being legged aboard the import at Randwick but was taken aback by the booming finished he produced to remain unbeaten in Australia.

Aristonous wins at Randwick. (Pic: Steve Hart)

The Annabel Neasham-trained four-year-old had won a Benchmark 64 at Newcastle first-up and made the step to the Benchmark 72 of Saturday’s race look easy as he reeled off some sizzling sectionals.

Punter’s Intelligence sectional data revealed the gelding ran, unsurprisingly, the fastest last 600m of 34.36 which was over three lengths faster than anything else in the race and included a slick 400m-200m of 10.97. Not bad for a horse that was placed in a hurdle in France last October.

“(Annabel) is doing a really good job with (the imports), getting them up and going, and that was impressive,’’ Collett said.

“He had the speed early which suited him but he didn’t have anything to drag him into it.

“I knew he was handy but he was spotting them a fair start. His turn of foot was electric.”

Neasham has 49 European horses listed on the Racing NSW website under her care, headed of course by superstar Zaaki.

Aristonius’s stablemate Intuitu, also a French import, made his local debut in the same race and, while finishing eighth, sectionally it would have pleased the stable as he clocked the third fastest last 600m of 34.92.

Super Win Opens Up Big Dance Option

Trainer Richard Collett says he’s still getting his head around the programming since he moved to Sydney last year but feels Super Strike could be an ideal horse for the $3 million Big Dance.

Richard and Jason Collett (Pic: Grant Guy)

It’s just a matter of how to get him into the Randwick feature mile on November 7.

Super Strike posted his first Australian win, and his first for 888 days, when the trainer’s son Jason Collett brought him with a well timed run to win the Hitotsu New To Arrowfield Handicap (1800m).

“We just wanted to get the horse confident again,’’ Richard Collett said.

“He had two years off before he came here so it took him a bit of racing to get him back into condition. It’s good for him to get his head in front.”

The gelding had that extended break following a Group 3 win in New Zealand in January 2021 due to a hamstring injury and the Covid lockdown in Auckland that shut down racing.

The next Big Dance eligible race, the South Grafton Cup (1600m) on July 9, probably comes up too quickly for Super Strike but Collett said he’ll work out if it’s possible to get him there.

“I’ve only been here 10 months and the programs are still unfolding to me as to what the best options are for a horse and he’s probably about that class of horse,’’ he said.

All the results and replays from Saturday's Randwick meeting