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Clare Lindop; Hong Kong Licences; Chris Waller; Tulloch Lodge; Bragging Rights; Cradle Me; Streama; Commanding Jewel; Jazz Song; Chapparo; Spiritjim; Stradbroke History

• ADELAIDE’S pin up girl Clare Lindop resumed riding trackwork on Thursday at Morphettville after 12 weeks out of the saddle.

Lindop hasn’t ridden in a race since a serious fall on Adelaide Cup day on March 10 that put her in hospital or more than a week.

She suffered multiple breaks including 15 rib fractures when she fell aboard the Leon Macdonald-trained Gamblin’ Guru in the CS Hayes Stakes.

It’s been a rough year for Lindop as she had resumed riding from another injury only three days before her fall on March 10.

• AUSTRALIAN jockeys are in hot demand in Hong Kong but seemingly not so our trainers.

The mail from Hong Kong indicates that there won’t be any new Australian trainers joining the current ranks at Sha Tin when the Hong Jong Jockey Club undertakes its next review of licences.

American trainer Dale Romans is favoured to get the nod over any Australian applicants when there is a vacancy.

At least one change in the training ranks is possible with four current trainers short of the 15-win benchmark set by the HKJC with only 10 meetings of the current season remaining.

The HKJC is yet to invoke its powers to replace an under-achieving trainer, having left it to foreign trainers to leave of their own volition, but that seems certain to change in coming months.

Andreas Schutz is on 13 wins, Gary Ng 12, Almond Lee 11 and Sean Woods nine.

• LOOK out for Chris Waller to become a bigger force in Melbourne racing next season.

Waller has become a consistent winner in Melbourne this season following the establishment of his satellite stable at Flemington, winning 21 races with 30 placings from 119 starters on metropolitan tracks.

He has now signalled his intention to play an even bigger hand in Melbourne by taking over a new set of boxes that increases the number of horses he can have in work at Flemington to 25 from July 1.

Trent Busuttin is also eager to finalise his arrangements for stables in Melbourne and hopes to have boxes secured by the start of the new season on August 1.

• THEY call him Crewy and he is an institution at Tulloch Lodge.

Gai Waterhouse and her staff are in awe of long serving employee John Brady - known to all and sundry at Randwick as Crewy – as he began working for the late Tommy Smith at Tulloch Lodge in 1953.

He’s been there almost every day for 61 years and has seen all the greats come and go from Redcraze and Tulloch to Gunsynd and Kingston Town.

What a story he could tell about the grand Smith era and the reign of his daughter Gai at Sydney’s most famous stable.

• CHRIS Waller and Nash Rawiller are competing for Group One bragging rights at the Brisbane carnival.

Waller and Rawiller lead the respective trainer and jockeys lists for most G1 wins in Australia this season with eight majors apiece.

There are three G1 races at Eagle Farm on Saturday and the deadlock between the pair is unlikely to be broken as Rawiller is riding Waller-trained horses in all three events.

The Sydney duo team up with Red Tracer in the G1 Stradbroke, Brazen Beau in the G1 J.J. Atkins and Vilanova in the G1 Queensland Derby.

However Waller has the slight edge as he also runs Velrosso and Masthead in the Stradbroke.

After Saturday there is only one more G1 race in Australia this season, the Tatts Tiara for fillies and mares at Eagle Farm on June 21.

Ironically Rawiller has ridden only one G1 winner for Waller this season - Red Tracer in the Myer Classic at Flemington in the spring.

• GRAFTON’S Ramornie Handicap is looming as an ideal winter target for the David Pfeiffer-trained mare Cradle Me.

Cradle Me has been in flying form since resuming with dashing back to back wins at Rosehill, leaving Pfeiffer keen to head for the $150,000 Ramornie on July 9 as it is the richest winter sprint on offer in NSW now that Gosford’s Takeover Target Stakes has been moved to a summer date.

The Gosford sprint, originally known as the Pacesetter Stakes, was the traditional Ramornie lead up race for years and was renamed after Takeover Target won the double in 2004. The major Sydney lead up will now be the $85,000 Winter Dash at Randwick on June 21, a race that gives the winner Ramornie ballot exemption.

Pfeiffer will be looking for a new jockey for Cradle Me as Christian Reith is now in Hong Kong where he will be based until the end of the season.

• DOOMBEN Cup winner Streama is still in Queensland with no decision yet reached on whether she will race again early next season before going to stud.

She is spelling at Kolora Lodge with her owners yet to resolve their intentions. If she races on they must decide if they leave the mare under the care of Wendy Walter or switch her to a new trainer. It would be fitting if Wendy had the chance to win a Group One with the mare her late husband took to the heights for the syndicate.

• MICHAEL Rodd is in line to ride Group One winner Commanding Jewel in the G1 Tatts Tiara at Eagle Farm on June 21, taking over from Mauritius-bound Damien Oliver.

Trainer Leon Corstens will give Commanding Jewel an exhibition gallop at Moonee Valey onm Saturday before she heads north.

• MELBOURNE filly Jazz Song, a terrific fifth in the Queensland Guineas at Eagle Farm last Saturday, will stay in Brisbane for the Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich on June 14.

• WARRNAMBOOL Grand Annual winner Chapparo will not go to New Zealand for the Great Northern Steeple at Ellerslie with the jumper to enjoy a long spell before he is prepared for a Warrnambool double next year.

• EUROPEAN interest in our spring racing went up a notch when the Pascal Bary-trained Spiritjim won the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly on the French Derby program last Sunday.

The win made Spiritjim exempt from the Caulfield Cup ballot with Bary indicating he was keen to investigate an Australian campaign for the four-year-old.

Spirtjim is a rising star as he has now won four stakes races in succession for six wins from only eight starts.

• THERE are plenty of reasons to oppose the favoured runners in Saturday’s $1 million Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm.

Horses that have to beat history include the three last start winners Spirit Of Boom (Doomben Ten Thousand), Srikandi (Glenlogan Park Stakes)and Sacred Star (QTC Cup).

For starters only two last-start winners have won the Stradbroke in the past 14 years (Landsighting in 2000 and Linton in 2013).

Only four horses have won the Stradbroke and Doomben 10,000 in the same year. The last was Campaign King in 1988 when the Stradbroke preceded the Ten Thousand, then run in July.

Since 2000 eight Stradbroke winners have come out of the Ten Thousand but only three of those managed to place in the Doomben race.

No horse has won the QTC Cup/Stradbroke double. Sincero (2011) was the last horse to win the Stradbroke after contesting the QTC Cup and prior to him it was Robian Steel in 1989. Both horses finished unplaced in the QTC Cup.

Show A Heart in 2002 was the last horse to carry the topweight to victory in a Stradbroke in 2002, He had equal topweight of 56kg compared to Spirit Of Boom’s 58kg.

Only two horses have won the Stradbroke since 1980 with more weight than Spirit Of Boom - Rough Habit with 58.5kg in 1992 and Campaign King with the same weight in 1988.

Since 2000 the average weight carried by the Stradbroke winners has been 52.5kg but that will steadily increase due to higher minimum weights.

One mare and two fillies have won the Stradbroke since 2000. The two fillies La Montagna (2006) and Private Steer (2003) carried 48.5kg and 48kg compared to Srikandi’s 51kg.