Winning Horse: News Girl (Aus)

4yoM Magnus (Aus) - Stacey Lee (Aus)(Bel Esprit (Aus))

17 starts - 5 wins 3 seconds 1 third 2 fourths $336800

Black Type Placings

2nd G3 Caulfield Mud House Ros?? Bellmaine Stks 1200m (2020)

2nd G3 Caulfield Kevin Hayes Stakes 1200m (2019)

Other Wins

1st Caulfield Le Pine Funerals (Bm84) 1100m (2020)

1st Caulfield Frank O'brien (Bm70) 1200m (2019)

1st Albury Fiona Landy (Bm58) 1175m (2019)

1st Albury Marshall Dent & Wilmoth Mdn 1175m (2018)

Race Result:

1st: News Girl (L German/G Duryea) - $6.50
2nd: Coruscate (C Williams/J Cummings) - $5.50
3rd: Esperance (J McNeil/J Cummings) - $6

Winning Time: 1:06.17 Last 600m: N/A

Margins: 3/4L x 2L

Winning Trainer: Geoff Duryea (on phone in Corowa)

“I can’t come down with all of the restrictions so I’m so grateful to Renee and Michael Hoysted. I rode for Renee’s grandfather and Michael’s father and I cannot say how much I owe them in appreciation for helping me with this horse across the border.

“It’s very difficult living across the border at the moment. If I cross it then I can’t even go to trackwork with my horses.

On the horse today: “It was touch and go whether we’d scratch her. My son Paul is on track and I told him to talk to Lewis beforehand. We’d avoided the Cup at Wagga because it was really heavy there. But Lewis was confident that if he could get to the right lane where the track wasn’t as bad then we’d have a goo

Winning Jockey: Lewis German

On a winning double: “A very good day. I’m very grateful for the opportunities. Geoff has been pretty for me and he’s always stuck by me and getting me on this filly. I rode her last start for the first time and she ran well.

“I’ve just transferred to Cranbourne for three months to open up other opportunities to build relationships with other trainers.”

On the run: “I found today the middle part of the track was the place to be. My two winners were both there.”

Danny O’Brien at Caulfield on Russian Camelot winning SA Derby (separate to TV): “Obviously we’re really excited. He’s a horse that we’ve had a huge opinion of. We’ve had him since he was a yearling and this was a race that we’ve been aiming him at for the better part of 12 months. He’s turned up and delivered.

On the training effort: “It’s very satisfying. It’s never been done before - a northern hemisphere horse has never won a derby in Australia. I don’t think one has ever run? I was always happy with the preparation. His father won the English Derby second-up after one run at mile in the Two Thousand Guineas. I didn’t have any problems with the preparation. Missing the run the other day was probably a good thing in the end. It kept him a bit fresh.

“We were very confident going into today that there were no excuses. He’d had everything we needed to do to get him right today.

Asked if it is a ‘pity’ that there’s no Queensland Derby this year: “No, we were never going to go there. We always thought that Morphettville would be a good track for him. Less complicated to get him across there, too. He’ll come back now and pace him through to the Spring.”