Monday, 5th October 2026
All enquiries - Gary Knowles 0406 599 773
The extraordinary highs and lows of racing have struck trainer John McArdle within weeks of each other, with the future of Bella Lavita, the unraced Pierro half-sister to Gr1 winner My Gladiola, now uncertain following serious physical problems that have required surgery. McArdle celebrated the biggest result of My Gladiola’s career when the daughter of I Am Invincible captured the Gr1 Moir Stakes last month, but punters.com.au reports attention has since turned to her younger sibling, whose prospects of reaching the racetrack are now in doubt despite the considerable promise attached to her pedigree. According to punters.com.au, Bella Lavita has undergone surgeries and McArdle is unable to guarantee that the three-year-old will ultimately make it to race day, a particularly difficult development given the expectations surrounding the daughter of Pierro. Bella Lavita was purchased for $180,000 by Riverstone Lodge at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and is out of high-class mare Villa Verde, herself a Gr2-winning daughter of Not A Single Doubt who also placed at Gr1 level and has produced a family with considerable commercial value. Bella Lavita had shown enough in her early education to fuel optimism, appearing in jump-outs and trials for McArdle, including a Caulfield Heath hit-out in May, but her progression has subsequently been interrupted and her racing future has become secondary to recovery. The contrast with My Gladiola is particularly stark. Bred and sold by Kia Ora Stud before being purchased for $550,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, My Gladiola has developed into the standout performer produced by Villa Verde, graduating to the highest level after repeatedly competing against elite sprinting opposition and breaking through in the Moir. The family has also endured the loss of Villa Verde this year, making the uncertainty surrounding Bella Lavita another setback for connections after what had otherwise been a memorable period. McArdle has enjoyed an intimate association with the family and had been entrusted with Bella Lavita while overseeing My Gladiola’s rise, but there is no inclination to compromise the younger filly’s welfare simply to pursue a racing career. Her pedigree ensures she retains value regardless of whether she eventually competes, yet for a stable that had every reason to dream of another talented representative from Villa Verde, the immediate priority is simply giving Bella Lavita every opportunity to recover.
Golden Rose hero Warwoven will be asked to break new ground when he tackles Saturday’s $3 million Gr1 Caulfield Guineas over 1600m, with trainer Bjorn Baker confident his outstanding colt can adapt from Sydney’s right-handed racing to the anti-clockwise demands of Caulfield. According to racenet.com.au, Warwoven has raced exclusively in the clockwise direction through his first eight starts, but Baker has deliberately introduced Melbourne-style work at Warwick Farm rather than sending him south for the traditional Guineas Week gallops at Caulfield, giving the son of Sword Of State his first serious anti-clockwise workout last week before another stronger gallop in company on Tuesday. According to racenet.com.au, Baker describes Warwoven as an unusually uncomplicated colt with a temperament that should help him cope with the unfamiliar direction, and the trainer’s confidence is understandable after a campaign in which the three-year-old has progressed from victory in the Gr3 Pago Pago Stakes and Gr2 Run To The Rose to a commanding Gr1 Golden Rose triumph by more than three lengths. Warwoven’s capacity to stretch beyond 1400m is now the central question, but Baker sees compelling reasons to believe the Guineas mile will suit, not least his relaxed racing style and the stamina on the maternal side of his pedigree, with his dam a Gr2 winner over 2000m. The Caulfield Guineas could also determine whether Baker takes an even more ambitious step and sends Warwoven towards the Gr1 Cox Plate over 2040m at Flemington, a possibility the trainer is prepared to entertain should the colt run to expectations on Saturday. That would represent a rapid elevation in distance and opposition, but Warwoven has already demonstrated an ability to absorb pressure while continuing to improve as his campaign has developed. He heads the early Caulfield Guineas market ahead of Blind Raise and is shaping as the principal Sydney challenge against a deep group of three-year-olds assembled from the leading Victorian stables. For Baker, however, the immediate assignment remains straightforward: establish that Warwoven is equally effective turning left and allow his class to carry him through another rise in distance before deciding whether the spring’s weight-for-age championship enters the conversation.
The remarkable rise of world-class performer Ombudsman is poised to place his dam Syndicate back in the commercial spotlight, with the daughter of Dansili set to be offered during the prestigious Sceptre Sessions of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale. Syndicate represents one of the great recent examples of broodmare value creation, reveals TDN, having been sold by Juddmonte Farms for just 25,000gns at the 2017 Tattersalls December Mares Sale before producing a horse who has become one of the outstanding middle-distance performers in world racing. According to thoroughbreddailynews.com, her return to Park Paddocks comes after Ombudsman’s continued success at the highest level, including victories in the Gr1 Dubai Turf and Gr1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes during 2026 after his elite-level breakthrough the previous season. Bred by James Hanly’s Ballyhimikin Stud, Ombudsman is by Night Of Thunder and was himself sold for 340,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, subsequently developing into an international flagbearer for Godolphin. Syndicate is a winning daughter of Dansili and a full-sister to Gr3 Premio Carlo Vittadini winner Runnymede and dual Listed winner Stipulate, who was also runner-up in the Gr2 Celebration Mile, while the wider family traces to Gr1 Prix du Moulin winner All At Sea and includes four-time Gr1 winner Twice Over. Her influence has continued beyond Ombudsman, with his full-sister Synchronicity commanding 900,000gns as a yearling and subsequently adding further lustre to a pedigree whose commercial value has expanded dramatically since Syndicate left Juddmonte. Tattersalls’ own records underline the scale of that progression: a mare sold for a relatively modest five-figure sum less than a decade ago has become the dam of a multiple Gr1 winner whose victories include two editions of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes as well as the Dubai Turf. Her inclusion in the Sceptre Sessions therefore brings together precisely the combination of proven production, elite racing performance and deep female family that the showcase breeding-stock section was created to attract, and ensures Syndicate will enter the ring as one of the most closely watched broodmares of the December sale.
A significant jockey reshuffle has put Mark Zahra in the box seat for two of the spring’s biggest prizes aboard reigning Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours after Jamie Melham elected to ride star filly Blue Door in The Everest on the same afternoon as the Caulfield Cup. Melham partnered Half Yours into fifth place in Saturday’s Gr1 Turnbull Stakes over 2000m and has been integral to the gelding’s rise through the staying ranks, but co-trainer Tony McEvoy confirmed Zahra will now take the ride when the defending champion attempts to repeat his Caulfield Cup success, with the arrangement potentially extending to the Gr1 Melbourne Cup. According to racing.com, McEvoy made it clear Zahra now controls his own destiny regarding Flemington, saying the two-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey would need to relinquish the mount himself for the situation to change. Melham’s Sydney commitment is aboard Blue Door in the $20 million The Everest, where the three-year-old filly receives a substantial weight advantage and is set to carry only 51kg under the weight-for-age scale. While McEvoy acknowledged some disappointment at losing Melham’s intimate knowledge of Half Yours, he accepted the commercial and professional reality of the decision and remains delighted with how his stayer has emerged from the Turnbull. Half Yours was having only his second run of the preparation at Flemington and McEvoy considered the performance stronger than it may have appeared on paper, particularly given the searching nature of the contest and the difficulty several horses experienced racing second-up. The stable expects the son of St Jean to strip much fitter at Caulfield, where he will attempt to defend the Cup he won last spring before famously completing the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double. Zahra’s arrival therefore adds another elite big-race rider to the equation at precisely the point Half Yours approaches his primary targets, while Melham’s decision underlines the exceptional pull of The Everest and the difficult choices confronting Australia’s leading jockeys as the major Melbourne and Sydney carnivals increasingly collide.
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