It seems a long time ago that NSW racing calendar was reworked after the equine influenza shut-down in the 2007 spring, and back then it seemed a long time to wait for the 2008 versions of the AJC Australian Derby and Doncaster Handicap, but on Saturday they were held at Randwick.

Even Sydney’s big wet autumn finally got into the spirit of this part of the NSW Autumn Racing Carnival and it stopped raining on Friday, allowing the near 35,000 crowd at the Australian Jockey Club’s headquarters to come out in style. And style there was both on and off the track.

The track itself also behaved in impeccable style after receiving rain every day for nearly two-weeks leading up to Saturday, and while the official rating was a heavy (8), the winners came from every part of the track all day.

It seems almost too farfetched to think that this track, now in the best form for years and further rested by the three months off with equine influenza, will possibly suffer damage due to the religious festival taking over Randwick after next Saturday.

Regretfully it is true, but news from Randwick on Saturday suggests that despite the wet summer and autumn that the new facilities at Warwick Farm, for the Randwick horses to move to over the winter while Randwick is out of commission, are only a few days behind the original completion schedule date. Good news for all.

However, Randwick had much to offer on Saturday, and over the coming week.

Randwick trainers Graeme Rogerson, Anthony Cummings, John O’Shea and Kevin Moses took the first four races with Likefatherlikeson (NZ), Road To Rock, Espurante and No Wine No Song respectively

Then fellow Randwick  trainer Gai Waterhouse collected the first Group I with More Than Ready colt Sebring claiming the Sires’ Produce Stakes over 1400m, The purple and white stars of Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds were everywhere after the victory, and jockey Blake Shinn spoke well of the ownership group after he had missed the Golden Slipper due to suspension.

Shinn, like Glen Boss did the week before after the Slipper, received a kiss from one of the males in the ownership group. Certainly life is no mere handshake anymore. Should the dominant colt win the Group I Champagne Stakes in the step up to 1600m next Saturday, and there does not appear any reason why he will not, Shinn might have to take evasive action.

The David Jones AJC Australian Derby eluded the Randwick trainers, in fact all the Australian trainers, as New Zealanders Murray Baker and John Sargent, from Cambridge and Matamata respectively, produced Nom Du Jeu (NZ) and Red Ruler (NZ) to thump the field.

This was another salutary lesson in where to go to find staying blood.

Baker described Nom Du Jeu as ‘a good stayer, an old fashioned English type horse’, but he also commented ‘if the New Zealand Derby winner C'est La Guerre was in this field he’d probably distance them, he’s a real good horse.’

Nom Du Jeu was aided by a seriously good ride by South African ex-pat Jeff Lloyd. Last leaving the main straight for the first time, patiently biding his time down the back, and then a sublime rails run entering the main straight again.

Then it was onto Apache Cat and a demonstration that Australia has another sprinter for the world stage with an exciting 2 3/4L win in the Group I TJ Smith Stakes over 1200m. Cranbourne based trainer Greg Eurell is a thorough man with an Olympic equestrian background, and he was not one to rush off to the first plane to campaign Apache Cat.

But he is confident now that the lightly raced five-year-old Lion Caven gelding, with only 28 starts, has what it takes and later in the year Japan and Hong Kong are the targets. Royal Ascot can wait until 2008. Apache Cat with his big white blaze on his face is a crowd pleaser, and many more fans will be added over the course of the year.

Another New Zealander came to the fore with the final of the Group I races of the programme, the Emirates Doncaster Handicap over 1600m, when Rosehill based Chris Waller won his first Group I when Glen Boss guided Triple Honour (NZ) to win the famous race.

The Group I win had been elusive for Waller with placings, including with Love And Kisses coming third in the Sires’ Produce earlier in the day.

Triple Honour was a nose short to Weekend Hussler in the Royal Randwick Guineas over 1600m at Randwick on March 29^th, and it took the three-year-old gelding some time to recover his composure. Quite understandable when Weekend Hussler is rated as the best three-year-old in the world at the moment. It is not every day that opposition of that class steps out to do battle.

But Waller and staff, with fellow ex-pat New Zealander’s Paul Shailer, Annalese Trollope, Emily Holmes – with more to come reports suggest – put Triple Honour back together, booked Group I guru Glen Boss, the winner of three previous Doncaster Handicap’s, and the job was finally completed.

Boss, still shaking with the effort and emotion of it all, said it all after dismounting.

“This should all be about Chris Waller really. I’ll go mad and be stupid, but honestly this should go back to Chris Waller, this will be the one that makes him I think as far as his career goes,” he said.

Style, and befitting of the win, and day.

Boss, the winner of the Golden Slipper last week, returned overnight to Hong Kong with fellow jockeys Daren Beadman and Zac Purton.

Beadman has made Hong Kong his own since taking up his association with top trainer John Moore, and Boss and Purton have worked hard in the international environment.

Within hours of stepping off the plane Beadman won the first race of the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup and the Champions Mile meeting at Sha Tin on Goal Keeper, and Purton was third on Supernova.

Purton then won races four and five on Beautiful Crown and Super Traveller respectively, with Beadman second on Rewarding Star in the fourth. Purton was third in the tenth race on Brilliant Chapter. Beadman won the ninth race on One World and was third in one of the features, the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup on Viva Pataca.

Boss, not to be outdone, won the sixth race on Kung Fu.

They have added to the spectacle of the NSW Autumn Racing Carnival with their style and class picked up from the international stage.

The ride of the day though was another ex-pat New Zealander Shane Dye, now back in Sydney after eight years in Hong Kong, on third placed Pinnacles in the Doncaster Handicap. Instructed by trainer Rick Hore-Lacy to ‘go back and ride for luck’ from the horror draw of barrier 21, amazingly Dye did what he was told.

Last into the main straight he spotted Boss on Triple Honour one off the rails, and followed him like he was on tram tracks, and they were third 1 1/4L from the winner and into a stake of $171,000.