Interview with Sky Racing's Richard Haynes at 2026 Magic Millions, Gold Coast Sale.

Daily Telegrpah 30 January 2026

'It's on the bucket list': Albury Cup on Beer's radar with Geemes By Jett Hatton (Racenet) - 30 November 2025: https://www.racenet.com.au/news/mitch-beer-to-target-albury-cup-with-saturdays-rosehill-winner-geemes-20251130 The Albury Cup has always been on the bucket list for trainer Mitch Beer, and he might have a genuine contender in next year's renewal with promising mare Geemes. A tried horse that Beer bought online with Patriot Bloodstock, Geemes reeled off her third straight win when taking out the Midway at Rosehill on Saturday in impressive fashion. Beer, who spent multiple years training at Albury, has never had a winner in the Gold Cup and is keen to set the daughter of Grunt on that path in 2026. "We'll give her two or three weeks off and then get her ready for the Albury Cup," Beer, who now trains in partnership with George Carpenter, said. "She gets in really well at the weights for the Albury Cup and Wagga Cup too and they're black type races. "Just looking at the calendar, there's a Benchmark 78 in five weeks at Randwick over 2000 metres and you've got that Summer Cup as well, but I just don't think we need to launch her into the deep end yet." Formerly trained in Victoria by Ciaron Maher, Beer reports the trick to keeping Geemes happy is simple – don't make her work too hard. "She's just continued to improve the more we've got to know her and one thing we realised pretty early on is that you don't have to do too much work with her," Beer said. Geemes was dominant winning at Rosehill on Saturday. Picture: Jeremy Ng – Getty Images "The key with her yesterday was her being a month between runs and going to 2000 metres and it's obviously not textbook, but it's something that works for her. "We train her like a sprinter, so it keeps that freshness in her legs and she really thrives off it."

Chasing cows secret to Snowden galloper's Highway win By Clinton Payne - https://www.racenet.com.au/news/paul-snowdens-unconventional-approach-has-unlocked-navy-buoys-talent-from-maiden-to-randwick-winner-20251220 Chasing cows in a paddock is the method used by astute trainer Paul Snowden to prepare Saturday's impressive Highway Handicap winner Navy Buoy. The four-year-old son of Merchant Navy has developed into one of country NSW's most promising gallopers since joining Snowden's Port Macquarie yard and unconventional training methods have been the secret to success. "To be truthful, what I do with this horse in between runs is extremely minimal," Snowden said. "I don't think a lot of trainers would do what I do with this horse but it seems to work with this guy. "A bit of swimming and out in the paddock chasing some cows around. "Just let him be a horse and he prepares himself." Navy Buoy ($4.20 fav) led throughout to defeat Luke Pepper's Sacred Mistress ($21) by 3¼ lengths with the Lou Mary-trained Off The Scale ($12) a neck away in third in the 1600m contest at Royal Randwick. Winning jockey Tommy Berry said he knew he was set to ride a "nice horse" when he got the call from Snowden to ride the gelding. "I've ridden for Paul long enough now to know if he says one goes OK, it goes OK because he's put his hands on enough good horses and he knows what he's talking about," Berry said. "He knows how to place then and what he needs to bring down here to be winning. "He gave me a lovely ride and when I asked to see what was under the hood, I wasn't disappointed." "He's a bit better than the normal Highway horse." Navy Buoy is another Inglis Digital tried horse sale success story, sold to Sky Racing race caller Anthony Manton's Patriot Bloodstock for $30,000 six months ago. Navy Buoy has won three of his four starts since joining Snowden's boutique team by a combined margin of 9¼ lengths for earnings of $86,250 in four starts. "He came to us as a six start maiden," Snowden said. "We knew he could gallop but it was a case of trying to find what flicked the switch to get that bit of X-factor out of him. "He's here now." Snowden indicated another Highway or a Benchmark race could be Navy Buoy's next assignment without a date being set but his trainer believes the lightly raced galloper should continue his march through the grades in 2026. "He's had a couple of runs close together so I'll just get him home and do his usual drill in the paddock for a week or so," he said. "His future is bright and we'll keep chipping away at his grades. "After he won at Armidale, I told the owners at this time of the year he can win in town. "Hopefully he can continue to progress and he might find himself in a Port (Macquarie) Cup next year."

Patriot Bloodstock has secured the services of Group-1 winning trainer Paul Snowden who will take on two new tried-horses for the Patriot group. Snowden, relocated to Port Macquarie mid-2025 with both on-course stables and farm facilities at his property outside Wauchope. Patriot Bloodstock has sent Snowden two tried horses, 4yo Navy Buoy, a 5-start maidener with placings on the country and provincial circuit around Sydney, and 3yo Xtreme, placed two of his three runs in South Australia and Victoria. The team at Patriot are confident the partnership with Snowden will be a success with their first runners expected early November. “Paul has had immediate success since he moved to Port Macquarie from only a small number of runners. The horses we’ve send him will be very well placed in that region, Paul is a Group-1 winning trainer with a country status, he can be nothing else but successfull and we’re excited to be supporting him and starting this partnership”, said Anthony Manton, Director Patriot Bloodstock.

Wilbury - TAB Highway success

https://www.tdnausnz.com.au/edition/2022-11-14/patriot-games-in-the-syndication-business

https://www.anzbloodstocknews.com/local-victory-delights-gundagai-boy-manton/