Flemington ends 2025 with a bang

Somewhere other than Flemington

Archie Alexander became part of the answer to a trivia question at Flemington on Wednesday, but the Ballarat trainer was not at the historic meeting to answer any questions.

The Englishman prepared the first winner of the Victoria Racing Club’s New Year’s Eve card when Somewhere broke a lengthy drought to post a second career win in the TAB We’re On (1600m).

The Kensington Stakes/Bagot Handicap card this year joined Warrnambool and Echuca as meetings run in Victoria on the final day of the year and it was at that the former fixture that Alexander watched Somewhere win, leaving his wife Annie to deputise at Headquarters.

“Arch was sorry to not to be able to be here with Somewhere today but with four runners (at Warrnambool) he’s gone down there with them,” Annie said.

Less than an hour after Somewhere’s win, Alexander got to lead in a New Year’s Eye winner of his own when Didn’t Miss Many scored a gritty win at Warrnambool.

The trainer’s preference for The Bool over Flemington did not reflect the camp’s confidence in Somewhere’s chances, however, with a solid effort on his home track on Ballarat Cup Day hinting a return to form was on the cards.

“He has always shown us so much, we have never lost faith in him,” Annie said.

“He’s probably not been entirely straight-forward, he’s had a few niggly issues that have been a management thing, but we knew coming here today that we had him back to his best so we were pretty confident.”

Dabernig also watches on from The Bool

Alexander was not the only trainer who cheered home a Flemington winner from ‘The Bool’ with Tom Dabernig putting the polish on not only one, but two winners.

That Warrnambool horseman produced Fiorenot to take out the second race on the card, the 1800m Australian Trainers’ Association Plate for Benchmark 70 performers.

Three races later Dabernig saw his speed Bivouac filly Cavalry Girl land the third win of her career, and second at Flemington, after turning in a slick display under Craig Williams in the Fancy A Gallop? (1000m).

History repeats for Maher, Brown in Bagot

Ciaron Maher and Ethan Brown cemented their place as one of Australian racing’s elite combinations in 2025 and on Wednesday they saw out the year with one last feature win.

The powerhouse team won Australia’s final black-type race of the calendar year, the $175,000 Listed Bagot Handicap, with one-time Lexus Melbourne Cup prospect Future History.

The victory was their second together in the 2800-metre event, having won three years ago with San Huberto, and Brown said it a great way to round out a year that included three Group 1 wins with Jimmysstar and a TAB Australian Cup with Light Infantry Man for Maher.

“It’s been a great ’25 and it’s great to top it off with a Stakes win with Ciaron,” Brown said.

“He’s been my number one seed throughout last season and good horses like Jimmysstar and Light Infantry Man were big highlights.

“All’s well that ends well and hopefully we can carry it on to next year.”

Future History, the $3.20 favourite, won by three-quarters-of-a-length from Wealdstone ($31) with another Maher import who has contested Lexus Melbourne Cups ($6), Interpretation, the same distance away third.

Future History’s win was the first leg of a winning double for Brown, who later teamed with Mornington trainer Cliff Brown to win the Victorian Jockeys’ Association Sprint, a benchmark 66 event over 1100m, with Egerton.

Zou’s sensational campaign rolls on

Zou Sensation added another win to a remarkable preparation when he proved too tough for his rivals in Wednesday’s Kensington Stakes.

The Leon and Troy Corstens and Will Larkin-trained on-pacer outlasted Steparty to claim the $175,000 Listed event at the 11th run of a campaign that began all the way back on May 10.

The preparation has included five wins, two at Listed level, a Group 2 second placing and top-four finishes in both the $1 million The Meteorite and The Supernova.

“I was actually talking to Will (Larkin) this morning and he said, ‘I reckon I’m going to have a bet today’ and he said, ‘do you think he’s gone (trained) off?’,” Corstens said.

“I said, ‘mate, he’s as good as he ever is’, but it’s always hard when you’re coming to the end of the preparation and he’s been up for a year.

“He’s just an iron horse. Someone just said to me, ‘are you going to tip him out now’ and I said no. There’s no way I’m tipping him out, he’s going so well, why would you tip him out?”

The $4 second favourite scored by a head from Steparty ($6.50) with $2.50 favourite Persian Spirit two lengths away third.

The victory capped off a stellar 2025 at Flemington for Zou Sensation’s jockey Jamie Melham, who earlier in the year won the VRC’s biggest race of all – the Lexus Melbourne Cup – aboard Half Yours.

Melham doubles up aboard Celerity

Zou Sensation’s win wasn’t the only one for Melham on the New Year’s Eve card, also teaming with Celerity for the most dominant win of the day.

The top hoop partnered the Ciaron Maher-trained mare to a brilliant 3-3/4-length win in the NYE Twilight Sprint (1000m).

It was Melham’s first ride aboard the four-year-old daughter of Exceed And Excel, who can be cantankerous in the barriers, but the Lexus Melbourne Cup winning jockey said she was a model ride.

“She was a darling today, we seem to get along,” she said.

“I know she can be quite quirky and can be difficult at times, and they warned me to just keep the blindfold on as long as I could (in the barriers), and they took it off and she was just a lamb in there.

“She was really on song today and she produced a beautiful win in the end.”

Cup winners present young gun with Flemington first

Melham was not the only member of the Lexus Melbourne Cup-winning team to celebrate New Year’s Eve victory with Half Yours’ trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy also experiencing success.

The father/son duo won Victoria’s final thoroughbred race of the race, the Shore Goggles Sprint (1200m), with former quality two-year-old Rue De Royale.

Initially lumped with 63.5kg, the son of Per Incanto carried 3kg less than that thanks to the claim for rising star apprentice jockey Jackson Radley who brought up his first Flemington winner at his first ride for the stable.

“It’ll definitely be the year’s highlight, that’s for sure,” Radley, a Tasmanian, said.

“I never thought, coming from Tassie, that I’d ever get to ride here. Obviously coming to Flemington just to ride is a privilege and I feel lucky enough to have ridden a winer.”