The Aporia · Danny Russell

2026-09-04 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Vintage Dangerfield breaks Blue hearts in front of more than 96,000 at the MCG

🔮 When asked if he could back up next week in Perth, he paused to think. assertive

2026-09-04 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Cats v Blues player ratings: From Geelong’s ‘Superman’, to those who had ‘horror’ nights for Carlton

🔮 4/10 (3) Bailey Smith: Struggled to shake off a Cooper Lord tag early and would have been annoyed that his opponent kicked two goals. assertive

2026-09-08 · The Sydney Morning Herald

The loving memory of Michelle Payne’s father that almost made her cry at school

🔮 It was one of his forgetful moments – a memory lapse that could be brought on by running farms, training horses and raising 10 rowdy kids. assertive

2026-09-17 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Lions sweat on defender’s fitness test; Plugger’s first words after preliminary final heroics

🔮 While the Brisbane Lions sweat on the fitness of speedy defender Noah Answerth, coach Chris Fagan believes the smarts of veteran Ryan Lester could counter the speed of Hawthorn superstar Nick Watson. assertive

2026-09-19 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Caulfield track review ordered after safety dramas on group 1 race day

🔮 Caulfield will host the $3 million group 1 guineas on October 10 and the $6 million Caulfield Cup the following Saturday. assertive

2026-09-20 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Blood and tears spilled as Lions newcomer rides emotions of pulsating ‘prelim’

🔮 “I was thinking about things we could have done better, things I could have done better. assertive

2026-09-21 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Brownlow Medal 2026 LIVE updates: Nick Daicos, Marcus Bontempelli and Bailey Smith frontrunners to take out league’s best and fairest

🔮 Behind expected Brownlow Medal winner Nick Daicos, Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli is set to share a slice of history. assertive

2026-09-22 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Nonsense’: Major racing club blames jockeys for track drama, dismisses safety concerns

🔮 The club said former champion jockey Damien Oliver would now conduct an independent track inspection for this Sunday’s group 1 Manikato Stakes Meeting at Caulfield, followed by the same process for the $3 million group 1 Guineas on October 10 and the $6 million Caulfield Cup the following Saturday. assertive

2026-09-24 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Lachie Neale tribunal appeal LIVE: New twist as Lions star attempts to overturn grand final suspension

🔮 The Lions could be forced to focus on Neale’s history of never having been suspended rather than contesting the intentional strike finding before the AFL Appeals Board, after reports that new vision had surfaced that is likely to be damaging to his case. mixed

2026-09-24 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Who’s this bloke with no teeth?’ The raw talent who snubbed the NBA to become footy’s unicorn

🔮 Scans would later show he had a grade two strain, and should have been on the sidelines for a month. assertive

2026-09-26 · The Sydney Morning Herald

The note that helped Patrick Voss after grand final heartbreak

🔮 Few thought his team could be denied their fate so late in the game before Brisbane willed themselves to victory. assertive

2026-09-28 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘It’s a dead matter’: Fatal call on Melbourne’s plans to build a new home at Caulfield

🔮 The Demons have also lost key support at state government level since the departure of former premier Jacinta Allen, who along with Sports Minister Steve Dimopoulos was seen as a chief ally, while the football club’s position could be further weakened by a Coalition victory at the upcoming state election. assertive

2026-10-03 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Do you want the filtered version?’ Trainer’s head in a spin after Melham’s close call

🔮 I think we were pretty lucky that the visiting rider [on Smooth Chino] mistimed the winning post a little bit there, otherwise he might have got over the top of us. assertive

2026-10-07 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Inside Victorian racing’s power struggle and a last-minute change to new laws

🔮 Controversial elements of Munz’s early morning email never came to pass, including a proposal that would change the way the three clubs were governed in “exceptional circumstances”. assertive

2026-10-10 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Michelle Payne was first to break racing’s glass ceiling. Rachel King is lining up to smash another

🔮 Talented hoop Rachel King emerged on Saturday as a serious contender to win this year’s Cox Plate, a historic feat that would see the Sydney jockey smash one of racing’s unbroken glass ceilings. assertive

2026-10-11 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Racing’s big gambling problem, and why it’s hurting punters

🔮 “The market percentage is higher, so, on average, all horses will be poor value in comparison long term,” Walters explained on X. “Doesn’t matter what you back.” assertive

2026-10-11 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Profits prompt Wilson’s departure from VRC as he downplays talk of board rift

🔮 “I’m leaving with the view that this momentum and this growth and this strong performance will continue,” he said. assertive

2026-10-16 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Maher than likely: The horse we expect to win the Caulfield Cup

🔮 Defending champ Half Yours (59kg) will carry an extra 5kg on last year’s win and a new jockey – Mark Zahra – after Jamie Melham opted to ride in The Everest. assertive

2026-10-17 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Caulfield Cup and The Everest LIVE: Big day of racing lined up for Melbourne and Sydney

🔮 Why this seven-year-old, $34 shot might just be poised to spring an almighty Everest upset By assertive

2026-10-17 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Horse’s death, reigning champion’s fall overshadow finish of the Caulfield Cup

🔮 Stewards were able to quickly calm worried family and connections of the jockeys by releasing a statement to say both would be taken to hospital but had escaped serious injury. assertive

2026-10-18 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Why the inquiry into Caulfield Cup horse death must be made public

🔮 They opened an inquiry on Saturday and it will be ongoing this week. assertive

2026-10-20 · The Sydney Morning Herald

The report into the Caulfield Cup horse death has been released, but we need more information

🔮 But what we are missing now is the “coroner’s report”; information that goes beyond those in-race mechanics and more deeply into the other factors that may have had an impact on the day. assertive

2026-10-22 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Stark reminder’: Racing boss emails horse owners over Caulfield Cup death

🔮 Zahra is waiting on medical advice to be cleared to resume riding, but will miss Saturday’s Cox Plate day, while McNeil has been given the all-clear. assertive

2026-10-23 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Like bacon and eggs, this perfect pairing is hard to go past in the Cox Plate

🔮 That would take Waller’s total victories in the race to seven and McDonald to five. assertive

2026-10-23 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Track tensions, the Valley roar, and Daryl Braithwaite’s Horses: The mixed emotions behind Cox Plate’s Flemington move

🔮 One of the country’s finest trainers will set foot on the vast green lawns at Flemington on Saturday with a serious Cox Plate chance and mixed emotions. assertive

2026-10-24 · The Sydney Morning Herald

No October joy for Carlton stars on Cox Plate’s sojourn to Flemington

🔮 As trainer Andrea Leek, who operates stables in Nar Nar Goon North, celebrated becoming the first woman in 32 years to win Australia’s weight-for-age championship with West Australian star Cosmic Crusader, the dual Brownlow winner and his Carlton crew were left to wonder what might have been. assertive

2026-10-27 · The Sydney Morning Herald

First look at the Melbourne Cup form - we rate the top 24 horses

🔮 This guide will be updated when the field is set with comments from Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne assessing each runner’s chances. assertive

2026-10-27 · The Sydney Morning Herald

One is the race that stops a nation. The other will make you an instant $30 million

🔮 The winner of one, he says, will become a household name. assertive

2026-10-28 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Can’t have a life’: Kanga joins welfare push for later starting times in racing

🔮 A 5am start will be trialled after the spring carnival. assertive

2026-10-31 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Derby Day LIVE: Punters descend on Flemington for big day of racing; Cormier, Stormy Marco favoured in 4.20pm main race

🔮 When three-year-old gelding Doubt Time lines up behind the gates for Saturday’s Coolmore Stud Stakes, stablehand Montanna Gawith-Hutson is confident the horse will be relaxed and ready to race. assertive

2026-10-31 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Another shock scratching three days out from Melbourne Cup

🔮 The Joseph O’Brien stayer has set European racing alight in the past six months by adopting daring catch-me-if-you can tactics and was expected to turn Tuesday’s 3200m race at Flemington into a gruelling test of stamina that would suit the Europeans. assertive

2026-11-01 · The Sydney Morning Herald

This horse is barred from running in Cup week after failing a drug test – that its trainer requested

🔮 “I’ve been involved in horses in one form or another for 50 years, and this is the best horse I’ve ever been involved in, by a considerable margin,” retired school teacher Greg May told this masthead. assertive

2026-11-02 · The Sydney Morning Herald

He’d just ridden his first group 1 race. Then came the death threats

🔮 On Tuesday, he will ride the same horse in the Melbourne Cup. assertive

Forward-looking sentences extracted from their articles, oldest first. Nothing here checks whether any of it turned out to be right.

👤 Danny Russell

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