Matt Hill

A berth in the G1 Melbourne Cup is at stake in Thursday's GII Belmont Gold Cup, the first of the weekend's graded stakes during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. The New York Racing Association has gone so far as to fly in one of the world's premier commentators, Victoria-based Matt Hill, to describe the action in the two-mile test--essentially two laps of the inner turf course at the Spa. Godolphin won the 2018 Melbourne Cup with Cross Counter (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and Siskany (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) returns to...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) have formed an agreement that the GII Belmont Gold Cup, slated for Thursday, June 6 at Saratoga Race Course, will be a 'Golden Ticket' event offering the winner an automatic berth into the G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup, NYRA said in a Friday release. The new partnership will provide the winner of the Belmont Gold Cup, a two-mile test for older horses, a place in the starting gate for the Lexus Melbourne Cup on Nov. 5, 2024, at...

Momentous race commentaries resound from the past like chiming bells, etched into our consciousness alongside the visual recollection of the great pinnacles of this sport. Who can forget the inimitable Sir Peter O'Sullevan's call of "the mare's beginning to get up" that accompanied the last surge of Dawn Run in the 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup? Or Graham Goode's cry as they turned for home in that year's Epsom Derby that "Dancing Brave is on the extreme left starting to motor, but oh so much to do!" Or 10 years later...