Bren O'Brien

Spring racing remains unchallenged as the primary time for Australians to bet on racing, with data compiled by The Straight revealing that eight of the top 10 races are staged in a three-week window in late October/early November.

While overall spending on Australian yearlings to this point of the sales season has dropped nearly $28 million compared to last year, the average price of a yearling is tracking to be the second highest on record. Run The Numbers takes the temperature of the market after Easter.

Tabcorp, PointsBet and BlueBet have all dipped in value amid a sharp drop in the Australian Stock Exchange with more than $100 billion off its value.

Jun Zhang, the son-in-law of founder Zhang Yuesheng, will replace Vin Cox as general manager of global racing and breeding powerhouse Yulong.

MIXI, the Japanese company at the centre of a takeover bid for PointsBet, has built a profitable betting business in Japan’s highly regulated sports betting market in just five years. It is banking on its social betting focus making a similarly major mark in Australia.

The victories of French-bred pair Light Infantry Man and Deakin at Flemington continued a record-breaking season of success in Australia for horses with the (FR) suffix, which includes four Group 1 victories.

There was no income or benefit paid to Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke from a Bathurst property which she on-sold to the regulator for $1 in 2022, the NSW government has been told.