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Less than four months after meeting to discuss the possibility of a merger, the Victoria Racing Club and the Melbourne Racing Club could not be further apart on the issue. Bren O’Brien ponders whether it was the consolidation of power which spooked the VRC.

Australian Olly Tait has been instrumental in the emergence of Qatari outfit Wathnan Racing which could have more than 50 runners at this week’s prestigious Royal Ascot meeting.

Newhaven Park’s Cool Aza Beel became the first sire-son descendant of Zabeel to produce a Group 1-winning two-year-old from his first crop. Run The Numbers looks at the ongoing influence of the Zabeel sireline, as well as a prodigious damline influence in Cool Archie’s JJ Atkins win.

In this week's edition of Straight Talk, sponsored by Inglis and Darley, Bren O'Brien and Tim Rowe pay tribute to the legendary sire Snitzel and chat to Rob Heathcote about breeding and training.

In a worrying sign for Australia’s racing authorities, one of the country’s highest turnover punters is switching more of his focus - and his investment - to overseas markets.

Four-time champion stallion Snitzel has died after the rising 23-year-old’s health deteriorated in recent weeks. Arrowfield’s John Messara believes the versatile stallion will leave a lasting legacy.

Neck-deep in rising floodwaters to save his broodmares and newly weaned foals, Craig Ruttley feared the worst. But the principal of Glenthorne Park Thoroughbreds says he is one of the lucky ones among the devastation left by last month’s floods in the mid-north coast of NSW.