NEARLY 13kg of cocaine seized from a former Melbourne racehorse trainer’s drug smuggling yacht in Fiji has been stolen from a Suva Court evidence room. MANDY SQUIRES reports for the HERALD-SUN that the drugs trafficked by John Nikolic across the Pacific were among millions of dollars worth of cocaine stored at the courthouse, which is understood to have been nicked since March this year, with more than half of it swapped out for flour. In total, 52kg of cocaine is unaccounted for from the Fiji High Court “secure” exhibit storage room, with the missing Nikolic drugs first alerting Fiji authorities to the

AN indication of how Sydney racing has become entrenched in feature meetings can be gauged by the crowd that turned out this morning (Tuesday) to watch the trial of Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising. It was a work day and storm clouds were ominous but there were far more at Randwick than regularly attend the major midweek meeting of the week in Sydney. Such is the sad indictment on Harbour City racing that fans would rather watch the world’s best sprinter trial than do their money cold on a Waller stable-dominated midweek farce. Not only does the main Wednesday

THE Queensland Government has provided an update on the implementation of The Next Lap, a plan for the future of Queensland racing. Work underway – remainder of 2026 The remainder of 2026 will focus predominantly on progressing governance and construction priorities. Key work underway includes: Establishing The Next Lap Oversight Committee, comprising senior representatives from the Department of Sport, Racing and Olympic and Paralympic Games (DSROPG), Department of Primary Industries (DPI), RQ and QRIC to guide implementation of The Next Lap. On-going work to progress governance and legislative options to support a future streamlined model, including the integration of RQ and QRIC

NO surprise that all the Sydney racing ‘spin doctors’ want to talk about is how the ‘house full’ sign is already up for The Everest meeting. Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club have confirmed that general admission tickets for the 10th running of The Everest on October 17 have sold out with Randwick on track for its biggest crowd ever for the $20mn blockbuster. Officials say the capacity is just over 50,000 – a far cry from the 100,000-plus that Flemington can accommodate on Cup week. The General Admission sell-out follows unprecedented demand to be trackside for the world’s

JUST when everything was going so well for the Brisbane Racing Club’s ‘man for all seasons’, like the three-peat of his beloved Brisbane Lions, he hit an unexpected hurdle at Doomben on Wednesday. ‘Manuel’ reportedly forgot his ‘admit all sections’ pass to the track and after bluffing his way past the car park attendant was halted by an Asian security guard at the bottom of the escalator to the grandstand. ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ Manuel squelled at the feisty guard who was simply doing his job but some suspect has been consigned to cleaning the toilets after Wednesday’s

CONTRIBUTORS wanted to talk about the massive RQ financial turnaround, the departure of Peter V’Landys from Racing NSW and perceived problems with the voting system for Directors at the upcoming AGM of the Brisbane Racing Club. THIS contributor, who calls himself ‘COLIN from the ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT of Racing in Queensland’ has weighed into the debate over how the ‘RQ Miracle Men’ MATT McGRATH and LACHLAN MURRAY managed to convert a $20 million loss into an $8 million profit in the space of four months. ‘MOST stakeholders are happy enough to cop the $8mn profit without asking any questions and it