Goulburn preview: Local trainer Danielle Seib is ready to unveil a promising filly Sweet About Me on home turf

Goulburn trainer Danielle Seib has a strong hand to play at home including the debut of her well-bred filly Sweet About Me.

Trainer Danielle Seib saddles up several leading chances at Goulburn.

Ten-time Highway winning trainer Danielle Seib will use her home town meeting at Goulburn to take the wrapping off another Charles Cropper-bred galloper blessed with a bright future

Named Sweet About Me, the daughter of Golden Rose and Randwick Guineas winner Hallowed Crown makes her debut in the Happy Retirement John Cramp Maiden Plate over 1100m.

“Her trial was ten months ago now but she did everything right in it,” Seib said.

“She’s had three jumpouts at home in the lead-up to her debut. She is a filly with a little bit of gate speed but she is quite tractable so hopefully from that draw, she gets a nice run some in the first four and can find the line really well.

“She seems to have share of ability. She has taken a little while to mature but it seems to be all falling into place now.

Oh yeah!

The two favourites fight it out in the opener at @COWRAJOCKEYCLUB with O'Hellyeah the winner!@toddsmartracingpic.twitter.com/v3GkOu0xpQ

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) January 19, 2025

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“She is actually out of the same mare as Ghost Walker. He can breed a nice horse Charlie.”

Cropper’s past arsenal also includes Nanny Maroon who won 11 times in 32 starts.

She will be remembered for her epic 2001 calendar year when she won her four stakes races; the Dark Jewel, Sheraco Stakes, Millie Fox and Festival Handicap.

As good Nanny Maroon was, Sweet About Me’s grandam, Belong Too Long, was another racetrack gem for Cropper with wins in the Group 2 MVRC Champagne Stakes and Listed AJC Keith Mackay Handicap.

Seib will saddle-up the deceptively reliable Hellinda in the opener, the Swiftwood Tiles & Bathrooms Class 2 Handicap (1100m), as the son of William Reid winner Hellbent searches for just his second win at start 16.

Granted Seib’s gelding has a noticeably low winning strike-rate, he has finished runner-up five times.

Hellinda handed in an uncustomary poor run at Kembla on May 31 but with genuine excuses.

“He just didn’t handle the Heavy surface last start, he just never travelled from the outset,” Seib said.

A thriller in the Cootamundra opener with Downtown's Abbey getting the head down to beat Besson! @SeibRacingpic.twitter.com/EzXwUPuVFq

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“The secret with him is back on top of the ground and from a nice draw, he can be nice and handy to the speed.

“Pierre (Boudvillain) knows him very well so he has his regular rider back on.”

Seib, meanwhile, has her choice of two races for dual acceptor Downtown’s Abbey who was a narrow yet wholly emphatic winner at home, over 1500m at her last start back on April 28.

“We will run her but it will depend on scratchings and how the speed maps adjust after scratchings,” Seib explained.

“She prefers to be close to the speed and I thought the way she won her last race is how we always envisioned she would be best. I think she floats too much in front and likes to chase one down.”

Downtown’s Abbey boasts a fascinating pedigree, full of intrigue even, given that her fourth dam was a daughter of Shergar.

The Aga Khan’s 1981 English and Irish Derby winner who was stolen from his box by an armed gang, later presumed to be the IRA, in 1983 and was never seen again.

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Racing’s dynamic duo, trainer Mark Minervini and jockey Luke Rolls, have two chances to boost their expanding strike-rate when the Novocastrian and Mid-North Coaster meet up at Muswellbrook.

Their current combined strike-rate is set at 26.3 per cent which leaps to 42.1 per cent when placings are added.

Rolls’ first ride for the former Master of Morphetville at Muswellbrook is Jakubik, a horse who is all but a brother-in-blood to the Everest winner, Yes Yes Yes, in the Muswellbrook Steel Supplies Maiden Plate (1280m).

The son of Rubick finished runner-up on debut at this same venue before an excusable fifth of 10 runners as recently as eight days ago.

“I was very happy with him at Muswellbrook and the other day at Taree, it was about five weeks between runs, because we couldn’t find the right race or he drew badly or whatever,” Minervini began.

⚫🟠🟢 WINNER ⚫🟠🟢

COOL SPACE (4G ex So Far Sokool NZ) and Luke Rolls break through @port_races on Saturday. The son of @AquisFarm INVADER was a purchase from @rothwellpark20 draft at 2022 @mmsnippets Gold Coast Yearling Sale. @newcastleraces_#invader#aquis#cool#spacepic.twitter.com/eRzfJHJYL3

— Minervini Racing (@minerviniracing) March 29, 2025

“He drew wide again but I said to the owners we have to run him but he was just posted four and five wide the trip.

“He sort of loomed up in the straight but the extra work he had to do took its toll.

“He will take good improvement out of that run and back to Muswellbrook and with a better draw, I would say he has got to be an each-way chance for sure.”

Rolls and Minervini’s second chance at a winner is the Victorian-bred Cool Space who tackles the eminently winnable Bengalla Cup Sun 27 July Benchmark 58 Handicap (1450m).

“Luke rode him at Gunnedah last start and he was very happy with him,” Minervini said.

“He said to stick to the 1400m and he was keen to ride him again.

“So from barrier one, I think he should get a nice run and I am hoping he can figure in the finish.”

Cool Space is an especially well-bred galloper.

His dam won the Bendigo Guineas while his grandam won a Group 3 in New Zealand.

This is also the family that delivered Prince Salieri who won the J J Atkins in 1989 when it was known as the Castlemaine Stakes.

Minervini, meanwhile, is five wins short of his 500th as a trainer.

If the Rolls’ ridden pair don’t edge him closer, perhaps it will be Tickle Me Pink and Anna Roper who do.

The daughter of Vancouver is sure to have her admirers in the Two Rivers Wine Maiden Plate (1280m) after a close and closing second first-up at Gosford.

“We used that 1000m as a second barrier trial and I was thrilled with the way she finished off. Probably another 50 metres or 100 metres, she wins,” Minervini said.