Northerly he's got all the hallmarks of a champion." Sunline, a champion New Zealand mare, had won the Cox Plate for two years running, and the spring clash with Northerly was now widely anticipated. Northerly was spelled for the winter, and started his campaign in Perth, where he won first-up and was defeated second-up with 62 kilograms. He then travelled to Melbourne, where he met Sunline for the first time in the John F Feehan Stakes in mid-September. This time, Damien Oliver took the ride, as Greg Childs was committed to Sunline. The great mare raced clear approaching the home turn,
The Racecourse Colliery devised on the basis of photographs and existing knowledge of old Black Country pits. The exception to this is the Weighbridge House which is a historic building, relocated from Rolfe Street in Smethwick, where it stood in the Birmingham Canal Navigation's wharf yard. It was probably built in the early years of the 20th century. The reconstruction at Black Country Living Museum has been called Racecourse Colliery because the land on which it stands was originally the Earl of Dudley's private racecourse, which was closed when the railway line from Dudley to Wolverhampton was built in 1852. This pit features