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Warren Block's Daily Report - Thursday, 18 June 2026
- Jockey-Trainer metro stats - five states - Spotlight on Anna Roper
- Matrix day-by-day results for Thursday and Friday racing
- Wizard Freebie - Wizard Magic Report
- Wizard Ratings, Raceday, Matrix, and Selectives Results
Jockey-Trainer metro stats - five states - Spotlight on Anna Roper
Today, jockeys in each of the five mainland states who are prominent in their respective 2025-2026 metropolitan premierships, with the following stats covering the past two years.
The Jockey/Trainer combinations that are included here are based on the following criteria: The Jockey/Trainer combination is listed when a jockey's record shows at least 2 wins when riding the Wizard top-rater, or at least 3 wins when riding the race favourite, or 4 wins if the runner is in the $2.00 to $5.90 odds range, for that stable. Also included are the overall percentage stats for the jockey when riding a Wizard top rater or race favourite, for any stable. Note, that these stats cover the rider's results in all races, irrespective of location.
To add to this weekly report, here is a Spotlight Profile of Anna Roper which makes for some interesting reading.
Anna Roper is a young New South Wales apprentice jockey who first came under notice on provincial and country tracks before competing successfully on Sydney metropolitan tracks.
Early life and family background
Anna grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales and first made her name in the equestrian world rather than racing. She learned to ride at Mangrove Mountain Pony Club, progressing through dressage, show riding and then eventing. Her dedication to equestrian sport saw her win the Australian Youth Dressage Championships in 2016, the State Interschool Title, and the National Interschool Championships in 2019. Anna's introduction to racing came when a family friend offered her a schoolholiday trackwork job with trainer Greg McFarlane at Gosford when she was 16, which sparked her interest in thoroughbreds and ultimately led to an apprenticeship. An early and key connection and was with trainer Tracey Bartley. teamthoroughbred.com provincialracingnsw.com
Entry into racing and apprenticeship
Anna began riding trackwork for Gosford trainer Greg McFarlane while still at school, balancing earlymorning work with her studies. She later commenced her apprenticeship and made an immediate impact when she rode her first race ride and first winner on Alpha Go at Gundagai on April 3, 2022 for trainer Tony Newing. She quickly built momentum, riding 15 winners in the closing months of the 20212022 season and then more winners at the start of 202223. She rode enough winners in her first seven months of race riding to put her in the top echelon of NSW jockeys despite still being an apprentice. countrypunter.com facebook JOHN TAPP RACING
Main riding regions and tracks
Anna has ridden extensively across the NSW provincial and country network and has also been successful on Sydney metropolitan programs. After an injury layoff, she based herself with Wyong trainer Damien Lane, consolidating Wyong and surrounding provincial venues and Sydney as her core riding base. sportsbet.com provincialracingnsw.com
Key trainers and professional relationships
Several trainers have been central to Anna's success. Her initial link with Greg McFarlane at Gosford introduced her to racing and has continued into raceday success, including metropolitan wins on horses such as The Great Houdini. Tony Newing provided her breakthrough when Alpha Go gave her a winning debut at Gundagai in April 2022. In mid2023 she linked up with the Wyong stable of trainer Damien Lane, who has since been a key supporter. With Damian she has enjoyed notable success, including a Randwick Kensington treble on Collect Your Cash, Campaldino and The Great Houdini, and important hometrack wins at Wyong. She has also ridden winners for other trainers like Annabel and Rob Archibald, Bjorn Baker, and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, which attests to the regard these premier stables have for her ability. wyongraceclub.com provincialracingnsw.com
Setback and return from injury
Anna's rapid rise was interrupted by a serious afterrace accident at Muswellbrook in November 2022, when she was dislodged from Stable Talk returning to scale. She suffered knee and back injuries and later underwent surgery to repair the medial cruciate ligament in her right knee, resulting in about eight to nine months on the sidelines. At the time of the accident she was leading the NSW apprentices' premiership and sat in the top five of the overall state jockeys' standings, a remarkable position for a firstyear apprentice. After returning to race riding in mid2023, she quickly regained form, riding 25 winners in the early part of the 20232024 season and maintaining a strong strikerate. wyongraceclub.com countrypunter.com]
Major wins and career highlights to date
While still early in her career, Anna has managed several notable milestones rather than headline grabbing Groupraces. Highlights include the metropolitan treble at Kensington and a "metropolitan" treble at a Gosford midweek city meeting. A marker of her standing among young riders has been her performance in the NSW Rising Star Series. In addition, big days like multiple winners at Wyong's Summerdayz meeting, and multiwin meetings at various country tracks, have reinforced her reputation. wyongraceclub.com facebook
Sources include:
Matrix day-by-day results for Thursday and Friday racing
The tables show the results for the past eight weeks for the day on which racing occurred. So, today being Thursday, this Matrix DOW (Day of Week) report covers the past eight Thursday and Friday results. The day-after results are included so that they are available on race-eve, rather than only on race morning.
(The daily Matrix report aims to assist subscribers contain the number of bets to manageable proportions and improve the strike rate. The report is posted to our website between 10:30am and 10:45am each day with an update at 12 noon.)
Wizard Freebie - Wizard Magic Report
The Wizard publishes on this page one of its Wizard reports or special features, either completely or a part thereof. Today, a Wizard Magic (abridged) Report. The full report and all other reports for all meetings for today are available now for subscribers
The Magic report is an important component of the Wizard's uniquely successful race-morning MATRIX report whose Selectives consistently outperform traditional rating methodologies.
Click here for an explanation of the Wizard Magic report.
Wizard Ratings, Raceday, Matrix, and Selectives results
We publish these full results daily so that subscribers can see the results of the Wizard's ratings options, and Report-content, and thereby formulate a selecting and betting strategy that suits them individually. The Wizard ratings should not be seen as "tips", rather as objective assessments that can be used to inform one's own judgement as to the relative chances of the runners in a race.
The full day-by-day results for Wizard (Wrat) top 4 rated runners, the Raceday Qualifier, and the Matrix (MaxR) 100 pointer, the MaxR top-two, the What-IF top-two Filtered, together with the Matrix W1+MaxR100 Selective qualifier, and the Matrix W1+*EO+MaxR100 Selective qualifier. Also included are the overall results for last week and the last four weeks. The 2024-2025 column shows the WRat results for the full racing season.
This results summary is colour coded so that it is easier for readers to track the relative performance of the Top Rated (blue) and Top-Two Rated (green) ratings options on a daily, and longer term, basis. The best overall qualifier (yellow) is highlighted. Also, the single runner options are grouped separately, as are the two-horse and multi-horse options results, again to make comparisons easier.
The following table shows this week's results of alternative options with respect to possible Matrix Selectives combinations, as well as weekly summaries. These combinations are accessible via the Wizard MATRIX report which is posted to our website between 10:30am and 10:45am each day.
(Key: The first of the two columns for each Selective combination shows number of qualifying races and the second column shows the strike rate. Headings: RWM is Raceday,Watch,Magic, RWM 2/3 means two or three qualifying, Rday is Raceday report qualifier , Magic is Magic report qualifier, R/M is Raceday and Magic, WR1 is Wrat 100, MR1 is MaxR 100.)
The following table shows where the winner of each race run yesterday was rated by WRat, WMod, WHcp, and WExpk and was the qualifier in the Wizard Raceday Report. (Note: The Wrat [W] winner results report on both the top rated and top-two rated winners.) The Raceday Report winners under the Top Rated column are from those races where there was only one Raceday qualifier, and under the Top 2 Rated on the rare occasions where there were two qualifiers in a race.
Header: WMHER = WRat (W), WMod (M), WHcp (H), WExpk (E), Raceday (R).
For a full explanation of the table click: How to read the Wizard Ratings Results