With only a touch over three weeks remaining till the fat man in the red suit slides down the chimney, the time has come to ask him for a wish list for 2018.

In what is shaping up as a pivotal year for Lang Brothers Racing, would it be remiss to ask for another Group One victory? Or do we play it safe and ask for a win on any track?

2017 certainly started with much promise, with GIRL SUNDAY stringing three city wins together at the tail end of the year, the birth of our first foal to EPAULETTE and the purchase of three exciting young horses at the Magic Millions and Inglis Classic sales.

Unfortunately, not much else seemed to go right on the track. We saw the eventual retirement of grey mare FINE MIST, injury plagued starts for VERSETTO , EXPERIENCED and MIDLAKE , before losing nice mare SAUCY LADY to injury before she could even get to the track.

Throw in mixed performances by BRANKSOME CHIMES, DREAM MASTER , GIRL SUNDAY and CYMBALISM, and its fair to say the cupboard is remarkably bare leading into the new year.

Off the track, foundations were certainly being laid, with the purchase of 90 acres at Kingsvale settling in October, all four of our mares confirmed in foal over the past week, as well as finally landing a prized offspring of BRAZEN BEAU in the shape of a lovely filly born in September.

So what does 2018 look like? Is it filled with opportunity as we had hoped? Managing Director of Lang Brothers Racing , Stuart Lang, certainly thinks so.

“Not much has gone right this year on the track” said Lang .

“We certainly had high hopes for our Ontrack syndicated horses, namely GIRL SUNDAY and CYMBALISM, after they had put a couple of city wins together before a spell”.

“But not much went right for GIRL SUNDAY during her last preparation. She had no luck at the Gold Coast first up and we seemed to be chasing our tail after that” added Lang.

“A mix of bad barriers and wet tracks put paid to her chances. We also tried to step her up to black type racing , which didn’t really pan out as planned”.

“We know she has a stack of ability, and Gerald (trainer Gerald Ryan) will strip he right back to zero and we will start again. I think she is ready to bounce back early in the New Year” said Lang.

“CYMBALISM is another one who seems to be struggling to fulfill that promise she showed when winning at Scone during their carnival”.

“Her first three runs back this time in have been over shorter trips, and mostly from wide barriers, so she hasn’t had much luck to be fair,” surmised Lang.

“Hopefully stepping up in distance, and getting to a bigger track, she can bounce back to winning form”.

The full brother to former stable star BRAZEN BEAU, HERMANITO, might finally be ready to fly the family flag, with a good debut placing at Hamilton last week.

“He hadn’t shown much when he was with Chris Waller in Sydney” declared Lang.

“The owners considered gelding him, however given his pedigree, we decided to send him to Darren Weir and preserve his manhood”.

“Its fair to say he surprised both the stable and us with his fighting second, so perhaps he is just one of those horses who saves it to race day”.

Asked which horse he is most excited about in 2018, Lang was quick to suggest the stables two year olds can be followed with confidence.

“BRAZEN BELLE is the full sister to BRAZEN BEAU and has shown us right from day one she has natural ability” added Lang.

“We were hopeful of getting her to the Magic Millions, however time is quickly running out for her to get there” said Lang.

“But she is a horse we are really excited about obviously” concluded Lang.

“FIGHTING FAITH is a lovely daughter of FIGHTING SUN currently in work with Bjorn at Warwick Farm”.

“Matt and I have followed her right from when she was a weanling, and we were very lucky to pick her up cheaply at the Inglis Classic sale in February”.

“She came through her breaking in great order and we are confident she is a runner. An added bonus is the fact we own her dam FAITH IN MY, so we are hoping she can justify the breeding page early in 2018”.

Rounding out the horses with a sense of X factor is three-year-old YOUR SONG  gelding, VERSETTO.

“He kicked off his career with a third placing at Wyong in October. Anyone who saw the run will tell you he was all arms and legs that day” said Lang.

“He is a horse who has always shown us a fair bit of natural ability, but for whatever reason, we have never really been able to get to the bottom of him”.

“We decided after Wyong to give him a long spell and we are hoping once the penny drops, he may be the horse which can finally get us back racing at the top level”.

So Santa if you are listening, we have been ultra nice in 2017…and we will be even nicer if 2018 can deliver on all of our potential for success.