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Past the post: The Championships wrap

The Cox Plate is a special race, and Criterion is in with a decent shot.
Roar Guru
11th April, 2015
14

Well the weather wasn’t overly kind to Sydney, but the Championships were run and won and the racing quality was outstanding.

I’ll start with Day 1, which was run on Monday – pushed back from Saturday due to the wet weather.

The feature race was the Doncaster Mile, and that man again Glen Boss showed the racing world that even in your 40s, you can still beat the best of the best with an outstanding steer on Kermadec. Kermadec ploughed through the mud to win, ahead of the Japanese raider Real Impact, who was enormous in defeat.

Royal Descent ran third, and she was also great in defeat given she was four and five wide no cover for the entire. Rudy ran up to his betting support and ran fourth, just ahead of Pornichet who was probably a couple of pairs further back than what McEvoy would have liked.

Chautauqua stamped himself as the best sprinter in the world with a world class win in the TJ Smith Stakes (1200m). He was the only horse on the day that made significant ground, and to say it was significant is putting it kindly.

He came from last at the 400-metre mark and rounded up Lord Of The Sky to grab victory. I won’t claim Chautauqua as a Sydney horse, but it should be a worry that a 1000-metre horse like Lord Of The Sky can beat the likes of Lankan Rupee and Terravista.

The Kiwis stole the last two legs of the Sydney three-year-old triple crown, and Mongolian Khan did the near impossible by winning the New Zealand Derby and then winning the Australian Derby (2400m), outstaying Hauraki and fellow Kiwi Volkstok’n’barrell in a thrilling finish.

Mongolian Khan will be now set to defy history and win the Derby-Melbourne Cup double. Last horse to do it? A nag called Pharlap in 1930. I think the likelihood of Volkstok’n’barrell winning the Cox Plate is more logical, though I’ve already had a little something on Vancouver to win the WFA championship of Australia.

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Day 2 was highlighted by the highlight race of the entire Sydney Autumn Carnival, the $4 Million Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m), and it was won in absolutely dominant fashion by Criterion, who took advantage of his good draw to sit right on the speed. From the 600m mark, you only wanted to be on one horse. Red Cadeaux – gee you got to love him. He was hopelessly pocketed in the straight before charging into the clear and finding the line powerfully.

No doubt in my mind he’ll go close again in the Melbourne Cup. Royal Descent ran her usual honest race for third after sitting wide and out the back. As for Adelaide, I think the fact he was on a wet track, and first up at 2000 metres, it was always going to be an impossible task. Forget To The World’s run. Didn’t handle the wet track at all.

The word ‘retirement’ has never been far away when it comes to Jim Cassidy in recent times, but the Pumper showed his greatness when he steered Grand Marshal to a surprise Sydney Cup (3200m), nailing stablemate Who Shot Thebarman right on the line. The runner up was ridden a treat by Blake Shinn, and seemingly looked home, but he just couldn’t hold off the stablemate. As for the beaten favourite Hartnell, I think Tommy Berry and/or Godolphin got the tactics badly wrong.

He rode the track, not the horse, and that early effort told late – though I will say he did have his chance.

Highlight
Toss up between Criterion and Chautauqua. Leaning towards the latter given the crazy on speed bias that afternoon and he came from last to beat up a high-class sprinting field. Gee he is going to be exciting for the next 12-18 months.

Lowlight
I’d say it was the poor showing from Joao Moreira as a whole during the Championships. He had a howler of an afternoon on Monday, most notably Grand Marshal and Royal Descent, and he was just OK on Saturday. Given he is the world’s best, he’ll come out and ride five winners at the next Honkers program.

Horse to follow

Volkstok’n’barrell clearly for mine. Probably had enough by the time he ran in the Derby yet ran so well. Very serious Cox Plate contender here given he has tactical speed and just so much natural brilliance.

Horse to forget

Lankan Rupee. He had the sash as the world’s best sprinter, but the likes of Terravista and Chautauqua have taken over and will dominate WFA sprint racing for the next 12-18 months.

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