Jimmy Choux was outstanding on Saturday. This race is probably a fair indication of his form and quality, regardless of what results he achieves in Australia this spring, he will at least enter the country in top form and possibly continuing to improve. He beat Mufhasa, a proven Group 1 winner in outstanding form, Mufhasa probably ran the race many predicted he would won from barrier two, and it was simply not enough to get the best of Jimmy Choux. It also looked like both Hold it Harvey and Wall Street were well placed to gain ground on Mufhasa if they were good enough or if Mufhasa was not at top form, and although Hold it Harvey made up some ground they didn't seem to get too much closer to Mufhasa, maybe Wall Street is not quite at his best but he still ran well for forth. For Jimmy Choux to finish so strongly against this field where his main opponent seemed to do everything right, it has got to be evidence that he is ready to put his best foot forward in Melbourne.
There were a couple of impressive performances by 3YO's on the day. The most impressive was Anabandana, the Filly started as a hot favorite in what appeared to be a challenging field of 3YO Fillies, despite fears she might be under done and targeting bigger races later in the season she asserted her dominance on the field and when jockey Opie Bosson told her to go, she went, I only counted 3 strokes of the whip in the final 200m as she won so comfortably it felt like she was toying with the other horses and could have won by as much has she wanted.
I liked the look of Estrato in the 3YO handicap race, on paper it looked like he was the most proven runner in the race. He performed well as a 2YO winning a listed race relatively early in the season, and performing well in top company throughout most of the year, it looked like this colt had the big race experience to go well here. It looked like he should have won more comfortably than he did, he seemed to still have a lot of fight and energy in the birdcage after the race, but it was a good ride by Sam Spratt to get him to the line and keep him fighting for victory.
The best finish of the day had to be in race six with Guiseppina and Twilight Savings flying home to almost catch Imani. Both horses proved they were of high caliber last year, and Guiseppina seemed to be caught in a bad position throughout the race making the finish more impressive.
Lion Tamer had an outstanding win against a very strong field in the weight for age Underwood Stakes at Caulfield. The race featured Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup, and Melbourne Cup hopefuls but the 2010 Victorian Derby Champion was able to ride along nicely in about 6th, he moved up before the bend and was able to run home impressively for his second Australian Group 1. I don't know what you can take out of this race about his chances for the rest of the spring, he looked fit, he ran home strongly, we know he can go well over more distance, the only horse who seemed to be closing on him was Southern Speed, and maybe Scarlett Lady/Playing God/Precedence if you want to look back further, so it will be interesting to see what he does from here. Certainly, it seems he has impressed the New Zealand TAB he is now into $8 in the Caulield Cup, $14 in the Cox Plate, and $8 favourite in the Melbourne Cup and based on what we know now that all seems fair enough, he is paying slightly more on Betfair but that probably represents the patriotic Kiwi public. Not sure what other take-aways I have from that race, maybe it would take more of an expert than me to get anything out of it, I think if you like any of the top 8 or 9 in that race you are OK to stick with them moving forward, they were not too far away and seemed to all finish pretty strongly, Precedence looked to be fading just before the 200m, and then found another gear in the last 100m. From a New Zealand perspective it just didn't look like Scarlet Lady's day. She seemed to come out of the barrier slow, and then got caught in a position where she couldn't move forward or backward, she finally got a bit more space bit was forced to race a bit wide and then ran on well at the end, maybe a bit more distance and a better start can help, but I wouldn't write her off for later in the spring. Playing God was the other runner who looked to come from a bad position for most of the race and finish off strongly. It was an exciting race which really made it feel like spring was here and I look forward to seeing more of these horses as the spring wears on.
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