The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – March 2nd Edition

Jamie Kah showed her class, Sunlight proved she had claims to being a champion and at Randwick, it was a miserable day weather wise, but there was one Sun that was well and truly shining. All that and more in this weeks edition of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.

KEY NEWS:

Jamie Kah Breaks The Group l Duck

Jamie Kah and most punters were left speechless after Harlem defended his Australian Cup title at Flemington on Saturday. It had been a somewhat risky move by Kah, who dominated racing in Adelaide, to make the move to Melbourne, a very competitive region when it comes to riders, and she has made the statement that she’s here and here to stay after winning the time honoured race. Hot pot Avilius had the right run and when the gap came, looked the winner, but as soon as you had that thought, he went one paced.

Sunlight A Champion Filly

Sunlight has well and truly got claims to being labelled a champion after a stunning on speed win in the Newmarket at Flemington on Saturday. Barend Vorster, who has barely been in Australia for a week after a 15 year stint in Singapore, took the filly to the front and controlled things beautifully before the three year old showed great fight late when challenged to win, beating Osborne Bulls, who was very good from the back. Sunlight has now won the Magic Millions, the Coolmore Stud, now the Newmarket…champion IMO.

The Autumn Sun Shines In Sydney

Very rare you can compare a horse to Winx, but they’re well and truly there when it comes to The Autumn Sun and his win in the Randwick Guineas on Saturday. He looked in an impossible spot on the turn as Fundamentalist shot to the front, looking home, but the great colt produced an unbelievable finale, running sub 34 to nail the filly right on the line. He’s a star and we can only hope he stays in work for another year.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

How can you go past The Autumn Sun. Looking at the Punters Intel data, he was spotting Fundamentalist around 10 lengths 450m out, seemingly no hope, but the late splits he ran were unbelievable relative to the race and the will to win is very similar to that of Octagonal, who dominated his three year old generation against champions. I don’t think The Autumn Sun is beating champions, but he’s well within his rights to being claimed as a champion.

DEBUT OF THE WEEK:

The trials/jumpouts were okay without being great but the punters got it 100% right with Mayan at Morphettville on Saturday and he absolutely bolted in, winning very impressively albeit against moderate opposition, but he wasn’t really asked for the effort by Stubby and probably wins by further had he got fair dinkum. Interesting to see where he heads to.

RIDE OF THE WEEK:

Gee it was a lovely steer from Jeff Lloyd on Crusher. Just had the mare in the A1 spot, controlling the speed beautifully, waiting as long as possible to let her down and when he did, the mare put them away and won impressively, continuing her brilliant fresh record. Some jockeys are at times struggling to ride the Eagle Farm track correctly but Lloyd has got it near spot on.

SLAUGHTER OF THE WEEK:

The beaten riders in the fifth at Eagle Farm…it was embarrassing what unfolded. Full credit to Matty McGilivray for getting the win on Suilven, but the race was absolutely gifted to him. First 800m in over 50 seconds and when the leader is running home in 33.5, those from behind were never going to run it down and it’s becoming a common theme in the Queensland riding ranks at the moment the lack of initiative at times. Perfect example here.

HORSES TO FOLLOW:

Baller – No luck, should have finished closer.
Exhilarates – Perfect clean out for the Golden Slipper
Shraaoh – Look out for him at 2400m+
Dalasan – Group l horse when he puts it all together.

ONE MORE CHANCE:

It was no disadvantage being on speed/rail at Newcastle on Friday, so I wouldn’t drop off Lanciato. He did his thing of getting out the back, peeling wide and finishing off, and did make good ground late, but just the pattern of the day was against him. Not sure where they go to with him because I think 1400m is his trip, maybe a tad shorter.

NEVER EVER AGAIN:

Kementari – He’s no Special K anymore…he’s soggy Weet Bix
I Am A Star – Given every chance in front and didn’t finish off…breeding barn now?
Holy Command – Gifted a soft lead at Morphettville and found nothing. His winning days in town look done.