exuma - 6th
A complete forgive run on Friday night for Exuma. He unfortunately had some mucus, which resulted in him not being able to compete at the best of his ability. Despite this, it looked like a bit of a “boys against men” race. Exuma looked small and immature against a group of seasoned older horses. Daniel Moor rode to instruction and went straight to the front, which is where you wanted to be on the night, given that 5 of the 8 races were won by leaders. However, a 10.51 800-600m sectional resulted in a fast tempo that Exuma couldn’t maintain. Nonetheless, he will take great benefit from the experience up in grade and once he’s right again, he can attack the lower grades and hopefully notch up another win.
sneaky sunrise - 3rd
- What a super return from our filly. She came to the races off 224 days and was up against multiple Group 1 winners and other Group performers. The track conditions were very tough. The wind was a major head wind in the straight, which resulted in the race being run 12 lengths slower than standard time. Sneaky Sunrise raced keenly early and looked quite fresh. It was adamant that she needed cover given the wind, and that’s exactly what Daniel Stackhouse got. She was absolutely savaging the line and arguably could’ve won if she had slightly more room in the latter stages. She will improve lengths off that effort, especially given how long she was between runs, and we cannot wait to see her back at HQ in 3 weeks time for the Kewney Stakes over 1600m.
firebolt - 7th
- It was a very interesting race to dissect. Firebolt was slowly away again and there were a number of horses that settled worse than midfield. Unfortunately, the race didn’t pan out well for worse-than-midfield horses, with the race order practically staying the same from start to finish. Firebolt was again warming late, similar to her first up run, and was held up for clear running at the 100m mark. However, I don’t think that would’ve been the difference between winning and running where she did. We know that she will be hitting peak performance at a mile and further, but I’d like to see her put it all together within the next few runs.
