Mb Stables kept their spectacular day going with a driving win from surprising long-priced Moon Landing in the $1,500.000 Grade I BC Sprint, tearing through the six furlongs in 1:08.86, ironically matching the winning time of the very first running of the race back in 2003. In the preview, I referred to the stretch runner as a 5-1 co-favourite while cautioning that I didn’t see him in the money at the wire. Instead he went off as a 10-1 shot and proved me wrong as to his finish position. In his five prep races for this, he laid back and closed late, always coming up a bit short, but today he raced back in eighth in the early going and rallied steadily through the last quarter to score a hard-driving one-length win under the urging of arguably the best jockey in the virtual world, R J Albarado. In fact, the fact that Albarado took this mount should have been a tip-off that this was better than a 10-1 shot.

I predicted Spankys Barn’s Glorious would be the 10-1 upset winner of the race, and I came close as he was runner-up at 12-1. Glorious went around much closer than I expected off his last race in which he came from a bit off the pace to just miss. The way the day had going he looked very sharp down the backstretch laying third only a length of the pace of Bay Of Plenty, and when he took the lead turning into the stretch, he looked to be on his way the BC Glory, but it was not to be as the eventual winner wore him down through the stretch to register the win.

Mm Racing’s Dust In The Wind performed another of his almost magical appearances at the wire to garner third after being as far back as 13th in the early going. As a horse which has been making his living in fairly long routes, his performance here and in the Phoenix have made him a new factor in top-level sprints and picked up a nice check in the process.

Then there was another of the sim’s infamous dead heats with both of Team 7 Illusions’ entries, Scott The Great and Bay Of Plenty, finishing on even terms. Bay Of Plenty was responsible for all the early pace, began to weaken coming home and dropped to fourth at the wire as the 9-2 favourite, while Scott The Great was well out of it to the stretch, even looking as though he was going to head for the back, when he put on a late rally to come even with his stable mate.

Mb Stables’ seeming best chance in the race at 6-1, Spring Lover, gave an even performance basically forgetting to rally in the stretch. With the exception of Air Show and Snowmizer, the rest of the field had little to say about the race. Those two offered little hanging near fourth before dropping out.

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