McKnight Stakes – Grade III
1 1/2 Mile Inner Turf Stake Purse $200.000 Open 4 Year Olds And Up.

Could the new old game of HRP be back? Years ago, before breeding took off the claiming part of the game along with the auctions was the mining operation of choice, that and four-year-old autogens of course. We have seen stables like Night Rider Stables have a lot of success in claiming older horses, but until the end of last year it seemed like just a hand full of stables were taking that route. Well as Autumn came, I started to notice that every claimer was seeing five of six claims going in with names cropping up that hadn’t been as common as before. The winner today was a testament to the sort of success you can have, find one that can work well that has not run over a certain trip or distance and then simply put the claim in and give it a go. That is an over simplified version of the truth, especially in this case as you cannot find a better spotter of talent than Mb Stables, but I have seen plenty of horses claimed that have switched surface or trip and found the sort of success that the previous owner could only dream of.
So, onto this race where we saw a horse that was beaten in a cheap claimer two races ago beat one of the best three-year-olds of last year.

1st King Z Mb Stables Dettori L

The subject of my introduction, this horse had been through no less than 6 stables including three of our biggest players, one of whom let him go for just $6.000. For some reason though he had only been tried once on the turf and that was in a sprint despite having the sort of conformation that seemed to lend itself to a turf route. Well, if anyone is going to spot a diamond in a grey rock it is Mb Stables and after claiming him for just $16.000 immediately put him in a turf route and the rest as they say is history.
Close up throughout, he had to work hard to beat his stable mate and one of the best three-year-olds of last year, but he held him all the way to the line, and you have to say won on merit. The sky will be the limit now for this, yes, you guessed it, five-year-old and it will be interesting to see just how far he can go in this competitive division.

2nd Jacks Courage Mb Stables Gutierrez Mario

Tracking his stable mate throughout it seemed as soon as the jockey asked the question he would go and win. However, try as he might, and he was game, he couldn’t get past the winner eventually going down by a half-length. This is one of those things that keeps us all playing, the hope that our cheap claim can one day beat a horse like this, but whilst he was beaten today, I don’t think this is the last we will see of this great horse. Four-year-olds always have a tough time at this time of year so expect him to get better and better as he moves towards five.

3rd Calling All Angels D J C Racing Stables Silvera Ru

Many of this stable’s horses seem to go way back and fly home, whether that is by design or the race engine doing its thing we will never know but this four-year-old finished faster than anything else eventually grabbing third. There is no doubt that when things go right this is a very good horse but with these closers there seems to be far less scenarios that see them winning than running into a place so it may be an ongoing issue.

4th One Eyed Man Fractious Prat F

Ran very well from a difficult draw to end up fourth closing well. Another five-year-old that was the subject of a claim this wasn’t a bad start for the new stable, but they will be hoping for a better draw and a better run next time.

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES