SA Handicap – Grade I (P2)
1 1/4 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $500.000 Open 4 Year Olds And Up.

1st Smoking Makes You Il Night Rider Stables Castellano J J

There is a part of me that holds my hands up in surrender when you try and make sense of some results at HRP. Out of the two stable runners this one was heavily favored in the betting market which was pretty surprising considering this is an eight-year-old that failed to win all last year and won an optional claimer last time out and their other runner was the winner of The Pegasus World Cup beating the best horses in the game. So, betting aside what is it that saw this horse pull out this big grade one win, and this is where I shrug my shoulders and really have NO idea. I am not trying to diminish the effort from the horse or the victory for the trainer and there is no doubt that this veteran is both tough and consistent, but I just don’t see the logic in the form lines. Anyway, let me stop procrastinating and talk about what a great effort this was and that with two wins from two this year after a winless year last year it is a sign that both the trainer and the horse have a very good handle on this new race engine.

2nd Crack Dab Gdp Inc Loveberry J

I may be scratching my head about the winner, but it was good to see this seven-year-old back to his best even if it does get me scratching again when I try and make sense of his previous two efforts. Running the stalk, he kept on really well but just didn’t have the speed in his legs to repel the last challenger.

3rd Home Spirit Night Rider Stables Husbands P

Closed like a train to win possibly the second-best route race for older horses last time and whilst he again was settled back today, he couldn’t repeat the dose ending up third. This running style that he has adopted is always going to make consistency on this new engine a problem because of the wild swings in pace and blocking but of course if the trainer decides to, he may be able to turn it into a front runner next time, we will just have to wait and see.

4th Quality Art Mb Stables Lopez P

Stalked the lead but stalking in second place doesn’t seem to work so well on this new engine and he fell away pretty tamely in the end, that didn’t seem to happen at the end of the Razorback last time over a furlong and a bit less so maybe it was the trip or maybe it was just a bit of new race engine gremlins.

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES