The Holy Bull Stakes – Grade III (P2) [KYD]
1 1/16 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $250.000 Open 3 Year Olds.

1st     Present Tense     Mb Stables     Gonzalez Ru

The fact that she is a filly and the fact that she was getting 5 Lbs and has taken one of the bigger early season TC races has been a bit of a talking point in the trainers room. However i must admit it has been a long time since fillies and mares have been able to compete with the boys like they do in real life and as long as this doesn’t turn out to be the same mess that the three year old weight allowances were in previous years i am not too worried at this point. Her form wasn’t far off being the best in this field and i felt her biggest hurdle would be the draw but once again she proved the race engine can produce closing winners as well as on speed ones with a last gasp victory. Lets not forget this was a grade one winner last year so she may just be a bit special.

2nd     Spiced      Smokey Stover      Hernandez R M

Just edged out in the shadows of the post this was a great first run of the year and i am sure there is better to come. Out running his public works i think he will come on for this effort and certainly looked like he wouldn’t be inconvenienced by the KYD trip.

3rd    Sunshine Scooter    Broken Spoke Stables    Prado E S

This was a great effort by this lightly tried son of Chai Latte who is developing into a Derby type with each run. Running on strongly and only beaten a half length these tactics suited him better than the ones used in the Grey Stakes and in running third from the eleven gate he should get another shot at the TC qualifiers and will be a strong hope.

4th    Knockout    Mb Stables     Gutierrez R

This one made the running whilst the stable mate went back and ran on late making this a bit of a throwback to the old days. Using the race engine bias he ran a good pace and managed to keep running to the line beaten less than a length. With the fillies trend quickly catching on we could see the old trend of using instructions to suit multiple runners return but there will certainly be more than one trainer doing it this time which could make things interesting. A decent effort and with a bit of restraint he could still be looking at KYD qualification.

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES