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Singapore Gold Cup winner Quechua was the key standout performance over the weekend after claiming the biggest scalp of his career, when saluting narrowly in Sunday's Group 1 Singapore Derby.
Aided by a beautiful ride from leading rider Corey Brown, the son of Pure Prize fought hard to hold out superstar War Affair and notch up his second Group 1 success.
QuechuaWith both drawn wide, Brown's decision to roll forward and sit outside the lead proved key, with War Affair forced to sit wide throughout.
A key victim of circumstance, Alan Munro was left with few options after passing the winning post for the first time.Trapped three-wide, he wasn't in a suitable position to press on or to ease back and as a result did his best to settle the four-year-old midfield.
Forced to circle the field five-wide passing the 800m, War Affair hit the front narrowly inside the 200m before Quechua fought back strongly to edge out his talented rival.The wide run throughout obviously took its toll and while unable to win, his performance still held plenty of merit.
When using key sectional analysis, War Affair was deemed four pounds superior to Quechua and was marked close to four lengths quicker over the final 800m.If the runs were in fact reversed, it's easy to argue War Affair would have come out on top and by a more decisive margin.
Nonetheless, Quechua's early speed was key and with Brown's tactical nous he proved the better horse on the day.The two have now met on three occasions, with Quechua currently leading the ledger on two wins.
Having continued to raise the bar with each performance for the Patrick Shaw Stable, Quechua is yet to miss the money in 13 starts since arriving in Singapore.His performance to finish third in the Group 1 SIA Cup [2000m] has now been somewhat confirmed with the four-year-old recording his second highest figure of his career.
Using Timeform ratings Quechua returned a figure five pounds above the five-year winning average.Notably his performance now sees him the highest rated winner of the prestigious Derby, surpassing that of both Spalato and Better Life.
Both War Affair and Quechua will now be set for the prestigious Triple Crown (Kranji Mile, Raffles Cup and Singapore Gold Cup) with the Raffle's Cup [1800m] likely to be considered the Derby rematch.The Leslie Khoo trained Fastnet Dragon remains the big query runner out of the Derby, with the son of Fastnet Rock continuing his upward ratings spiral when flashing home, only to be narrowly denied.
Returning a clear new career peak, a question mark does remain over the level of performance as it remains to be seen whether he can repeat that effort in the future.Nonetheless he is only relatively lightly raced and creates plenty of interest moving forward.
Mr SpielbergEasily one of the more promising stayers in Singapore, the son of Pentire wasn't beaten all that far in the Singapore Guineas, before confirming that figure over the weekend.
Ridden by Saifudin Ismail, Mr Spielberg clearly had no luck - if you missed it - click here to view the replay.Forced to check and ease off heels inside the 400m, Mr Spielberg was shuffled back to last when peeled to the outside passing the 200m.
Still towards the rear approaching the 100m, Mr Spielberg really knuckled down late to flash home to finish a close third.Successful in recording a new career peak, Mr Spielberg appears on track for a possible tilt towards the Singapore Gold Cup in November.
While he will obviously have to keep raising the bar, he looks to be heading in the right direction and is worth sticking with.