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Music Magnate has come back to racing in terrific order claiming victory in the Group 2 Expressway Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
The Bjorn Baker-trained runner settled on the speed before proving too strong for his rivals, running out a one-and-a-quarter length winner over Kuro in second with Ball Of Muscle in third.
Music Magnate returned a Timeform figure of 121, the same as his previous peak which came in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 over 1400m at Eagle Farm last campaign.
The five-year-old gelding is the highest rated winner of the race since Paratroopers in 2008, who returned a Timeform figure of 123 when beating He’s Canny and Sniper’s Bullet.
The Racing and Sports field strength value of 118.5 is on par for a Group 2 race and well above the 2016 renewal of 115.1 taken out by Our Boy Malachi.
Music Magnate is the third horse in recent times to win the Doomben 10,000-Expressway double with Mr Innocent (2000) and Potrero (1989/91) the only other two to do it.
Baker has indicated Music Magnate who has now won seven of his 14 career outings will be targeted at the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick in April, the feature sprint of the autumn.
The average winning Timeform figure of the TJ Smith in the last five years is just under 128 which indicates Music Magnate will need to improve again to be winning that race.
Chautauqua has won the last two renewals, running to 125p in 2016 with Black Caviar and Lankan Rupee also winning the race in recent times.
No horse has won the Expressway-TJ Smith double although with some likely improvement to come Music Magnate could be the first.
Of the beaten brigade, Kuro ran to a Timeform figure of 116, three pounds higher than his win in the Listed Takeover Target the race prior and equal to his previous peak last achieved when runner up at Rosehill last year to Princefamous.
Ball Of Muscle in third returned a Timeform figure of 113, his highest since running fifth in the tab.com.au Stakes at Flemington in the spring.
On Friday night at Moonee Valley the Melbourne equivalent of the Expressway, the Group 2 Australia Stakes, was run and won by Malaguerra.
Malaguerra has now won two of four starts since joining Peter Gelagotis at Moe with the Darley Classic back in the springtime returning the same Timeform rating of 121 - narrowly up from his BTC Cup-winning peak of 120 earned when under the care of Lee Freedman.
The big question for Malaguerra is whether he can now go beyond his 121 high. That he was able to run to that mark first up from a break has to be seen as a positive in that regard. He ran to a rating of 116 first up behind Star Turn in the spring before finding his peak second up and similar improvement will be needed if he is to keep Black Heart Bart - runner up behind Malaguerra in the Australia Stakes - at bay when they step up to 1400m in the Orr Stakes in two weeks time.
Black Heart Bart ran to 114 in the Australia Stakes, the fast 1200m looking to catch him out for speed before he stayed on strongly late in the piece.
Despite being well short of his 126 peak from the spring time the return was good enough to think that he can be back up towards that level this campaign. The 1400m Orr Stakes looks the ideal for him although there has been suggestion that the Newmarket could again be on his schedule.
The disappointment in the race was the well fancied Chetwood who raced outside the leader Sirbible before weakening to finish a fairly tame sixth.
Chetwood was just first up and pressing what was a solid tempo, but more was expected from him regardless and he walks away with something to prove at this level.
Chetwood was rated 117p after four straight wins in the springtime but that 'p' has vanished after his 98-rated return.