The ten winners in race order and where they turned for home were tenth (wide and four lengths of lead, sixth (two lengths from lead), fourth (wide and a length from lead), led (four –wide turning in), fifth (widest and three lengths from lead), fifth (two lengths from lead), seventh (four lengths from lead), second (outer), fifth (widest and two and a half lengths from lead) and third. No leader won all day and More Wonder in R4 was at $1.60 and sat fourth the outer before coming up four-off to lead turning in, so he wins regardless of manmade bias. The track was rated a Good3 by officials but that was never believable as some of the times today were nothing to write home about and the margins many horses got beaten out the back were staggering. The giveaway also being riders angling wide the run home and that visually looked appalling on a supposed Good 3 track when scouting for faster lanes or less scuffed up runways. The track here was an awful Slow8 the first day and the only leader that won was over 2500m (a two-turn race and that negates track bias to some extent), so to see the leaders come up empty today on a supposed Good3 track does not ring true. A track cannot be racing fair if not one single leader can win when many times on the day were substandard. The watering here on Monday substantially looks the issue, as it had raced a Slow8 two days earlier and then is posted as a Good3 two days later suggesting underfoot was not a true Good3 and confidence inducing. Why steer so wide if the Good3 footing is consistent all across the track? The reason is that it was not consistent or fair. This G2 Open Handicap 1600m drew an ordinary field of eleven runners only but had the most exciting galloper in all of New Zealand running called Te Akau Shark. The 4yo has only been beaten once and it came here a year ago when fourth in the G1 2000 Guineas as a 3yo over the mile. Te Akau Shark today started the hottest favourite on the entire card and won by daylight at $1.50, after settling down ninth the outer in a crawl of race for the first 1000m. He strode up the deepest near the home turn getting into full momentum and straightened up fifth and just two and a half lengths away ready to swallow his rivals whole. The 4yo gobbled them up like chum at the 250m and then humiliated his rivals to win by six lengths in the pathetic time of 1:36.37, which shows just how slow they went early and how fast they sprinted home. It was the fifth win in six starts by the 4yo and he now has a G2 and G3 kill on his blacktype menu with an even hungrier look about him for next year. The hype is becoming bigger than Jaws in the movie but we have seen this film before and it does not end well as reputations get blown out of the water, so some realism and restraint is needed. The winning time by the Shark was 1:36.37 and bear in mind a standard maiden (one of average ability) is 1:36 for a mile, so factoring in this track raced dubious and biased today and even throw in a headwind conspiracy, it was an incredibly slow run G2 race and basically a 400m-600m sprint home. The maiden mile earlier in the day clocked 1:37.56 and contained a lot of well tried runners that will never ever win a race plus the winner was having her seventeenth start today. How can poor maidens run a time that was about only seven lengths inferior to the G2 race? This was a 230K track gallop only with a sprint home. The runner up Boots N All was beaten almost eight lengths by Te Akau Shark when giving it 5kg at Hastings and today gave it half a kilo and was beaten six lengths. Kolonel Kev ran on well from last for third so ran a quick sectional too albeit beaten over six lengths. Watch This Space from second the outer was still fourth at the 200m but wilted to fifth beaten eight lengths. Son Of Maher deadheated for first in this race last year carrying 52kg and today from the rear duo showed nothing under 59kg. The rest got beaten almost nine to ten lengths and either the mile did not suit or they are not 400m-600m sprinters. The last runner home beaten over nineteen lengths was Shadows Cast that deadheated for first in this race last year carrying 52kg and today had 58.5kg, for that equal win and a five horse field Open Handicap win straight after. He rose 6.5kg for today but after racing fourth the outer stopped badly and was found to have suffered cardiac arrhythmia. This was a poor G3 line up and many runners had risen vast amounts of weight in a year for not doing that much to be fair against substandard opposition. Te Akau Shark could have won this by ten lengths if not geared down late and is clearly the biggest upside galloper in New Zealand at the moment but until he can do it against real depth in a bigger pond of not just goldfish or sprats but big carp or piranhas then he has not done it. His mile time today was dreadful so no surprise he won by daylight as he can sustain a 400m-600m fast surge with the long stride he has at full extension. Until he meets decent opposition, and that will only happen outside New Zealand, then nothing is proven yet so Australia looks the first real test of his reputation. His win today will be shown as Good3 win but that is not a true indication as the Riccarton track clearly was biased and certainly not hard or even good, as the inconsistent times showed. Many other horses in the top levels can sprint a fast last 400m or 600m, especially after an opening 1000m crawl but not many can do it when the pace makes it hurt to quicken further. He was fourth in the G1 2000m Guineas here at Riccarton a year ago in a 1:34.80 mile, on a Good3 track the officials rated and posted, which should make you wonder as the track was put up as a Good3 today too. The three that beat him home have seen two of them not win a race since and the other has flopped twice in Australia, as the winner of the race has too, so the form is ordinary and especially so outside New Zealand. There is no doubt Te Akau Shark has made giant strides now a 4yo and the others are not progressing much or at all and are in fact floundering at the moment. Autumn means give in the ground so that looks the safe pathway as this 4yo hits the ground hard and covers big territory each full stretch stride. Listen for the Jaws theme music on the beaches of Sydney next Autumn and in particular Cronulla as a tangerine Shark arrives to show he is no myth and on a G1 feeding frenzy.