The impressive Australian bred winner Mongolian Khan once again showed he is bullet proof in regards to his racing pattern of being able to race in or near the lead and kick strongly over several distances. He settles well with the low head carriage of a stayer and this half brother to Young Centaur (7 wins including once at G1 over 3200m) has really come into NZ Derby calculations. Mongolian Khan has won four of his five starts with the lone defeat being in the G2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas when poorly away and it was won by Turn Me Loose (a since G1 winner). The gelding has won both directions and on and good, dead and slow ground so is very versatile and at this point he is unbeaten (two for two) at Ellerslie where the G1 NZ Derby will be held on February 28th. The G3 race today was not run at a fast rate and the usual rampant track bias towards leaders and on pacers was in play with the rail being out 7m just enhancing the advantage. The Open Handicap one race prior saw the winning time posted of 2:01.83 or ten and a half lengths superior. The leading stable in the country by a massive margin of Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman prepare the gelding and have an impressive 3yo army of male and female gallopers this season. They are spoilt for choice and will be working overtime to keep them apart as much as possible when it comes to stakes races of which they have won plenty already. The first three turning for home filled the dividend bearing positions and the pacemaker Giant Turtle kicked on for second plus being by Zabeel his Derby campaign can only have gained further impetus. The third finisher Prima is the surprise element and does bring perspective to the result and of course highlights what manmade track bias does or can do. Prima is a maiden having his third start today and after a tenth of eleven here at Te Rapa on debut then finished fourth at Ellerslie. His place price was almost four times the win dividend of Mongolian Khan. The fact Prima was a maiden and could place at G2 at his third start was surprising but the manner of it was huge. He was wide for the first half of the race handy before getting over second one-off and to keep going was admirable even if manmade track bias was a main reason. His second dam Azabeel is by Zabeel and she won four races with two of those coming over ground. Fourth home was McQueen and this was a remarkable effort but for different reasons as he went down on his nose at the start and his rider stayed on. Then he came from midfield across the top and worked out wide near the home turn before running home gamely. McQueen is a half-brother to Post D’France (7 wins) and two of those came at 2100m. Margin Trader was a bit one-paced the final 400m but lay out around the home turn and was ridden too handy on settling. He was hampered early and midfield the inner into the first turn but was ridden though into third and the trail plus got keen in the process. He is out of a Zabeel dam so the Derby is still on the radar and a stronger clip will help too. Kolonel Kev fought on okay and Consensus went big after being wide for vast amounts of the race. Palace Rock was okay and is still an Oaks chance for Trentham in the autumn. Gautier after winning at G1 as a maiden could only battle for eleventh beaten six lengths and came back to reality with a thud. He does look like he will run distance but getting so far back means he is not only track bias and race pace vulnerable but can find trouble and mathematically has to overtake so many rivals each time. The winner is a serious G1 NZ Derby chance as he will certainly ask all his rivals to get past him at some stage the run home no matter the footing. Margin Trader and McQueen have the ability to be Derby players too.