3 minute read

An interesting programme with the opening race, a three-year-old maiden won by the lightly raced Snitzel colt Sooboog, bouncing back from defeat first up at Gosford.

A veteran of just four starts, Sooboog started odds on favourite in the Listed Breeders Plate to beat subsequent Golden Slipper winner Vancouver – running second beaten just over a length.

He was spelled after just this one run, then returned for the G3 Kindergarten Stakes at Randwick in April only to finish out of the money.

Clearly all was not right, Team Hawkes again opting to turn him out and he was not seen until resuming at Gosford in mid-August in maiden class over 1000m where he was vetted prior to the start but allowed to run at odds of 1-10 finishing out of a place.

The injuries he sustained during that experience clearly played a part in the poor performance but the real Sooboog stood up yesterday, winning narrowly in a solidly run affair.

Sooboog was away well and sat second in an evenly run affair getting to the lead in the straight and fighting on doggedly to win well.

The Racing and Sports Sectional Analysis shows the race was run in optimum fashion for an 1100m race around Canterbury and the Timefigure for the race suggests the form is better than his bare form Timeform rating of 86.

This analysis fits well with the limited ratings profile for Sooboog who ran to a Timeform rating of 106 when runner up to Vancouver on debut.

The RSFS value also suggests this maiden is much stronger than the average three-year-old level so it might be a race to watch for collateral form.

It was wonderful to see James Cummings get another double here to follow the one on Sunday, the pick of the two winners being Nazir in the Benchmark 68 over 1580m.

A lightly raced four-year-old he was resuming from a spell and it was an impressive training effort by James to have Nazir fit enough to win first up over the 1580m.

After settling down worse than midfield, Nazir swamped his rivals in the closing stages running to a new career peak Timeform rating of 86p – a figure also backed up by the clock and a strong Timefigure.

That was his second win in just five starts and the RSFS value for the race suggests it is at least a length or two above average for this grade. Nazir won over 1900m last campaign and looks set for a staying campaign again.

Runner up Vanbrugh gave age away to his rivals here and being pushed off the track turning did not help his winning chances but he did find the line well and a win is not far off.

Another top training effort was handed in by David Vandyke who produced promising stayer Maurus first up over 1900m with 60.5kgs on his back to win in a close photo over Zee Zeely.

Maurus has now won four of his ten starts and returned a Timeform rating of 95 in overcoming a wide run throughout. He will need a little time to recover from this hard run but Vandyke is a very good trainer who will not risk him back to the track too soon.

The final race saw Dupe’em post back to back wins in benchmark 70 grade but the runners that finished just behind him like Burning Passion, Courtza King and Better Land all look set to post a win shortly.

The RSFS value for the race suggests this event to be over a length stronger than the average for this class and the R&S sectional split analysis marks up the Timefigure to mirror the Timeform rating values, suggesting this is a race to watch for the future.

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