Talking Points: Saturday - 9th of November 2024

Champions Day at Flemington rounded out a fantastic Melbourne Cup week.

Champions Sprint

Sunshine In Paris burst through under a red hot James McDonald to take the Sprint, running to a RAS rating of 118, a slight new peak up from 116, which she'd run at her past three starts and on six occasions total.

Looking at the past ten years of RAS data, this is the lowest rating ever to win a Champions Sprint, topped by Nature Strip who hit 130 twice in this race.

It wasn't a strong pace at all, only 0.01 seconds faster than the Listed 1200m race early which is evident in the narrow margin spread. Bella Nipotina was only a neck away but has regressed six pounds from her past two ratings of 123 while a few others were even further off their game.

Personally I found it surprising that Sunshine In Paris was so firm, starting $5 against the likes of Bella Nipotina and Giga Kick who are rated so much higher. The market is certainly taking McDonald heavily into account.

The query off this heading towards Perth is Overpass. In hindsight, he may have been better skipping this and going to the Winterbottom fresh as he has in the past. It'll be interesting to see what sort of rating we can expect off the shorter break this time.

Champions Mile

Mr Brightside was outstanding winning the Champions Mile, relishing the drop back to 1600m and also likely the blinkers going on for the first time in his career. The big query leading in was horses coming back in trip off the Cox Plate, and clearly the over the top Pride Of Jenni and three-year-old Broadsiding didn't handle that.

Last year Mr Brightside went 124 when second in the Cox Plate and regressed slightly to 121 when second to Pride Of Jenni in this race last year, but 12 months later he's gone 115 in the Cox Plate and 125 here, which is his equal career peak, and on both occasions they've come at the Flemington 1600m.

125 is the equal best rating in this race in the past ten years although it's only been run at weight-for-age the past three years.

Mr Brightside is just a marvel and still racing as well as ever, especially when kept to the mile. The most likely option in the Autumn would have to be Hong Kong unless they attempt a third Doncaster with the big weight, which he could still win.

Antino goes to Hong Kong next and has done very well to match his RAS rating from the dominant Toorak win, going 124. That has him firmly in the mix in a Hong Kong mile although Galaxy Patch is 122 with the indication a big new peak is coming in December.

Champions Stakes

Not quite at the Cox Plate level, but Via Sistina has still put up a very strong Group 1 performance to win the Champions Stakes, running to 126 on the RAS ratings.

She went 132 in the Cox Plate and had run 124 in the Turnbull Stakes prior so she's in between that, but closer to the Turnbull than the Cox Plate, which I think was probably to be expected.

This race fits in nicely from a handicapper's perspective with Atishu matching her 120 rating she ran in this race last year while Cups champ Without A Fight has run on nicely into third and rated 117, which is one pound higher than his Underwood Stakes run fresh last time in.

Via Sistina now tops the last ten years of winners for this race and put a nice backing behind her big Cox Plate peak, which she will likely never reach again. That said, she's got strong claims of being the best horse in the world, not just on peak rating (which she is), but on body of work.

Without A Fight goes to Hong Kong as well for the Vase. He's a 124 horse and maybe even a bit better than that which will be competitive.

The Hong Kong Vase has been won in a RAS ratings range of 119-128 so he's right in the middle, and if he runs to his best he should be a leading chance.