Crowd favourite Luckygray reaffirmed himself as West Australia’s leading middle distance galloper with a comprehensive victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Kingston Town Classic.
Proceeding to live up to his mammoth performance in the Group 1 Railway Stakes [1600m], Luckygray was quick to silence his critics after many questioned his ability to run out a strong 1800m.
Ridden up closer to the speed, Luckygray settled nicely in the run before O’Donnell peeled him out three wide approaching the turn. Striding up freely on the outside, Luckygray quickly put pay to his rivals sprinting clear to open up a three length margin.
Mr Moet chased valiantly down the outside but was unable to reel in the son of Bradbury’s Luck and finished one-and-a-quarter lengths away in second.
While his victory was impressive, he failed to reach the heights of his last start performance with his effort rated 118, a four pound decrease on his master rating of 122 achieved in the Railway Stakes.
Meeting a majority of the field five kilograms better at the weights under the weight-for-age conditions, it can be viewed that Luckygray was entitled to beat his rivals by a more decisive margin.
However the lack of early speed in the race made it harder for Luckygray to draw away from his rivals as the race wasn’t run as a true staying test which was emphasised with a majority of the on-speed runners sticking on to finish within two-and-a-half lengths of Luckygray at the finish.
Arguably this can also be viewed as the only reason why Luckygray was able to see out the staying trip, however it was clear that he was able to settle nicely in the run and given he was one of the few horses in the race with a real turn of foot, if the race was in fact run at a solid tempo then his victory would have been emphasised with a greater margin.
His Timeform rating of 118 sits on par with last year’s winner Playing God and sits three pounds below the 20 year high of 121 achieved by both Niconero in 2008 and Sniper’s Bullet in 2009.
His trainer Gino Polletti has since indicated he will likely target Luckygray for the Autumn Carnival in Sydney and Melbourne with the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap [1600m] his current main target.
On current ratings he sits just two pounds shy of Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon, six pounds shy of Cox Plate winner Ocean Park, one pound shy of Memsie Stakes winner Sincero and sits level pegging with Emirates Stakes winner Happy Trails.
While it will all depend on what weight his is allotted for the feature mile event, if he is able repeat his performance from the Railway Stakes then he shapes as a real Autumn carnival force as both Shoot Out and Sincero were able to feature in the top four placings behind More Joyous in this year’s event off similar ratings.
