The first Group 1 of the season brought with it some good news for racegoers – Boban’s got his groove back.
A successful two-run cameo at the Brisbane Winter Carnival was one of two things; Boban getting his mojo back, or a false dawn. The Memsie has gone a long way to confirming it the former.
A narrow verdict over Entirely Platinum isn’t Boban’s finest piece of form, and a Timeform rating of 121 sits short of his brilliant best from the spring of 2013, but the performance certainly didn't suggest that a return to his 126 peak was off the table.
The Racing And Sports Field Strength Rating for the 2015 Memsie is down on the past couple of editions, but stronger than the 2011 and 2012 renewals.
Rain on the day makes analysis of times tricky, and assessing the effect of rain with such a small sample of races inevitably comes with a good pinch of subjectivity, but ultimately the final time from the Memsie looks fairly soft against the clock.
Analysis of sectional times will show that the dash went on from the 400m, playing into the hands of Boban’s sharp turn of foot. Interestingly the Memsie field went out to the 800m mark in the same time as earlier winner Charmed Harmony, but where Charmed Harmony pressed on and ultimately ran a fast time and a new peak, Entirely Platinum slowed notably from the 800m to the 400m before a sprint home.
That Entirely Platinum was then able to pick up and hold onto second is highly credible and he should be able to win races this spring, though that is likely to come away from top level weight-for-age racing and back against the handicapper.
In fact, the first eight across the line all did enough to think that they are on track for good spring campaigns. Volkstock’n’barrell was well fancied going into the race, and perhaps his seventh-placed finish could be seen as disappointing, but a first-up rating of 115 should be considered a pass mark and one that he can quickly build on when stepped up in trip in the coming weeks.
The most impressive winner on the card was Bounding who justified big market support at her first run for Peter and Paul Snowden.
Bounding is already a Group 1 winner in her native New Zealand and joined the Snowdens rated 117 but she was almost certainly better than that at Caulfield, storming away from the very smart, if a bit ring rusty, Rich Enuff by an ever-widening four lengths.
Bounding has been afforded a Timeform rating of 118+ for the win, the plus there to indicate that she may already be better than that.
It would be a surprise if she didn't make her way into some of the top Group 1 sprints this spring on the evidence of Saturday, she's certainly well worth her place in them.
The McNeil went the way of Gold Symphony who stepped up sharply on his Vain Stakes win from a fortnight earlier.
We potted the Vain form two weeks back - which you can read here – and we remain fairly soft on the colts through that race despite the McNeil result.
The McNeil was run at a stronger gallop than the Vain and that looks to have been much to Gold Symphony’s advantage, as was the extra 100m, and he has extended his margin over the likes of Demonstrate, Top Me Up, Ragazzo Del Corsa and Stoker, all who look to be treading water and with little hope of noteworthy spring success.
Gold Symphony isn’t treading water, though, and he is now rated 109 by Timeform.
Runner up Ready For Victory probably didn’t have the clearest passage through but if he was unlucky not to win the race it would have only been by the finest of margins.
He has run to 108 first up but his Golden Slipper peak of 116 remains his master rating heading into the spring and he is considered the most promising horse through the McNeil.
The Golden Rose is reportedly next for Ready For Victory, and he'll want to be promising to make an impact against some of the monsters that are lurking up in the harbour city.
Mr Individual was unable to build on his debut performance but he was back, wide, took off mid-race, and ran off at the corner, his inexperience there for all to see.
That he was beaten less than three lengths says that he is quite good, and that the more experienced and race fit are probably a fairly modest lot.
