The Chairman's and Manfred Stakes were the features at Caulfield on Saturday where the performance of the Chairman's winner, Extreme Choice, was a clear highlight.
The Mick Price-trained Extreme Choice sat just a pound below the 116p-rated Capitalist on Timeform's two-year-old leaderboard heading into the Chairman's Stakes but just 57.09 seconds after the starter released the Chairman's field it was clear that Capitalist was standing on shaky ground.
Extreme Choice turned the Chairman's into an exhibition gallop - a very fast exhibition gallop - and the performance stood up to examination at the end of the day, earning Extreme Choice a rating of 118+ and pride of place at the top of the current two-year-old crop.
The plus indicates that the performance could very well be worth more than a rating of 118 but the opposition, or lack thereof, leads to a more conservative assessment.
Extreme Choice's chief rival was the clock - and for a second time in as many starts he belted it!
The track was a genuine Good 3 and raced fairly fast. This is quickly illustrated by the fact that Shakespearean Lass won the Adams in much the same time (56.91 v 56.95) as Shamal Wind ran to win the race last year despite the fact that Shamal Wind is an approximately 5.5 length better mare.
Even so 57.09 was, and is, very slick for a two-year-old. Since a very fast day in February 2000, when the Blue Diamond Previews were run in 56.86 and 56.97, only two juveniles have gone inside Extreme Choice's mark; Crystal Lily in 2010 and Murphy's Blu Boy in 2003.
Extreme Choice's timefigure points to him being of the standard required to win a Blue Diamond at this stage and he is well worth his place at the head of betting. A look at his closing splits has us fairly confident that he will be able to replicate his form over 1200m, particularly with the benefit of what was just his second run.
The clock wasn't as kind to the other feature race on the day, the Manfred Stakes, but we did see some promising performances for the autumn ahead.
None more so than the winner Puritan who returned with a new peak rating of 107 at what was just his fourth start.
A winning rating of 107 is on the low-side for a winner of the Manfred but it's certainly a nice starting point for a handful of these that should improve sharply second and third up.
Puritan was rated 101 off a three-run spring campaign where that peak performance came when fourth in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes at just his second start. There is certainly good ability there and his closing splits here suggest that there will be more to come from him yet.
The same could be said of the enigmatic Ready For Victory who ran to 108 in third, the same mark he ran to first up in the McNeil Stakes in the spring. He's on track for another good (though probably frustrating) campaign.
He didn't have the clearest of runs in the straight, and neither did another resuming from a spell in Palentino.
Palentino ran to 101, below his master rating of 106p, but he got to that peak in just three starts in the spring and looks like spiralling straight past that mark this autumn. He's well worth following.
Runner up Golden Spin was well backed, with recent winning form in the book, but he couldn't build on his last start peak and remains rated 106. In hindsight he probably should have gone out faster and looked to make better use of his race fitness but his run was solid and he's still got plenty of upside.
Vostok was another that brought winning form to the race and he ran very well coming back to 1200m from the mile.
He ran to a rating of 100, just a few pounds shy of his master rating of 103p which will probably be selling him short in the long term.
Top Me Up rattled home after missing the kick and racing at the back of the pack - a complete switch from his typical on-pace racing pattern.
It was a good effort given that, but he has come up short in this class a few times now and given that probably makes less appeal than a few of the others.
Sovereign Nation was another that was warming up late and looks in for a good campaign after he surprised a few in the spring when he was able to run fourth in the Caulfield Guineas.
Away from the features the one to mark down from the day was former West Aussie He Or She who settled back in the slowly run sixth race before rattling home to just miss a race-fit winner.
He picked right up where he left off in the spring time where his rating of 110p was projecting to get up towards 115-116.
This run pointed right towards that sort of level as well and if he can make that projected improvement he looks sure to pick up a nice race or two along the way.
