Both Sunshine Coast and Rosehill played host to feature racing on the weekend with five black type races in total.
The Civic Stakes took centre stage At Rosehill Gardens which saw Gold Symphony coming from well back in the field to claim a half a length win over The Monstar in second with Slightly Sweet third.
Coming off a fair effort in the Group 1 Stradbroke the start prior, Gold Symphony appreciated the drop in grade and returned a Timeform rating of 109, equal to his previous peak achieved in the Stradbroke.
Whilst returning a Timeform figure five pounds below 2016 winner Ninth Legion, Gold Symphony measures up pretty well to recent winners of the race, two pounds above Haussmann and Generalife who won the previous two years.
Building an impressive career record, Gold Symphony certainly looks an improving type and will continue to be a force in listed and lower Group races.
Arguably the run of the race came from second placegetter The Monstar who returned a new career peak Timeform figure of 115, the second highest of any runner in the race since 2007.
Carrying 61.5kg, The Monstar was not too far away from winning the race after leading throughout.
Slightly Sweet in third ran to 96 with only the 53kg, three pounds below her previous effort in the Octagonal Handicap.
The other feature race on the card saw Gallic Chieftain produce a strong effort to claim the Listed ATC Winter Cup, his second win in a row.
The Darren Weir-trained runner who was ridden by Dean Yendall returned a Timeform figure of 102, his highest since winning at Morphettville earlier in the year.
The former French runner has been very consistent since coming to Australia, constantly running figures in the low 100’s, whether or not he can go to another level remains to be seen.
Gallic Chieftain is the lowest rated winner of the race since Niwot in 2009 (101), 2016 winner Tucanchoo running to 103.
Montauk who finished second with Tim Clark on board ran to 99, two pounds above his previous effort with arguably the run of the race coming from Destiny’s Kiss in third who ran to 113 with the big weight of 60kg.
The last time Destiny’s Kiss ran to that number was when winning the Listed Australia Day Cup (2400m) at Randwick earlier in the year, an equal career peak.
Turning our attention north and the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott-trained Supply And Demand was able to lead all the way to win the Listed Caloundra Cup (2400m) bringing up a hatrick of wins.
In what was his first stakes victory, Supply and Demand ran to a new career peak Timeform figure of 105, two pounds above his previous win at Rosehill over 2000m.
Supply And Demand ran two pounds higher than 2016 winner Amexed but was well below that of Index Linked in 2015 who ran to 115 when winning with 59kg.
Building a very impressive career record I would be surprised if the four-year-old gelding did not go on to win more stakes races and he could have more improvement to come as well.
Of the beaten runners My Diamantine was just over a length away in second and ran to 100 with War Baby in third running 98, both failing to become the first mare to win the race since Zennista in 2013.
