Bubbles burst as The Everest hopefuls get beaten
Did we see, in the space of an hour today, three The Everest hopeful bubbles burst?
All were beaten.
They being the boomed MASKED CRUSADER (Toronado-She’s Got Gears); Gr 1 winner TOFANE (Ocean Park-Baggy Green) and WA superstar ACADIA QUEEN (Pierro-Arcadia).
Now, all of them ran placings in their respective races, and to be fair, all ran outstanding races.
But, they were all beaten in weaker races than the $15 million The Everest will be.
Watching Masked Crusader was like walking barefoot on fiery coals, and stopping half way through it.
It was painful.
He was trapped 4-wide all the way and still looked a winning chance at the 250m. He ran 3rd, will benefit enormously from the torrid run and should improve. But enough to beat Gytrash, Nature Strip, Classique Legend etc? Hmmmmm…..not sure.
Arcadia Queen was given an absolute peach of a ride by Willy Pike and she had every hope, but despite looking very powerful late, she did fail to catch the winner Pretty Brazen, who carried level weight and would not be considered a chance in The Everest.
Then there was the very brave Tofane.
She was in what turned out to be the best spectacle of the day. Five horses finished within 10cm of one another and she was one of them.
She was 3rd home, beaten 3cm by Zoutori over 1200m in the Listed Bobby Lewis.
The run was outstanding and like the above pair, she will improve in leaps and bounds as a result.
But still, jury is out on whether the improvement curve of all three runners will be sufficient come The Everest day.
