It is a bit of a toned down meeting at Ascot on Saturday after the high jinks of a very successful five days of the Pinnacles Racing Carnival, Western Australia’s premier thoroughbred racing event, but for six of the runners contesting the Group 2 Ted Van Heemst Stakes who were involved in the Carnival, the show is not over yet.
All of Admiration Express, In Good Order, Diamond Scene, Apulia, Hemlock Stone and Sentimental Hero ran in the $1.5 million Group 1 Northerly Stakes two weeks ago.
The Jason Miller trained Admiration Express led that charge, but she would only do enough to fill sixth place as none of these runners featured in the finish of the Northerly.
Significantly though, In Good Order finished right behind Admiration Express. Diamond Scene finished a further length back and he had Apulia and Hemlock Stone right behind him … meaning less than two lengths covered these five runners as they finished from sixth to eleventh place.
Of those facing off again here, Sentimental Hero was the odd one out, finishing further back in the running.
The fact is, with the likes of Cosmic Crusader, King Of Light, Western Empire and Vivy Air in the Northerly lineup, these runners were not expected to do much better than they did … as shown by the fact that the best placed finishers in the group, Admiration Express and In Good Order started at $61 and $101 respectively.
None of those racing heavyweight line up in the Ted Van Heemst Stakes, creating a different landscape for all thirteen of the Group 2 contenders who will face the starter on Saturday and, with those five runners who finished within less than two lengths of each other in the Northerly meeting at the same weights again in the Ted Van Heemst Stakes, the Group 2 event should turn into a competitive contest.
The $822,000 first prize in the Northerly is already a distant, faded dream, but the $164,400 that will go to the winner of the Van Heemst Stakes isn’t exactly shabby.
