The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – March 3rd Edition

The pride of Tasmania did her thing once again, a bonny mare gets a well deserved major on the board and a gun rider makes her comeback. All that and more in this weeks edition of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.

KEY NEWS:

Mystic Journey Wins All Star Mile

Horse Racing…it’s well and truly #TheGreatGame and Mystic Journey absolutely personifies that. The $11,000 purchase from Tasmania is now regarded as the second best horse in Australia behind Winx after her stunning win in the inaugural edition of the All Star Mile at Flemington, sitting wide no cover for the trip but she powered clear late and was dominant. She’s now won 10 of her 13 career outings and has prizemoney over $3 Million.

Dixie FINALLY wins a Group l

Hindsight is a wonderful thing…but good lord, how could Dixie go around at $21+? She’s an absolute beauty for Ron Quinton and aided by a peach of a steer from Christian Reith, the mare powered through the mud, conceded weight to all her rivals and spanked them, a high quality bunch of mares. It gave Ron Quinton his sixth win in the race, fourth as a trainer.

Sammie Clenton Back Riding

Great to see this girl back riding. Couple of years ago she was one of the gun apprentices in NSW under Kris Lees and was rising quickly up the ranks before a couple of nasty falls, the second one seeing her crush six vertebrae and fractured her left collarbone. She was very close to being in a wheelchair for life, but she’s recovered, had a baby with partner and trainer Tim McIntosh and will return to race riding on Monday at Scone.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

Hard to get away from Mystic Journey. Stunning performance from the filly to sit wide no cover for the trip against some top class horse flesh yet still surge clear and win with such class and authority. There’s a race over 2040m at Moonee Valley in a few months that she’s being set towards and with the great mare Winx likely to be retired, she is the next in line to take the mantle.

DEBUT OF THE WEEK:

Aiguilette had trialled up well on a couple of occasions prior to debuting on the Parks track on Saturday and despite sitting off a moderate tempo, he surged hard late and was a pretty good winner first up. Time was nothing flash relative to the day, but he looks to have room for improvement and John Macmillan always has a good one in his stable. This might be the next one.

RIDE OF THE WEEK:

What an absolute peach from Ben Melham on Global Exchange on Friday night in the Alister Clark. It looked a tricky steer from the barrier but Melham took care of that by putting him out the back one off and just tracked up beautifully from that point on. The horse did wobble a bit on the turn but once balanced up, he surged and just got there. He looks a real Derby prospect.

SLAUGHTER OF THE WEEK:

All clear.

HORSES TO FOLLOW:

Mahalangur – He can win with the right placement
Supernova – Outside chance in the Sydney Cup off that
Dark Pearl – First time he’s showed something in Australia. Might go on with it
Declarationofheart – He’s a thinker, but wouldn’t drop off re Australian Derby

ONE MORE CHANCE:

Zalatte – Track was too heavy for her I think and she struggled. Don’t sack her
I Am Serious – Track was heavy yes, but she was four/wide throughout. No chance of winning with that run

NEVER EVER AGAIN:

Team Williams Benchmark Horses- Gee the stable are struggling with these new imports.
Mastering- Interrupted run, but should have finished off better
Happy Clapper in Melbourne- No more Mexico for the Clapper