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Emerging stars and upcoming winners from Australian racing over the past week.
Mintha (Moonee Valley, September 29): The filly is probably a candidate for Australia’s best maiden but expect her to shed that tag in the coming weeks.
Mintha was an eye catcher for the second time this spring when running on hard to beat all but the flying Houtzen in the Group 3 Scarborough Stakes and achieve a Timeform rating of 105. That was a clear career best after she had run on hard to finish only 1.2 lengths away first up in the Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes.The three-year-old has taken on stakes grade at four of her five career runs to show the regard the Tony McEvoy camp have for her and she looks hard to beat in the right race third up next time.
Over Exposure (Moonee Valley, September 29): Another runner from the McEvoy yard, Over Exposure also caught the eye running on well to place at Moonee Valley.
Stepping out for his second start after a dominant win at Balaklava as a hot favourite on debut, Over Exposure was in front of only two runners on settling but into the clear in the straight, made good ground along the rail to finish a 1.7 length third to Muraaqeb over 1200m.The son of Rothesay achieved a Timeform rating of 96p and with expected improvement to come with further experience, that is a figure on which he can build to win another race in the near future.
Kaonic (Canterbury, October 4): The Chris Waller-trained gelding turned some heads when overhauling a runaway leader to break his maiden at just his second start.
A city placegetter when running on well on debut, Kaonic appreciated the step up to 1550m to score in the style of a horse headed for better things.The last 600m was run in 35.22 seconds, half a second faster than the older gallopers recorded in the next race at the same trip.
The effort achieved a Timeform rating of 93p and as a son of Savabeel and a Fastnet Rock mare he should continue to improve with maturity.