This Listed Open Handicap over 2147m had a weight spread from the top to the bottom of 7kg (60kg down to 53kg) and saw a very much in form Patrick Erin keep up his winning ways. Patrick Erin has been a revelation this year proving time is the best thing a racehorse can get for stamina and proper bone growth therefore structural strength and this 5yo gelding certainly proves it. Today was his first ever outing at blacktype level so to see him weighted at 55.5kg says more about the opposition than him. He raced third mostly then went into second turning for home before taking the lead at the 300m and scoring by half a length in 2:16.14. This year (including today) he has started six timed for five wins and a third and now has the super record of seven wins and six placing from just fifteen starts and clearly has been astutely handled by the Brian and Shane Anderton stable. They know full well good things come to those that wait and have never ever rushed their runners and it has been the making of this on pacer stayer. He can race close and still kick or surge plus he is unbeaten at any distance further than 1975m so far and has won Cups in his last two outings. The gelding has also won on dry, dead and slow footing and been placed on the heavy stuff so has that versatility gene too. The track was racing biased with only one runner all day (in eleven races) came from further back than fourth turning for home to win and that was Black Estate that surged quickly from the back and reached second at the 200m before scoring easily. Revelator tried hard after settling sixth on his own and the 8yo has finished second now in his last two outings behind Patrick Erin, so must be getting sick of the sight of him. Motorboat Mike, another 8yo, ran a game third after racing handy but was over six lengths behind the winner at the line. La Nouvelle Vague was a wilting fourth after racing handy the inner but then got fired up so was angled off the fence and went up to take the front midrace. He was caught and headed at the 300m by the winner but was still third at the 100m before losing that placing narrowly. Miss Three Stars was trying to win this race for the third time in a row but a running on for a distant fifth was the best she could do after getting back on the outer. Last year she won this carrying 57.5kg and defeated the two placegetters from this year (so the younger runners are not coming through), while the year before that won with 57kg but today surprisingly had just 56kg. The mare in her previous outing had finished third in the Wyndham Cup behind Patrick Erin and Revelator (the quinella again today) so had the right formlines. Speedy Lily was okay but Princess Brook disappointed as did The Gordonian and Thought That, while Belle Boy was outclassed and Oor Wullie (third in this two years ago under 59kg) dropped out. The depth of the field was marginal but the worrying aspect is that five of the twelve runners today are 8yo or 9yo runners. Patrick Erin will be winning more country Cups but the handicapper is making his task as an older male galloper harder by vast amounts each time. He has gone up 20 points this year and that is without the dollop he will assuredly get after today so all of a sudden he is at the top or near so of the weights if not already there and is just a fifteen start 5yo gelding. The time and patience his trainers and owners have shown is not being rewarded properly or for long enough as this bright burning light will soon be extinguished by weight when he has only just matured fully and arrived on the scene. It is a thoroughbred comet that is too often seen with male gallopers in New Zealand and gravity soon turns into reality for these gallopers by way of too fast a weight rise. The ascent is quick but the descent is longer lasting form wise and often a permanent punishment, especially so with the late maturing male gallopers as then they have less a window to wow before age does become an impediment.