This G2 mile for fillies and mares only was run on an absurdly biased Te Rapa track that penalized backrunners all day. In the nine race card four leaders won, one winner sat outside the leader, two winners trailed the leaders and two came from fifth turning for home and not that far at all from the leaders. This female feature saw the return of form by Lizzie L’Amour now back in New Zealand after being luckless a couple of times in Australia over the Spring then she got demolished twice more after that. The 5yo mare sat outside the pace that was nothing too strenuous and slowly but surely edged her way into the lead inside the final 100m to score by half a length in 1:34.32. It was her sixth win in sixteen starts and her first at the mile. She is a win or nowhere type it seems with more completely out of the money efforts than wins so mood matters with this mare. A Benchmark85 mile held two races prior ran 1:34.14 and the winner was one of two all day that came from fifth turning for home, so the mare also in Symphonic was about a length superior. Love Affair the hot favourite was a stupendous second and a victim of the terrible Te Rapa track bias when unleashing a big finish from second last on settling plus she came the widest the run home in lanes that no other runners would dare to try and quicken on. Love Affair was the only runner in the race to break 34 seconds for the last 600m in the field and in fact shattered it by running 33.41 and to give that some perspective the winner clocked 34.09. She ran over four lengths faster the final 600m after coming wide and still got beaten half a length, which screams absurd track bias. Love Affair is in the same stable as the winner and her victorious rider last start actually rode Lizzie L’Amour today, who also had another rider booked but he cried off with illness so someone else rode her that unfortunately had never been on her before. The gods conspired it seemed against this 4yo mare it with upside galore and she is a G1 winner in waiting if she stays healthy and can get a regular rider atop that knows her sublime scope. The stable of Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman notably prepared the trifecta when Stolen Dance finished third after leading up and she was just a neck from second at the line. Devise was an uber-courageous fourth after being trapped wide fifth then fourth and moved up third turning for home, She dug deep and will be a welcome to addition to strengthen up the WFA depth versus all comers should they go there, as it has been very weak for a while now. She was second last season the G1 NZ Oaks (2400m) behind Bonneval (triple G1 winner since and two of them came in Australia), so just maybe across the line today were in fact the best four mares. Asama Blue was rising multiple grades in this but still able to finish fifth beaten less than two and a half lengths, so a commendable effort indeed but track bias clearly played a role as she trailed the leaders throughout. Rising Shot ran a useful sixth and is ready to pay a dividend next time out. The next three home were outclassed and the last runner home Let Her Rip sadly bled and is banned for three months. This was a decent depth race and will be the source of many winners at all grades this season and likely into next as well. They only had three runners in this but the Baker/Forsman yard got the trifecta and have three mares that can be set for differing Group races and plunder both stakes and blacktype for the rest of this season. Lizzie L’Amour is a G1 winner at WFA versus all comers over 2000m and Stolen Dance has run three seconds at G1 (at WFA versus all comers twice and once at Handicap level), so this just confirms that Love Affair could be the best mare in New Zealand right now on upside with it all certainly ahead to come.