3 minute read
Timeform recap racing from Caulfield on P.B Lawrence Stakes day where the feature went the way of the Danny O'Brien trained mare Miss Rose De Lago.
That's not to be harsh to Miss Rose De Lago, a smart mare who matched her previous peak Timeform rating of 112 in winning a competitive and interesting race, but as a Group 2 contest at the threshold of the Spring Carnival the Lawrence doesn't look a forerunner to the major Group 1 contests coming up.
Miss Rose De Lago bloomed last preparation, running to a then peak 110 first up before improving to a peak of 112 when winning the Group 2 Sunline Stakes.
The Danny O'Brien stable had made it known that Miss Rose De Lago was very forward off a break and that she was able to match her peak first up in hard-run Lawrence confirmed as much.
The big question now is can she improve? A rating of 112 shouldn't be good enough to get it done at a higher level and the racing will just get tougher and tougher as the spring crescendos towards Flemington.
The Lawrence produced a fairly bunched finish that included several well-exposed horses. Hardly the recipe for upward-spiralling ratings profiles in the weeks to come.
As expected Lord Of The Sky and The Cleaner upped the revs in the first half of the race but that the last 600m of the race was run at 98.8% of the average race speed suggests that they overdid it, with par (in Racing and Sports' view) closer to 103.5% for the Caulfield 1400m.
That inefficiency would have dented the overall time by between 3 and 4 lengths with the damage evident in that slow last 600m where the whole field were reaching for the finish line in a gassed out heap.
The highlights on the Lawrence undercard, the Vain and the Quezette, were run at a more sedate pace.
Russian Revolution was well rated from the front in the Vain and produced an up to scratch performance for the race. He's now rated 106 but having come into the race rated 104P perhaps didn't improve as sharply as first hoped.
He's undoubtedly smart and should go on improving but the second and third horses, Highland Beat and Hardham, left an impression every bit as good.
Highland Beat had a relatively busy two-year-old season where he proved himself very smart but ultimately short of the top level. That is likely to go on being the case but his closing sectional entitled him to a small mark up and points to him having been every bit as good as Russian Revolution in the Vain.
That's also the case with Hardham, and that he was only having his second race start here leaves him looking a fairly exciting prospect. A rating of 105p shouldn't do him justice in the long run.
The fillies, led home by the aptly named I Am A Star, ran slightly quicker time overall and that is evident in the Timeform ratings with the winner afforded a mark of 107p - fractionally ahead of the Vain winner.
It's true that the quicker overall time was set up by the fillies going out slightly faster but the first two home in the Quezette, I Am A Star and Leotie (rated 104p), didn't go out quicker than the colts - individually they posted quicker time and were finishing faster. Positive signs for both of them going onwards and upwards into the spring.
