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Timeform recap the 2016 Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes won by Awesome Rock for jockey Stephen Baster and trainers Leon and Troy Corstens.
In a race billed as the Cox Plate Qualifier Awesome Rock landed a win that felt like justice for his loss of the Australian Cup in the Steward's Room back in March.
In the process Awesome Rock matched his Australian Cup 'winning' peak Timeform rating of 121 - a figure that sits right in line with the recent history of the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes which, despite it's Cox Plate Qualifier claim, hasn't been used as a pathway to Moonee Valley's biggest race since El Segundo did the double in 2007.
If the 2016 Dato Tan Chin Nam is to produce the Cox Plate winner, first and foremost, Winx would have to go off the boil, and secondly, one of the Dato runners would have to get on an upward spiral.
We looked at a few of the key contenders for the 2016 Cox Plate last week - which you can read here - where a few hopefuls sat around the 126 mark with Winx staring down at them all from 132 (adjusted for her mares allowance).
Winx is the best middle distance horse we've had in Australia since the 133-rated So You Think and sits on a peak that none of the the current Cox Plate hopefuls look like getting to any time soon, but even putting her to one side and assuming a 'normal' Cox Plate field, Awesome Rock would have his work cut out.
Winx is the best middle distance horse we've had in Australia since the 133-rated So You Think
A rating of 121 is a ways short of the 125-126 that we would expect a Winxless Cox Plate to require and his profile doesn't really point to him picking up 5 or 6 pounds in the next 6 weeks. Not impossible, but improbable.
The most likely Cox Plate contenders coming through the Dato are the 124-rated The United States and the 122-rated Tosen Stardom.
They still get sore necks looking up at Winx, sitting like Sherpa Tenzing on her 132-peak, but they both ran well enough resuming on the weekend to think that their own peaks are within reach again this campaign.
The Dato was run at a true tempo. Finishing speed of 99.2% of overall race speed shows that The Cleaner did his thing and made it a test. One of The Cleaner's great assets over the years is that makes it very difficult for his rivals to accelerate - making his races a battle of attrition.
Under that circumstance, when horses back in the field found momentum-killing traffic coming through the corner it was near enough to game over. There is no picking up and sprinting when the whole field is tiring and slowing.
Tosen Stardom was able to balance up and find the line in 100.5% and The United States did the same - particularly pleasing given they were both coming off spells. Ratings of 113 and 111 respectively should be left quickly behind when we see them next.
