3 minute read
Timeform recap the 2016 Caulfield Guineas won by Divine Prophet for Team Hawkes and jockey Dwayne Dunn.
Divine Prophet handed Team Hawkes their second Caulfield Guineas winner in five years by taking out the 2016 edition.
Divine Prophet has a ways to go to match the 129-rated All Too Hard, who beat Pierro in a vintage edition of Australia's premier mile for three-year-olds in 2012, with his Caulfield Guineas-winning rating of 121 on the low end of recent winning values for the race.
With race favourite Impending running slightly below his peak, Divine Prophet just had to match the 121 rating that he returned when running second in the Stan Fox Stakes to hold out a strong-finishing Seaburge, who improved his rating from 115 to 120.
Despite a below-average winning rating for Divine Prophet the 2016 Caulfield Guineas is still considered a strong edition with seven horses running to a rating of 115 or higher - the most to break the 115 mark in the race since the 2001 Caulfield Guineas won by Lonhro who, coincidentally, ran for trainer John Hawkes.
There were also seven to break the 115 mark in the 1999 Caulfield Guineas won by Redoute's Choice and widely regarded as one of the great Guineas.
This sits in line with the thinking that the current three-year-old crop is a strong one.
The stars of the crop so far have been over sprinting distances and the best performance by a three-year-old on Caulfield Guineas Day was in fact over a sprint trip, with Star Turn bettering his Guineas-winning stablemate by running to 124p winning the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes.
Star Turn has posted a trio of high-rating performances this preparation - only beaten by current table topper Astern - and sits as the equal second highest rated three-year-old in the country alongside Moir Stakes winner Extreme Choice who is also rated 124p.
Already we have seen seven three-year-olds run to a Timeform rating of 120 or better this season and four of them are set to clash in the Coolmore Stakes on Derby Day. No more than two horses rated 120 or higher have clashed in the history of the Coolmore and the average is closer to one.
The Thousand Guineas was an up to scratch renewal with Flight Stakes winner Global Glamour able to back up her Randwick performance from a week ago and win again.
Global Glamour is rated 116, and is now the top-rated three-year-old filly this season, a pound higher than both Omei Sword (115p) and Spring Champion winner Yankee Rose who is also rated 115p.
In another sign that the older horses are at the mercy of the classic generation this season just three went to post for the Caulfield Stakes where superstar mare Winx rounded out preparations for her Cox Plate defence.
There were just three but both Winx and Black Heart Bart are genuine Group 1 horses and after jogging around to the 1000m they ripped home in solid figures - Black Heart Bart good enough to retain his 126 master rating and Winx, who ran to a rating of 125 on the day, looking on track to return to her 128 peak when it counts in two weeks.
The slow early speed resulted in a finishing speed of 109.7%, so the slow overall time should be marked up considerably.
Treating the race as a 600m contest, which in many ways it was, Winx's winning timefigure relative to other overall times on the day was 128.
In other words, Winx finished fast enough to think that she is going as well as ever. There could even be a new peak on the horizon in the race that she has been aimed at all along and thankfully there is opposition waiting for Winx that looks good enough to force the very best out of her.
The new and improved, and 128-rated, Hartnell will be the highest rated rival that Winx has faced, and the French visitor Vadamos is getting nowhere near the fanfare that he deserves.
Vadamos has improved to become a genuine Group 1 performer in Europe this season. Importantly he comes to Australia off a series of peaks. He's high class and spiralling upwards. Winx should be too strong but he's good enough to ensure that she is going to have to bring her A-game to land back-to-back Cox Plates.
