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A host of runners continued on with their winning form through Saturday’s nine race program at Randwick.
Five last start winners went on to post consecutive successes in Veranillo, Religify, Dal Cielo, Deploy and In Her Time who claimed the feature event, the Group 2 Breeders Classic (1200m).
Trained by Benjamin Smith who looks after a small team out of Newcastle, In Her Time was showing great promise prior to last Saturday however was clearly being thrown in the deep end.
The Breeders Classic was by far her toughest career assignment to date and under Set Weights plus Penalties, was poorly weighted in the field as a Benchmark 79 horse against stakes performed mares such as Danish Twist, French Emotion and Flippant.
A sharp rise in grade however did not deter In Her Time from making it three straight wins.
In Her Time was prominent throughout, at first stalking pacesetter Magnajoy before leveling up at the 400m and then striking the front 300m from home.
The daughter of Time Thief then held off the fast closing Egyptian Symbol to provide a maiden Group success for both trainer Benjamin Smith and apprentice Andrew Adkins.
For winning the Breeders Classic, In Her Time was awarded a Timeform rating of 107, a clear new master Timeform rating for the lightly-raced type.
107 is the lowest winning figure of the Breeders Classic since Steflara won the 2006 renewal with an effort assessed at 106.
Held early in the autumn, the Breeders Classic has played host to a number of popular Sydney mares launching their autumn campaigns in the event where they are well weighted under Set Weights plus Penalties conditions.
Private Steer (2004), Hot Danish (2009), More Joyous (2011) and Catkins (2014/15) are amongst those to have won the Breeders Classic and then subsequently enjoy further stakes success through the autumn.
The Group 3 Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on February 18 shapes as a logical progression for In Her Time although is a query out to the longer sprint trip having yet to place beyond 1200m in two starts to date.
The Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m) was the other Group event to be conducted at Randwick on Saturday, won by the Anthony Cummings-trained Man From Uncle.
It was a brave win by the son of Uncle Mo who settled off the pace and travelled three wide with no cover throughout.
The gelding appeared under pressure approaching the 300m however continued to find and with a late dive, edged ahead of Guard Of Honour and Generalissimo.
First up since a maiden spring campaign where he was stakes placed, Man From Uncle has obviously derived maturity from the preparation to salute on resuming at Randwick last Saturday.
Like In Her Time 40 minutes later, Man From Uncle ran to 107, the lowest winning figure of the 3YO sprint since Agister caused a boilover in taking out a weak 2011 renewal of the Eskimo Prince Stakes.
A tilt at the Randwick Guineas (1600m) on March 4 beckons for Man From Uncle, a race which has been successfully targeted out of the Eskimo Prince Stakes in recent years.
The Peter Moody-trained Dissident ran second in the 2014 Eskimo Prince Stakes before claiming the Randwick Guineas of that year.
Le Romain ran second in the 2016 Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m) before upstaging race favourite Press Statement who was clear odds on to claim the Randwick Guineas 12 months ago.
The third stakes race on the program came early in the card where Godolphin’s Veranillo took out the Listed Hinchinbrook Plate (1100m).
Veranillo settled second, 2 ½ lengths off leader Eden Roc who overraced and charged to the front.
Jockey James Doyle crept closer to Eden Roc around the turn and had swept by the early leader inside the 200m.
A 1.5 length victory ensued along with a Timeform rating of 111 for the performance, a display well above the five-year-winning average of the young two-year-old event to date.
Such a figure sees Veranillo as the second highest rated winner of the Hinchinbrook Plate, only behind Haptic who ran to 112 in the 2015 renewal where Godolphin ran the quinella courtesy of Furnaces.
Veranillo will likely have one more run prior to the Golden Slipper and is expected to have Blinkers applied.
Such a gear change has the potential to spark further improvement in the son of Medaglia D’Oro who already sits prominently amongst the two-year-old crop so far this season.
A master Timeform rating of 111 sees Veranillo positioned outright fifth in this season’s two-year-old crop.
Chauffeur (115), Houtzen (114p), She Will Reign (114p) and Breeders Plate winner Khan (113) are the only quartet of rivals in Veranillo’s crop who at this stage are considered superior.
His victory continued the dominance trainer John O’Shea has enjoyed in the event since becoming Godolphin Australia’s Head Trainer in 2014.
O’Shea has won the last three Hinchinbrook Plate renewals courtesy of Haptic (2015), Telperion (2016) and now Veranillo.
While Haptic boasts being the highest-rated winner of the trio, last year’s winner Telperion can lay claim to achieving the best result for John O’Shea in a Golden Slipper since commencing as Head Trainer for Godolphin in 2014.
Telperion ran fourth in the 2016 Golden Slipper behind Capitalist and subsequent Group 1 winners Yankee Rose and Flying Artie.
While not coming away from Randwick with stakes successes, a trio of runners who continued their respective winning streaks are deserving of honourable mentions.
After commencing his career as a consistent sprinter, Religify has continued his transformation into a tough frontrunning miler by making all in the Schweppes Gardenia Open Handicap (1600m).
Religify was able to control proceedings from the outset and from the 300m slipped away to leave rivals in his wake.
The frontrunning display netted Religify a new master Timeform rating of 116 with the son of Choisir now coming into calculations as a lightweight Doncaster Mile hope.
A switch in stable and decision to geld has sparked Dal Cielo who won The Chi-X Sprint Benchmark 93 Handicap (1000m).
Dal Cielo burst onto the scene as a two-year-old when winning the 2015 Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie.
The son of In Percanto was campaigned as a Guineas horse as a three-year-old where he struggled for consistency although did place in both the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) and the Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) during a 2015 spring campaign.
A Timeform rating of 108 returned last Saturday indicates Dal Cielo is approaching somewhere near his best having run twice to a master figure of 112 through his career to date.
The final event of the day saw Deploy take out the It’s On! In Sydney Benchmark 82 Handicap (1400m).
In search of a fourth straight win to commence his latest campaign, there was a query surrounding Deploy’s ability to run out a strong 1400m at Randwick.
He handled the seven furlongs with aplomb, settled second and tracking leader Lie Direct.
Deploy struck the front immediately on straightening and fought bravely to hold off closing placegetters Got Unders and Tower Of Song.
The son of Fastnet Rock has improved with each run this campaign which commenced by winning an 1100m Benchmark 72 at Canterbury with a performance given a Timeform rating of 90.
Last Saturday, Deploy achieved a new master Timeform rating of 105, four pounds clear of his previous best achieved a fortnight earlier when winning over 1200m at Randwick.
The winning streak is well deserved considering the quality of horse Deploy came up against as a three-year-old in what were expected to be low key, off season events.
Instead, Deploy found himself placing behind subsequent dual Group 1 winner Le Romain, Group 2 winner Sooboog and stakes winner Southern Legend.
A Benchmark 88 horse after last Saturday’s success, considering his newest master figure of 105, there is still room for Deploy to progress further through the grades.