Hey Doc matches his career-best Timeform rating with brilliant Winterbottom Stakes victory
Hey Doc (Duporth) [122] returned to peak form by matching his career-best Timeform rating with a brilliant performance when taking out Saturday’s Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Ascot.
Having his second run back after injury, Hey Doc went to the front and made the Group 1 feature a proverbial one-horse race in scoring easily by two and a half lengths in a fast time of 1:08.59.
Timeform rated the performance at 122 which equalled Hey Doc’s 122 best, achieved when he won the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Moonee Valley on October 27, 2017.
In addition, Saturday’s 122 victory was clearly above the 118 winners’ average rating for the Winterbottom Stakes over the past five years.
Hey Doc came back to racing this preparation with a close-up third behind Teleplay (Written Tycoon) [111] in the Kevin Heffernan Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m) at the Sandown Hillside track on November 16.
That was his first start since going amiss after finishing eighth in Bobbie Lewis Quality (Gr 2, 1200m) at Flemington in September 2018.
His first-up third returned a Timeform rating of 115 and he showed the benefit of that outing with a stunning effort on Saturday, his 122 victory being an improvement of seven pounds.
Hey Doc was never threatened at any stage with Vital Silver (Wanted) [113] finishing second, Rock Magic (Redoute’s Choice) [112] third and the favourite Trekking (Street Cry) [111] fourth.
The Godolphin-raced Trekking was slowly away and steadily made ground for (3.1 lengths) fourth, his effort returning a 111 Timeform rating, well below his 122 peak taken when third behind Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) [125] and Santa Ana Lane (Lope de Vega) [123] in The Everest (1200m) on October 19.
At Saturday’s Rosehill meeting the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly Muntaseera (I Am Invincible) [105+] stamped her potential with an impressive win in the Two-Year-Old Handicap (1100m).
After settling in last place in the small five-horse field after a slow start Muntaseera then sprinted brilliant to defeat the Godolphin-raced colt Chilliwack (Exceed And Excel) by three and a half-lengths.
Timeform awarded Muntaseera a rating of 105+ which was a jump of ten pounds on her promising 95-rated second on debut in the Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Flemington on November 5.
Muntaseera’s 105+ rating now sees the filly sitting in equal third place on Timeform’s 2019-2010 Two-Year-Year rankings table.
Another juvenile to perform well on Saturday was the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained colt Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) [101] who won the Two-Year-Old Sprint Plate (1000m) at Moonee Valley.
Tagaloa lifted gamely in the straight to score by a length from the Shadwell-raced colt Baaqyah (I Am Invincible) [99] in a time of 59.15.
He was awarded a 101 rating, an improvement of seven pounds on Tagaloa’s third on debut in the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Flemington on November 7.