Three-Year-Old Colt Star Turn A Star Sectional Times Performer At Caulfield
After a smart beginning, he eventually drove through to share a hotly contested lead, before taking a clear break shortly after turning for home.
Star Turn then went on to score by just over two lengths, easily beating his older rivals Malaguerra (Magnus) and Fell Swoop (Not A Single Doubt) clocking a fast 1:02.89 for the 1100 metre distance.
That represents a 200 metre rate of 11.43, equivalent to 1200 metres in 1:08.60, fast time but the real feature of the colt’s win was his early sectionals.
Timed from the 1000 metre mark, Star Turn returned 200 metre sections of 10.62, 10.42 (400m in 21.04), 10.92 (600m in 31.96), 11.20 (800m in 43.16) with his last 200 metres in 12.90 for a brilliant 1000 metre time of 55.06.
Star Turn now heads to the Coolmore Stud Stakes (registered as Ascot Vale Stakes) (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington on Derby Day, 29 October for a race that is likely to prove one of the highlights of the season.
In an exceptional season for three-year-olds that highly regarded race will feature the clash of Astern (Medaglia d’Oro), Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) and Star Turn with Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Impending (Lonhro) and Russian Revolution (Snitzel) being other likely runners with strong credentials.
Astern, Extreme Choice and Capitalist are already Group One winners while all of the aforementioned colts have already displayed Group One potential.
Flying Artie has been placed twice at Group One level, in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Mick Price-trained colt showed he is back on track with an impressive first up effort in winning at Caulfield on Wednesday.
Having his first start since suffering from a sesamoid injury after the Golden Slipper Stakes in March, Flying Artie took out the Blue Sapphire Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), and also returned fast sectional times in the process.
After racing in second place, behind a very quick tempo set by the leader Dalradian (Reward For Effort), Flying Artie took the lead at the 200 metres, and despite briefly racing greenly, he soon drew away to score comfortably in a time of 1:09.76.
But the noteworthy part of Flying Artie’s times were his mid-race sectionals.
Clocked from the 1000 metres, Flying Artie returned 200 metres times of 10.70, 10.89 (400m in 21.59), 10.96 (600m in 32.55), 11.40 (800m in 43.95) with his last 200 metres in 12.49 for a fast final 1000 metre time of 56.44.
With such a focus on the sprinting three-year-olds this season, they to a degree have overshadowed some the traditional principal races for that age group, like Saturday’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
The Team Hawkes-prepared Divine Prophet (Choisir), who had finished fourth behind Astern in the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) two starts prior, advanced to 1600 metres to take out the Caulfield Guineas after enjoying a good rails trip from barrier one.
While the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained filly Global Glamour (Star Witness) backed up her Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) victory a week prior with another all-the-way win in the Thousand Guineas.
Time for the Caulfield Guineas was 1:36.51 with the fillies’ race clocking 0.33 seconds slower, running the distance in 1:36.84 – both races developing into a quick sprint home for the last 600m metres.
Both races were run in similar fashion with the colts running 61.13 (12.22 200m rate) for the first 1000 metres with the final 600 metres in 35.38 (11.79 200m rate) with the fillies clocking 61.91 (12.38 200m rate) and 34.93 (11.64 200m rate).
The respective winner’s times for the final 600 metres being: Divine Prophet 34.90 and Global Glamour 34.93.
Interesting to note that the fastest last 600 metre time in the Caulfield Guineas was the Robbie Laing-trained So Si Bon’s (So You Think) 34.75 while the Lindsay Park-prepared filly Sebring Dream (Sebring) was timed to run 34.30 in the Thousand Guineas.
That pair now head, respectively, towards the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) on 29 October and VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) on 3 November.
And to conclude the focus on the three-year-olds, the David Vandyke-trained filly Yankee Rose (All American) showed her quality with an impressive late-closing win in the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Randwick on Saturday in a race that also developed into a quick sprint home from the 600 metres.
Ridden back in the field, Yankee Rose needed to show a great turn of foot to overcome the steady early pace, which saw the first 1400 metres run in 1:27.51 (12.50 200m rate).
Yankee Rose certainly did that clocking a fast 33.14 (11.04 200m rate) for her last 600 metres to take out her second Group One race in impressive fashion.
She now heads to the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) on Saturday week where she obviously will be facing a stiff rise in class against a star-studded field including Australia’s current best Winx (Street Cry).
Appropriately, the last word has been reserved for Winx, who recorded her 12th successive win in Saturday’s Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Sitting back in second place, tracking the leader Black Heart Bart (Blackfriars) in the small three-horse field, Winx yet again demonstrated her brilliant acceleration by lifting off a very moderate pace to win easily.
Black Heart Bart clocked only 1:29.67 (12.81 200m rate) for the first 1400 metres and Winx produced fast closing times, when asked by rider Hugh Bowman from the 600 metre point.
Winx then returned 200 metre sections of 11.14, 10.99 (400m in 22.13) and 11.48 for her last 200 metres for a fast last 600 metre time on 33.61.
The wonder mare, winner of last year’s Cox Plate, now goes into the race looking primed to produce another outstanding performance, but it would be hard to imagine even her bettering last year’s victory when she broke the Moonee Valley track record, set in 1988.