Racing: Topliner puts Cox Plate shocker behind him, gallops like champ

Sky Heights has gone from the cart horse to the gun horse in three days.

The topliner who could not break into a sweat chasing Sunline in the Cox Plate on Saturday, galloped sensationally in Melbourne yesterday morning.

He is now declared as a certain starter in Saturday's $A500,000 Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.

"That's the best he's ever worked for me," said Glen Boss after climbing off Sky Heights following a gallop at Cranbourne."He felt sensational."

Believing Sky Heights would not be running this weekend after his Cox Plate effort, Boss accepted the Mackinnon Stakes ride on New Zealand mare Hill Of Grace.

Trainer Robert Priscott has released Boss from that engagement, but Boss will be back on the mare in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup. Nash Rawiller will fill on for the Hill Of Grace ride in the Mackinnon.

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Atmosphere is difficult to create and even more difficult to convey.

Stephen McKee has a tough job when he guests on the debut Trackchat show on Sky Sport tomorrow night to recapture the atmosphere surrounding Sunline's Cox Plate win on Saturday.

It's a cliche to say atmosphere is electric. It was more than that at Moonee Valley.

When Sunline cut loose at the 450m, a 747 could have crashed in the centre of the course and no one would have noticed.

Japanese racegoers make a serious noise but the 155,000 who saw Pilsudski win the Japan Cup three years ago did not even come close to the roar the 50,000-odd at Moonee Valley sent up.

They talk about the day Bonecrusher beat Waverley Star in the Cox Plate and always will.

They talk about when Kingston Town won his third Cox Plate and always will.

But those at Moonee Valley on Saturday will never forget the day Sunline won her second Cox Plate.

Greg Childs said later: "This mare has two speeds, fast and faster."

No one loves and reveres their sporting heroes like Melbournians. They acknowledged what Childs said and were still humming an hour later.

Sunline got the credit, but Trevor and Stephen McKee did a magnificent job peaking a cranky mare to absolute perfection on the one day that mattered.

It is probably the best the mare has ever looked and her quiet demeanour, which did not leave her even in the crush before the start, was testimony to the fact the McKees had done their job.

The frightening thought is, Sunline has got better with each campaign.

Has that peaked?

Imagine being at Moonee Valley to watch Sunline win her third Cox Plate.

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Trackchat will be hosted by sports presenter Andrea McVeigh, who will be joined each week by champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan and Trackside presenter Adrian Clark.

A feature will be the chance for viewers to talk to the guests via an internet chat room. Some of the questions and responses will be shown on screen.

The first show will feature the Melbourne Cup and retired jockey Bob Vance, who finished second in the Cup on Te Akau Nick, will be another studio guest.

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Leith Innes will not know until later today or even tomorrow whether he will ride at Flemington or Te Rapa on Saturday.

Innes is holding off to see if Kiwi mare Platonic makes the field for the $A250,000 Hardy Brothers Classic on Derby Day at Flemington.

If Platonic does not look like getting a start, Innes will ride class filly Star Satire in the $50,000 Waikato Stud Guineas at Te Rapa.

Acceptances for the Melbourne event are tomorrow and yesterday Platonic was 20th on the list for qualifying for a start in a 16-horse field.

Platonic missed a place when she made her Australian debut over 1400m on Caulfield Cup day, but was not far from the winner and will be much better suited to the wide spaces of Flemington.

"She has always raced a bit green and erratic. She drew No 4 and she was not used to racing on the rail," said Innes yesterday.

Trainer Ross Taylor said he is delighted with the progress of Star Satire since the filly finished third against the older horses at Ellerslie two weeks ago.

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Michael Walker arrived back from Singapore yesterday delighted with his first taste of international riding in the weekend's Singapore Gold Cup.

He was unlucky in finishing fourth on former Kiwi galloper The Mighty Finn.

"We were last on the home bend and if we had got the run through I was looking for he would have been very hard to beat," said Walker.

The Cup was a triumph for former Melbourne trainer John Meagher, who saddled the winner, Kim Angel and runner-up, French import Le Rhone.

New Zealand-bred Singapore champion Ouzo, carrying topweight, finished third, just in front of The Mighty Finn.

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Clarrie Conners might be only 1.2m tall, but he produces a fierce demeanour when he's upset.

The Sydney trainer was more than a little upset with Melbourne jockey Patrick Payne at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

Which is surprising, given Payne had just won the $A125,000 AAMI Vase on the Conners-trained Skalato.

New Zealand-born Payne is underrated, one of those who does not follow, he leads. One of those prepared to drop Plan A, B, C and D and go to Plan S if circumstances dictate.

There was a fierce bias in favour of on-pace runners for the first two thirds of the programme at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

Payne was aware of that. He was just as aware he could not afford to ride a patient race at the back as you would normally like a 3-year-old to be ridden a week away from the the $A1 million Victoria Derby.

He sent Skalato forward to sit outside the leader, at which point a blood pressure reading on Conners would have been interesting.

With Payne sitting quiet on him all the way, Skalato proved far too good and Payne's bomb-proof temperament seemed to easily deflect Conners outburst.

"Clarrie panics a bit when you get left facing the breeze like we were," he said quietly. "But I was prepared to give away half a second to sit out there because I knew I had the horse to do it."

Payne's confidence came from knowing he had taken the right option.

Skalato was always favourite for Saturday's Derby and shortened even further after easily accounting for Derby second favourite Universal Prince.