Racing: Survived simply superb

History is no match for a rising star. We'd started to suspect Survived was one of those, and the hometown hope proved it beyond doubt on Saturday with an electric win in the group three Hawke's Bay Gold Cup that lit up a gloomy Hastings day.

In a handful of powerful strides, Survived blew away both his opposition and a 35-year drought for 3-year-olds in the Bay's oldest race.

Having just his seventh career start and facing a field of seasoned and proven stayers, Survived had a big task in front of him from the outset. And it started to look almost insurmountable as the race unfolded and Survived dropped back to a distant second-last, more than a dozen lengths from the leaders. But when Masa Tanaka sent Survived to the outside at the top of the stretch and asked him to unleash, that deficit was devoured in no time. Survived roared home, sailing past the rest of the field as if they were standing still, and he opened up a big lead. He crossed the line four and a quarter lengths clear of his nearest challenger.

It was a stunning turn of foot, and it made the slow and holding track conditions seem more like a firm midsummer surface. The others, meanwhile, appeared to be mired in a swamp. They simply had no answer as Survived blew by and raced away to an emphatic Cup victory - the second for a Hastings-trained horse in six years, following The Veep in 2008. And it was the second in three years for jockey Masa Tanaka, who rode Don Domingo to victory in the dramatic Cup of 2011, where Seaflyte was cruising to victory and threw it all away at the last moment, the rider included. But it couldn't have been any more different for Tanaka this time around - a dominant and powerful win aboard clearly the best horse in the race.

Bigger things beckon for Survived, now the winner of five out of seven and his last four in a row. The Hawke's Bay Gold Cup win guaranteed him entry into the Spring Classic at Hastings in October, and that looks a logical target for a horse of such massive potential. A trip to Brisbane is a more immediate possibility.

While the Cup was all about Survived, it's also worth mentioning the mighty effort of the third-placegetter, Double O Seven. Also trained at Hastings, by Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen, Double O Seven did local fans proud with a superb finish. Survived crossed the line all by himself, but the best of the rest had a desperate battle to the line. Double O Seven was right in the thick of it and finished strongly to take third place, just behind runner-up Boninsky, at odds of 50-1. It was a terrific turnaround in form for the 7-year-old gelding, who'd shown little in recent starts to suggest he was capable of such a performance at this level. But he stepped up to the big occasion, producing one of the performances of his life.

And that wasn't the only good news for the day for Lowry and Cullen. The new star of their stable, Pimms Time, was a spectacular come-from-behind winner of the Hastings RSA Lest We Forget 1600. The 4-year-old Pins mare looked completely out of contention for much of the race, but turned the whole contest upside down at the last moment with a withering sprint to snatch victory in the last stride. Survived aside, this was one of the best wins we saw all day. Pimms Time has now won four of her 11 starts, and her spectacular performance here has earned her a shot at the group two Travis Stakes in Hamilton next Saturday.

No such luck for The Hombre. While The Hombre at his best would be far too good for the Ocean Park @ Waikato Stud 1200 field, The Hombre at his worst wouldn't be good enough. And unfortunately The Hombre was at his worst on Saturday. The class and acceleration we know he has were nowhere to be seen as he came in a meek fifth behind I Am Sam. The Brisbane trip he was being set for may now be in doubt, and it's back to the drawing board yet again for one of New Zealand's most mystifying and frustrating racehorses.