Racegoers were lucky enough to witness three performances that could each lay claim to being the best seen on the Hastings track all season.
Shez Sinsational, Fritzy Boy and Sacred Falls were stunning on Saturday.
So it would be very easy to overlook the other seven races on the programme.But there was plenty of other exciting action.
The day started with a $40,000 staying event, and it was taken out by a Hunterville-trained runner who must now have a few races called "Cup" on his agenda. Mungo Jerry was one of the more impressive winners on the middle day of the carnival, and he took another step forward on Saturday in the Tumu ITM Premier. The 6-year-old gelding has now won four of his 20 starts.
Hidden Asset was the impressive winner of the Trutest Premier. He was a high-class 3-year-old, winning the Group 2 Championship Stakes and finishing close up behind Jimmy Choux in the Waikato Guineas. But then he had an 18-month, injury-enforced lay-off. This was his third start back. He's only 5 so the best may be ahead for this son of High Chaparral.
And the last race of the day saw a thrilling two-horse battle and it was the talented 4-year-old Have No Mercy who pipped brave local Jakob Gambino. Have No Mercy has now won three of his 11 starts, and his second in a row. His connections thought enough of him to run him in the Group 3 Wellington Stakes at Trentham in January, in which he acquitted himself well, finishing a close seventh behind Ocean Park. And the way he seems to have come up he'll do even better when his second crack at stakes company comes.
It was a great day for top jockeys Leith Innes and Opie Bosson - both had three wins. Innes scored with Ransomed early in the day before his Guineas triumph on Sacred Falls and his victory aboard Have No Mercy in the last, while Bosson won aboard Hidden Asset and Quintero and took out the feature on Shez Sinsational.
