KEY POINTS:
Whether you backed the winner of the Bonecrusher Stakes or Soliloquy Stakes or not at Ellerslie on Saturday you learned an awful lot about how the 3-year-olds rate relatively.
And few of them let themselves down. Conversely, at least four or five early-season 3-year-olds promoted their ratings.
Among
them were the two winners, Kildonan and Awesome Planet, along with The Diamond Knight, Takeanotherchance, Shock and Raid.
Yes, Raid, even though she just missed a place in the Soliloquy.
Trainer Stephen McKee admits the camp were a victim of circumstances in attempting to overcome a wide gate with Raid and seeing the only option as dropping back at her first start past 1200m.
Riding speed horses against their natural pattern can come unstuck and after Raid made a big dab at getting the leaders from the back in the closing stages, she hit the wall inside the 100m and lost third in the last three strides.
"We'll be running her at 1200m from now on," said McKee.
None of which detracts from Kildonan's $60,000 Geon Bonecrusher Stakes win for Cambridge trainer Yves Seguin, who has not had a great number of starters in the four years he has been in New Zealand, but who has impressed everyone with the condition in which he sends his horses to the races.
The Frenchman has spent a long time away from his home country.
"I was in California for eight years from 1984 and trained on the Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, Del Mar circuit being based at Hollywood Park for most of it."
Seguin trained 30 winners in the United States before moving to Dubai.
"I trained mainly Arabian horses in Dubai and found the experience very interesting."
Seguin has been training in New Zealand for the past 18 months and clearly has a big future in the game.
Kildonan is raced by former Cambridge Jockey Club chairman Bruce Harvey and wife Maureen and the pair turned down big offers after the colt won by nearly nine lengths on debut on a wet track at Avondale.
The offers have suddenly got bigger.
"He's not on the market, but these things can change," says Seguin in that beautiful mixture of Anglo/French.
Seguin was well aware that in jumping from a mid-week maiden race to listed stakes company he couldn't afford to race Kildonan extravagantly from a wide barrier.
He instructed Andrew Calder to ease back and ride for luck.
It proved to be a masterstroke.
Kildonan settled second last, improved around a couple approaching the home bend and went back to the rails, taking a narrow gap impressively along the rails for a colt not wearing a hood and got up in the final strides.
The interesting guess at this early part of the season is how far these horses will race over.
"I would say 1600m to 2000m," says Seguin, but like many trainers of mid-range horses he believes his horse will successfully manage 2400m of the Derby against his own age.
The Diamond Knight did remarkably well to cling on to second after sitting three wide without cover all the way and was just in front of Al Qurhah, who raced on the speed and fought on and would probably learn from the experience.
The huge run came from fourth-placed Takeanotherchance, who was only a fraction more than half a length from the winner.
Co-trainer Garry Barlow felt the first switch to right-handed racing would not greatly inconvenience the upset winner of the Wanganui Guineas - and he was almost right.
"He just did enough on the right-handed track to probably beat himself," said rider Jason Waddell.
"I was where I wanted to be mid-field one off and he came into the race nicely on the home bend.
"But he got a little lost out in the centre of the track on his own and the others dropped away inside him, but despite that he really finished off and took a lot of ground off the first three in the final 150.
"He's a very good horse."
Takeanotherchance looks like a natural, long-striding stayer who will be best suited as the distances increase and on the flatter tracks like Trentham and Riccarton.
It's a long way to the Derby in March, but he looks a natural for 2400m.