Racing: Jimmy Choux maintains NZ form

We are left with a question now - how good is Jimmy Choux?

Well, there are a stack of variables.

During the week, trainer John Bary described Jimmy Choux as a freak.

With the greatest respect for Bary, who has done a truly magnificent job with the 3-year-old, the horse has yet to show he's a freak.

The one freakish aspect of Jimmy Choux - and this might have been what Bary was referring to - is his stunning ability to not only weather tough racing and maintain his form, he actually looks better each time he appears at the races.

Don't forget he had his first race this preparation back in the Wanganui Guineas in the first week in September. Military tanks aren't meant to withstand that sort of punishment, but Jimmy Choux has brushed it off without a care.

Then, you get down to how good was the Australian opposition he destroyed in Saturday's A$500,000 Rosehill Guineas. It can be dangerous assessing 3-year-olds because many of them can still be maturing and often end up better horses than you first thought.

However, it's not unreasonable to say the Australians in Saturday's feature were ordinary. Very ordinary.

Oddly, given the Rosehill Guineas is a fine race, the list of recent winners is not the rollcall of greats you would imagine: Zabrasive, Metal Bender, Dealer Principle, He's No Pie Eater, De Beers, Eremein, Niello, Helenus and Carnegie Express.

Previous winners of the race Octagonal, Strawberry Road, Dulcify and Kingston Town would have had that list, and Saturday's opposition, that far out of sight by the home turn they would have been breathless.

Melbourne 3-year-old Absolutelyawesome, trained by Mike Moroney, was expected to give Jimmy Choux his biggest fright this time.

He went into the race with only six starts, one win and A$50,125, yet some of Australia's best judges, along with rider Glen Boss, rate the horse right at the top level.

Clearly, he's better than he showed on Saturday because he wasn't far from the leaders into the home straight, but he was weak in the final 200m, finishing eighth.

One pointer that came out of Saturday's victory was that last week John Bary made the right call to switch Jimmy Choux's next assignment from the 1600m Doncaster Handicap to the 2400m of the AJC Derby.

One of the deciding factors was that Jonathan Riddell will be able to stay with the horse in the Derby on April 9, where the Doncaster 51kg is far out of his reach.

Jimmy Choux let down in the home straight more like a horse that's going to be suited to 2400m against his own age than trying to revert back to the greater brilliance of a 1600m against the likes of More Joyous and the other top-class Australian milers.

There is one, and only one, determining factor in horse racing - a winning post. On any given day you need only to be good enough to reach it first.

Jimmy Choux has two million dollars to prove he does that best.