3 minute read

We review all the key ratings from Coolmore Classic Day.

Magic Night Stakes – Pembrey (105)

Pembrey was given a much better ride than last time, leading throughout and winning the Magic Night Stakes nicely.

In behind, I don't think the form is particularly strong, and Pembrey's rating of 105 is well below average for a typical winner.

The time rating isn't strong and J-Mac rode her quite efficiently out in front, suggesting there may not have been a whole lot more under the hood.

Looking as the past 20 years of Magic Night winners, a winning rating of 105 is four pounds below the 109 median, and only ahead of three fillies, including Memo at 104 last year.

In that time, nine horses have backed up from the Magic Night to the Golden Slipper for one winner – Kiamachi in 2023 who was rated 110 in the Magic Night and then 118 in the Slipper as a $21 chance on a bottomless track.

Pago Pago Stakes – Warwoven (109)

One-time Slipper favourite Warwoven confirmed his place in the field, given a lovely ride by Rachel King to sit up on speed and prove too strong for a wall of chasers.

He's run to 109 on the RAS ratings, which matches his rating at Eagle Farm in his second start, but again, he was ridden very efficiently.

It's fair to say he took improvement off the gap between runs and no trial, but he'll need significant improvement again on the quick turnaround.

That said, Shinzo also ran to 109 in 2023 as the only horse from 13 attempts to back up from the Pago Pago and win the Slipper, but typically other form lines are stronger.

Given the tight margins in behind and the even sectionals, I'll be against Warwoven next week.

Phar Lap Stakes – Sixties (110)

Class just shone through here with Sixties continuing his fantastic campaign to win the Phar Lap.

This was such a smart ride by J-Mac who I thought was some chance of going back from a wide gate, but instead he parked him outside a slow tempo and it was effectively race over from there.

I still think he was all out at the end of 1500m, even on a slow speed, and a high-pressure Randwick mile in a Doncaster is great opportunity to be against.

He's run to a RAS rating of 110, which equals his dynamic first up win at 1200m, going 108 in the CS Hayes and 113 in a slowly run Australian Guineas.

That's a long, long way off Doncaster favourite Sheza Alibi at 122, who has also run nearly 20 pounds faster on the clock than Sixties.

Visually and sectionally, the clear run of the race was Federalist who was second up as a gelding.

He's seat 1-A to be Australia's best maiden and this was a career peak, running to 107 at Racing & Sports, and coming out on top from an adjusted time rating given how well he was finishing.

He clearly wants more ground (and is begging for a positive ride), and the Tulloch Stakes into the Derby looks perfect where I think he can certainly win given that field is likely to fall away a fair bit.

Coolmore Classic – Lazzura (116)

Strong win from Lazzura to get her Group One, sitting off a good pace and finishing too well.

They've run some eight lengths faster overall time than the Phar Lap won by Sixties and Lazzura has run right up to her peak RAS rating, having also gone 116 in the Show County first up last campaign, hinting at that (and perhaps a touch better) in a couple of other runs.

I think a bit of a quieter ride did help Lazzura in this instance – not ideal for a Waller horse as she'll be ridden negatively for the rest of her life, even when it doesn't help, but I imagine she'll go to the Queen Of The Turf as some chance.

116 is a solid rating for a Coolmore Classic winner which was a fairly tight spread from 113-120, so 116 sits bang on both the mean and median.

In the past 20 years, 47 horses have gone from the Coolmore Classic to the Queen Of The Turf (without another run) for 4 winners, basically right on the expected winners at 3.7.

Four Coolmore winners have tried – Zougotcha (115-118) and Appearance (115-118) have done the double while Ofcourseican (116-107) finished ninth and Heavens Above (114-104) finished 10th.

Divine Madonna finished third in the Coolmore rated 116 behind Tuesday Joy and would win the Queen Of The Turf going 117, while Neroli (5th, 111) improved to 115 next time out.

I think Lazzura will strike some stronger opposition in the Queen Of The Turf but she'll be some chance, and then I'd be freshening up and targeting the Dane Ripper and Tatts Tiara in Queensland for the mares.