Observer scores a hat trick, Street Boss gains ground in the sires tables and Nitrogen goes from #37 to #24 after landing a Grade 3 Oaklawn prize.
Medaglia D’Oro has entered the top ten in our Dirt Sires classifications, moving up four places from #14 last week after the success of his daughter Nitrogen in Oaklawn’s Bayakoa.
Meanwhile, in the Turf Sires classifications, the addition of 56 points has seen Street Boss (who goes from #27 to #23 in the Overall Sires classification) move up three places from #16 to #13.
Frankel is the only sire in the turf top ten to have gained points this week, adding ten to shore up his position as leader of both that table and the Overall Sires table, in which he has added 12 points since last week.
Elsewhere, Bob Baffert, who’s out in Saudi Arabia with two runners in the big one this Saturday, earned 28 points but couldn’t move beyond #3 in the Trainers classification, and in the owners section Godolphin stay at the #1 spot, gaining 57 points.
There was little change in the Horses top ten, though Jantar Mantar moved up one from #14 to #13 and the aforementioned Nitrogen has been lifted from #37 to #24.
Over to our resident guru James Willoughby who, as well as the USA, talks Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and the UAE...
I think the headline horse of the week is the Australian Observer, who’s progressing well and completed a Group race hat trick when he won the Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield over the weekend.
He was already a Group 1 winner and is on the verge of entering our top 50 in the Horses classification, having gone from #118 to #52, remaining one to follow.
He travels like a good horse and can either sit in front or, as he did at the weekend, sit outside the pace. He can win his races turning in, with something closing on him late, so he tends to post unflattering winning margins.
Those margins, though, disguise the depth of his talent. In the Autumn Stakes, for example, he was closed by Planet Red, who’s also a nice horse. Planet Red was forced wide and ran on well, going up to #660 (from #960) in our rankings and quietly progressing.
Observer is by Ghaiyyath, who’s all the rage down under and is now #58 from #71 in our Overall Sires classification, with plenty to come for him in Europe this year. He’s a young sire really going places.
For Observer’s part, I think he can go to the top down under and I expect him to continue making his way to the upper echelons of our rankings.
Stateside
The US Classic trials are beginning to gather momentum.
The Robert B Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita and Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, feeder races for the Santa Anita Derby and Arkansas Derby respectively, were won by two nice horses.
The Santa Anita contest went to Plutarch, in a race run slower than most workouts. It was an unusual dirt race. They crawled around Santa Anita until the pace lifted sharply leaving the back straight.
Plutarch, who runs in the colours of Michael Tabor, had to work hard to get to the front, but was a decisive winner in the end, even though it was a small winning margin. He carried his head a little bit high, but there’s no doubting his resolution.
He’s a new entry at #208 after this effort.
The more eye-catching win of the two, though, belonged to the former grass horse Silent Tactic (#241 from #1498).
He won the Southwest with an extraordinary burst of late pace, having been ridden cold by the very impressive Cristian Torres, who I always think rides Oaklawn terrifically.
Torres is #163 (up from #199) in our Jockey ratings now and I expect him to go higher.
He rode Silent Tactic in a dirt race, but in the style of a grass race, sitting right out at the back.
Turning for home, there was just a moment when you wondered whether he might’ve slightly overdone it. But he knew exactly what he was doing.
Silent Tactic cruised into contention and ran on strongly to catch the leaders inside the final furlong or so, winning comfortably by just over three lengths going away.
What he beat remains to be seen, but he did get a pretty decent performance rating.
We’ll learn more about both horses at the next level of trials, but they look reasonable contenders at this stage.
Out east and back down south
The inaugural Abu Dhabi Gold Cup had a very interesting winner, I thought.
Strauss isn’t one of the top horses in Japan, but he had the benefit of Japanese Stakes racing’s strength and depth and he’s up to #176 (from #1223).
Everything seemed to go quite well for him on the day, so I don’t know how high he can fly.
Royal Power took the Abu Dhabi Championship for Godolphin. He’s new at #295 and got 111 as a performance rating.
He looks a quietly progressive colt and was well placed by Godolphin, which found a good opportunity for him here. He won well.
In New Zealand, there was a big day at Te Rapa, with a pair of Group 1s.
Legarto won the Herbie Dyke Stakes and goes to #328 from #902 after his third top-level strike.
The BCD Group Sprint was won by First Five, who’s at #359 from #878. This was his second Group 1.
There was a Group 1 (the Gran Premio Miguel Alfredo Martínez de Hoz) in Argentina, too, won by Full Keynote, who’s at #689.
Speaking on the Nick Luck Daily podcast, Bob Baffert discussed his two Saudi Cup contenders
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