1/ Until Saturday, Redzel was rightly touted as the best sprinter in the country, but all that changed when three year-old Snitzel colt Trapeze Artist went past him like he was tied to the fence to win the Group I ATC TJ Smith Stakes by a dominant two lengths.
Trapeze Artist is a homebred for successful owner/ breeder Bert Vieira and if that name sounds familiar it's because he was the man who successfully sued Randwick trainer John O'Shea back in 2012 over the purchase of a yearling that was revealed to have an x-ray issue. You can read about the case here.
Now Mr Vieira is sitting pretty as the owner of the best Snitzel colt in the country and the sky is the limit in terms of what he could be worth… but then there is the $10million Everest looming in the background.
As we've seen with Redzel, the Snitzel's just get better with age if they aren't packed off to stud, so how many times could Trapeze Artist win it? Winx has won three Cox Plates and may win a fourth!
Mr Vieira loves his racing, so studs looking to secure this colt will be paying dearly for the privilege.
2/ Golden Slipper winners at stud generally have a pretty good record, but Pierro might be about to blow all of them out of the water. With an Oaks (Pinot) and Derby winner (Levendi) in his first crop, he's doing some amazing things, just as he did on the track.
By champion racehorse and sire Lonhro from a family steeped in European staying blood, Pierro is the horse who was never bred to be a 2YO, but went through his juvenile season undefeated and claimed the Triple Crown – Golden Slipper, Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes – and made it look easy.
Think about this season's two year-olds and you'll realise just how good Pierro was!
3/ Happy Clapper has seen a lot of the backside of Winx, but when he can get away from the freakish one, he's a superstar in his own right.
Superbly trained and placed by Pat Webster, his $5.9 million in earnings make him the highest earning horse for Darley's top class shuttler Teofilo (IRE), the most successful son of the world's best sire Galileo to stand at stud in Australia.
4/ What you know and don't know. On a recent trip to New York a visit to the 9/11 museum was illuminating. Watching a video interview with an official speculating on how this could have happened he spoke of what you know.
He made the point that you know what you know and you know what you don't know. It's what you don't know, you don't know that causes the problems.
What punters did not know and didn't think they needed to know was that Newcastle trainer Benjamin Smith though he had a Group I horse in El Dorado Dreaming. It wasn't just owners wanting some tickets for The Championships, they actually though it could win the Sires Produce Stakes and it did… at $81 beating Sheikh Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum's filly Oohood.
It's results like this that take racing to another level, the day it's predictable, why would you bother.
5/ Gelagotis brothers won the Derby and how good was that! Peter and Manny love the sport and have had a red hot go, buying nice yearlings and turning them into above average racehorses.
They were in Dubai last weekend with smart sprinter Illustrious Lad, who did the best of the Aussies in the Group I Al Quoz Sprint to finish fifth and then lived the dream at Randwick to win the Derby with Levendi, who they bought at Magic Millions for $140,000.
Group I racing in Australia is an achievable dream for anyone with half an idea and the capacity to work hard and persist.
Race images Steve Hart
