Overlapping carnivals with Morphettville and Gold Coast providing this week’s Talking Points.
The Goodwood
Reserve Bank continued his upward trajectory with a maiden Group One win, taking out The Goodwood at Morphettville.
He's run to a new peak rating at Racing & Sports, coming in at 118, up from 113 the start prior in the Tobin Bronze.
Jamie Melham opting to slice through the field rather than come wider with Giga Kick was really the difference here, and a rating of 118 is pretty solid for a recent Goodwood.
Since the race became a set weights and penalties race in 2007, the median winning rating for The Goodwood is 116, with a mean rating of 117.4, both of which Reserve Bank beats.
That list is unsurprisingly topped by Black Caviar who ran to 126 in her 2012 victory (one of the great mare's lowest rating wins, for what it's worth).
Black Heart Bart ran to 123 in 2016, as did Trekking who posted a career peak in 2020 when edging out Gytrash.
Reserve Bank matches Santa Ana Lane in 2018, noting that he then went to a much higher level at 124 in the Kingsford Smith Cup next time out. Santa also ran to 126 (VRC Sprint) and then a whopping 128 in the T J Smith later in his career.
Sir Sway in second has run to a huge new spike, coming in off a mark of 108 when winning the Manihi Classic in March, going to 113 here.
Giga Kick was the big talking point going in and the market kept him firm throughout. The ride wasn't ideal albeit easy to forecast from the wide gate, covering a stack of ground from a mile back.
That said, Reserve Bank has run faster sectionals the whole way home so there's no world in which I think he didn't deserve to win.
Giga Kick comes in at 113 on the RAS scale, which is six pounds higher than the 107 he ran first up off a year-long break last preparation. It matches what he'd run when second to the start of Imperatriz's reign in the McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley two campaigns ago.
Reserve Bank became the third three-year-old to win The Goodwood since 2007, splitting Lone Rock (119) and Royal Merchant (114) in doing so.
Lone Rock won the Bobbie Lewis in the Spring, matching his 119 rating, but was unable to score again, contesting another eight Group One races in a very strong period. He did just improve his rating to 120 when finishing 4.7 lengths adrift of Black Caviar in the 2012 Lightning Stakes, which was her equal-highest rating win at 136.
Gold Coast
A tricky day at Gold Coast with tough conditions resulting in some hugely inflated margins.
While some models may overrate these wins, it's important to keep things in context, giving less weight to the inflated margins and giving more credence to where a horse finished, which is also true when margins are compressed due to slow tempos.
Beadman spread-eagled the Ken Russell Memorial field by 8.3 lengths, running to a RAS rating of 113.
He'd promised a fair bit in two runs prior but has clearly gone to a high level here, conditions notwithstanding.
A rating of 113 in this race isn't actually the highest RAS rated winner with Sizzling going to 114, scoring by 4.5 lengths (also on heavy ground) in 2012.
Sizzling would go unbeaten over the Queensland winter, culminating with the Group 1 J J Atkins, albeit only improving his rating one pound.
From reports this morning, Beadman won't be making it through to the Atkins but it'll be interesting to see if he can back this sort of rating up on firmer going.
Perhaps the biggest pointer to Beadman's strong performance is on the clock, running faster time than the three-year-old Guineas with the same weight, even potentially accounting for the track deteriorating race-by-race.
Bosustow ran to a new peak of 112 when taking out the Gold Coast Guineas, scoring by six lengths, up from 108 when taking the Magic Millions Guineas earlier this year.
A rating of 112 is good going for this race, only bettered by El Cambio (116) and Prince Of Boom (113) in recent years.
Antino was a dominant winner of the Hollindale Stakes, matching his peak rating of 124 as a 3.5 length winner.
It's the same rating he ran when winning the Toorak Handicap by 6.5 lengths and also the Champions Mile when second to Mr Brightside.
Tests of stamina have typically seen Antino run big ratings. He's been typically thought of a miler, but I love that Gollan is stepping him over more ground this time in. He's now got three ratings of 124 and given he was only second up here, he has to be the horse to beat in the Doomben Cup.
I'd love to see him also tackle the Q22 and then look at a Caulfield Cup in the Spring. I've no doubt he'd stay a mile and a half strongly and the Queensland Winter has been an outstanding platform for that race in recent years.
