For the second-consecutive day Dane “The Warrior Chief” Nelson had to summon his immense jockeyship skills to secure victory for another odds-on favourite in the opening event.

Trained by Anthony Nunes, for the first of two wins on the day, lightly raced filly Versatile Vision, similar to Unbreakable the day before, was travelling third best in the final 100 metres but lasted home by margins of two fast-reducing necks.

In the day’s second event, the Shaun Williams-trained Tradition (Ruja Lahoe) increased a one-length advantage over Mr Lyndhurst in their previous meeting, over 1100 metres seven days ago, to 3 ½ lengths over 1400 metres on this occasion.

Blind Faith (Reyan Lewis) continued to show consistent form by winning the third event. Having to overcome an untidy ground-losing start, the Ian Parsard-trained filly sprinted to the front to control a slow early pace and was well rated to avoid being overtaken close to home by the strong-finishing burst of Bloodsweatandtears (Mario Chong).

In a field where the combined age of the 10 horses totalled 78 years, consistent nine-year-old Markofaprince (Romario Spencer) out-sprinted his rivals by over two lengths to win the 800-metre straight fourth race. This win gave Gregory Forsyth his third visit to the winners’ enclosure this season.

Eight maiden three-year-olds faced the starter for the 1200-metre fifth event. Curlin’s Affair — a foal of 2016 1000 Guineas winner Nuclear Affair, bred and owned by Michael Bernard — owned by 2020 champion Michros and trained by Nunes, duly confirmed his ante-post expectation with a victory to confirm a double for the stable.

Interestingly, jockey Robert Halledeen tried to show that the colt was winning easier than the diminishing margin of 1 ¼ lengths suggested. The fact of the matter is that a 1:15.4 clocking over this trip will not threaten the established Classic aspirants without exponential improvement in as short a time as possible.

The performance of Custer in the 1200-metre sixth event sparked some interest, when running heavily restrained by Shane Ellis to the top of the stretch shot clear and won by seven lengths.

The time of 1:13.2 posted by the strapping Alford Brown-conditioned five-year-old chestnut horse for this facile triumph turned out to be a full second superior to the clocking of higher category winner Awesome Treasure half an hour later in winning the 1200-metre seventh event.

Running in identical weather conditions, including similar wind strength and direction, Awesome Treasure (Tevin Foster), trained by leader Gary Subratie, won, driven out by two lengths over the same distance.

The suggestion posited by a well-known scribe that Custer could neither lead nor finish in the frame against Awesome Treasure was accepted promptly by the gathering. This betrayed their collective ignorance of handicapping to equalise form and how improvement is evaluated. In the methodology of handicapping, Custer’s form could not be equalised realistically with those he cantered over, but his performance would have to be assessed against that of the higher class to allot a competitive handicap weight at that level.

The Eighth and closing event, the 1600-metre Lloyd Lindberg “Lindy” Delapenha Memorial Trophy was won by Roy Rogers, ridden by Nicholas Hibbert in the hardest possible way. Sprinting with the pace maker for 800 metres, Roy Rogers’ gameness repelled a late threatening attack on either side by two highly competitive rivals. Favourite, 2019 Triple Crown champion Supreme Soul never looked likely to be concerned with the finish at any stage and finished 13 lengths, seventh of nine starters.

The Awards

The Training Feat Award is presented to veteran horseman Dennis Lee for the conditioning of Roy Rogers. The five-year-old grey gelding’s effort is deserving of the Best Winning Gallop accolade and Nicholas Hibbert earns his first Jockeyship Award.