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Latest Waller filly to win Thousand Guineas compares favourably with other recent winners
One of the biggest talking points of the Spring Carnival was the decision to relocate the Thousand Guineas to the Saturday after the Champions Stakes meeting at Flemington.
The 1600-metre Group 1 for three-year-old was first run on Caulfield Cup Day, was most famous as the feature of middle day of the Melbourne Racing Club's biggest week if the year but also spent a brief period on Caulfield Guineas Day.
The big question was whether the move would be detrimental with the race often a back-up option for fillies out of the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) in Sydney or the classy types heading towards the VRC Oaks.
Champions including Alinghi, Miss Finland and Atlantic Jewel adorn the Thousand Guineas honour roll.
It would not have mattered what place on the calendar the Guineas occupied this year, it was not going to attract a filly of that calibre and the MRC was satisfied with the field of emerging stars that this year's edition attracted.
For the second year in a row the 1600-metre event was won by a Chris Waller-trained filly who posted a Timeform rating of 112.
Joliestar, a daughter of Zoustar, posted the same figure that her stablemate Madame Pommery, who is by No Nay Never, went to win last year's edition when it was run on the middle day of the Caulfield Cup Carnival.
Strengthening the case for the move not detracting from the quality of the field is that Yearning won the 2021 edition in a Timeform rating of 110, while the previous three winners – Odeum, Flit and Amphitrite – all went 113.
Victorian officials would have also been pleased to see it out-rate the Flight Stakes, which was this year won by Tropical Squall in 110.
Kimochi was an easy measuring stick for those trying to line up the two races with Gary Portelli's filly finishing second in both races. She was beaten just under a length at Randwick and finished 1-1/2 lengths astern Joliestar last Saturday.
The only other time in the past decade that the Thousand Guineas has outrated the Flight Stakes was 2015 when Stay With Me went 117 to win at Caulfield, compared to Speak Fondly's 110 Flight win.
MAGIC TIME MAKES RUPERT CLAKES STATEMENT
The Thousand Guineas was not the only Group 1 on Saturday's card that took up a new timeslot, with the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) moving from its previous September date and its winner Magic Time matched favourably with other female winners.
The daughter of Hellbent earned a rating of 115 for her one-length win under 53.5kg, the equal highest Timeform figure recorded by a female winner since Timeform assessments started being attached to the race in 1992.
The previous female winner was Sierra Sue two years earlier, who went 113, the same figure Response went in 2010, while Rewaaya, Pernod and Mannerism all ran to the same number as Magic Time.
The Grahame Begg-trained four-year-old's performance compared favourably with many of the male winners in the past decade once the four-pound mares' penalty is taken into consideration with only Jungle Cat (123), Behemoth (122) and Rebel Dane (120) rating higher than 119 since 2012.
