The Listed 1200m had four early scratching and all were natural on pacers so the race lost loads of speed and lustre. Just ten runners started and saw the favourite and leader Passing Shot get home by a short head in 1:09.32. Earlier in the day a lowly Ratings 65 went to a runner, which had just won his maiden prior, in 1:10.06 (about four and a half lengths inferior) to give you a more visual time comparison idea. Passing Shot had an uncontested lead and that made all the difference the closing stages as he repelled a stern surge from a fresh up 4yo mare that had come over from Australia to a New Zealand stable. He was winning his ninth race in twenty-four starts and is an out and out sprinter. The 4yo has not shown so far to be at G1 level locally but the ranks are thin at the moment so next season he could make a more serious top shelf play over summer. Miss Denni had been running in Benchmark 77 or lower in Sydney and resumed in this to almost win showing clearly the gap in depth between Australia and New Zealand. The 4yo mare sat fourth the outer then unleashed very quickly to look like the winner at the 200m and 100m but could not quite pass the male of the same age. Bonniegirl ran on well too for third and this 4yo mare gained some invaluable blacktype so has it all ahead. Speech Craft got going well late for fourth while Natuzzi (60kg) was warming up far too late down the outer for fifth after settling down last. Procurement found her 56kg too harsh and Barbaric had a wide run back under 58kg so never looked likely. The big flop was Silver Eclipse (55.5kg) and she never let go the run home at all. There will be local form out of this for sure as many of these go around in the sprinter-miler categories each and every season. Once again the biggest tick given is with the first three home all being 4yo gallopers so they still have scope.