Stephen Hunt runs the post Whanganui numbers
Stephen Hunt • June 17th, 2025 5:09 PM • 5 min read
WHANGANUI
Speed Ratings
How the track played…
There were two leaders that won, with winners coming as far back as 5.7L (Procul Boy) off the leader at the 600m mark.
Winners were in lanes 3,6,10,11,11,11,11,10.
With the track rating a genuine Heavy 10, it was business as usual with the trend to get well off the fence in running and lanes 6+ on the turn and further out in the straight was best.
Ma Te Wa made it two straight wins this preparation with his 90.8 rating win. That’s a new peak for him, up from 87 in his victory over the same track and distance last start. The rising four-year-old was still drawing away from them through the line, which I always like to see, and he was doing that after racing on speed. That's a positive, although figures-wise, the last 200m was sound without being powerful, which constrains that positivity a little in my eyes. Overall, it's hard to judge his ceiling at this time of year because the opposition is so moderate and breeding certainly looks to be a drag on his potential, but there’s no doubt he’s a progressive type.
Procul Boy showed great acceleration to race away from his opposition in the R75 1200m, winning by a dominant 2 lengths. He was ideally suited racing at the back of the field in a high-pressure speed test over 1200m, where he found the superior lane in the home straight. That's not to take anything away from his win, though. What impressed me most was his pickup from the 600m to 200m mark, clocking a very fast splits and going from five lengths off the lead to hitting the front. In the coming weeks it will be interesting to see where and what race the stable target with the five-year-old gelding.
Bradman (91.2) gave Belles Beau (89) 4kg in weight, so he had a higher rating for his 0.5 length second placing when normalised to weight-for-age. The 91.2 is his best rating since early August when third in the Winter Cup, rating 95. After controlling the race at a suitable speed, Jim Chung notably increased the tempo inside the 500m mark. Though, turning for home, Belles Beau was only 1.5 lengths from Bradman and full of running. In the final 200m the extra weight took its toll on Bradman, which allowed Belle Beau to run home over the top of him.
With 53 to 54kg in a Opunake Cup, Belles Beau’s 89 rating from this race would place him around two lengths off the average Opunake Cup winner.
Who Knows was a highly impressive winner of the 2040m R75 Benchmark, powering away and turning the tables in beating McKhan by 6.3 lengths, highlighting how unlucky she was two weeks ago. Her 93 rating on Saturday significantly improved her 89.7 peak, which came at the start before. She’s now won four from thirteen starts, and while we don’t yet have a confirmation rating for this significant new peak, there’s every reason to think that she can reproduce this level of form in the future. If she does, she’ll be ideal for the feature Cups races during the Spring.
TE RAPA
Twain ran 92.5 when normalised to weight-for-age to win a slowly run Open Sprint. However, it's worth pointing out that despite the hype around him as a Foxbridge Plate prospect, his 92.5 rating is currently 2.6 lengths below the nine-year winner average for the Group 2 feature, which is 97.7. His prospects as a high-class sprinter for the future were premised entirely on his potential to continue on an upward trajectory. A 92.5 peak rating at Ellerslie in November and a 92.5 rating on Saturday show that he hasn't been able to improve at this stage. That’s not to say he won’t as it’s important to recognise that a different pace scenario on the weekend would’ve likely resulted in higher rating and remembering it was only his ninth career start. When looking back at the median number of starts for winners of the Foxbridge Plate since 2016 sitting at 17, Twain will certainly enter the race with better prospects than most to hit a new peak.
