Racing: Aussie sprinter confirms past lessons

Cellarmaster (left) provides one of many highlights by winning the Eclipse Stakes on New Year's Day. Photo / Dean Purcell

No point in a carnival if you can't learn something from it.

We saw and learned a lot from three days at Ellerslie.

* We learned, well, had confirmed, that Australian sprinters are superior to ours. A Gold Trail overcame a tough barrier and a track that is not always an ideal leaders' circuit at the top levels to win the Blandford Lodge Railway.

A Gold Trail won because he had the tactical speed the local sprinters don't find. Even the second-tier Aussie, Kiloton, managed to finish fourth.

The Railway has set the scene for a fascinating Telegraph at Trentham.

* That heart and attitude are as much, and probably more, the answer to a great racehorse as simply sheer talent. Katie Lee proves that.

Yes, she was beaten in the Royal Stakes on Friday, but it probably wasn't her fault. She never stopped trying and lost none of her mana.

* That the same level of heart is important in horsemen, too. Trevor McKee has turned $24,000 into around half a million by simply retaining the ownership of Adaline, when the stable owner who commissioned her salesground purchase backed down.

McKee reckons that has happened 20 to 25 times and, be assured, he's well ahead of the ledger. Adaline is a long way from finished making that ledger overbalanced one side, in fact, she's only just getting started.

* That horses come from anywhere. Wealth Princess proves it. She's a freakish, unbeaten sprinter and who could have guessed?

Also that anyone can get a very good horse. Jon Miller is a part-time horseman and Dasoudi is starting to do a massive job for him. Long may it continue that any of us can own the world's next best horse.

* That summer racing is summer racing and no matter what racing clubs attempt, very firm tracks are at times an inevitability. And so are horses with legs that have felt those tracks.

Yes, Ellerslie jarred some horses up in varying degrees on Boxing Day - some of them very significant horses - and tough as that can be, it's a whole lot better than the over-watering of summer tracks we used to see until recently.

Common sense has finally prevailed in that area.

* That there is a stack of 2-year-old talent out there and the exciting element is that so much of it is still a fair way off full development.

* That if you ride for luck it takes guts, but sometimes, just sometimes, it pays off. La Etoile and Craig Grylls are an example in the $100,000 Rich Hill Stakes.

* Horses to stay with: Tell A Tale, Pure Cruising, Benabar, Walkonby, Zarzuela, Dancing Tess, November Rain, Banshee and plenty of others.