KEY POINTS:
Sircross put his hands up yesterday for some dollars in the $150,000 Great Northern Guineas when he sprinted impressively in the closing stages of the Guineas Trial.
While clearly pleased with the win, trainer Richard Collett was keen to put it in perspective.
"He's got better ringcraft than those other horses," was Collett's modest summation.
Sircross was having his 12th race start, whereas most of the opposition had only half that amount of experience and a number had two and three previous outings.
The ability to settle in running in these early 3-year-old staying races is the key to success.
Sircross has previously had a reputation for racing a bit fiercely, but had been settling better.
Rider Leith Innes thought he was in trouble early.
"He jumped out and got really skittled and I thought, 'Oh no, how am I going to get him to settle'?
"It turned out he wasn't as bad as I thought."
When Innes asked Sircross to sprint early in the home straight the immediate response was stylish.
Sircross got past the pacemaker, Twoeezy, halfway down the running and didn't have to be punished to win.
The siren sounded to investigate the winner ducking in for the last few strides closing the gap between it and Twoeezy through which the faster-finishing Kaatoon was aiming at.
The protest was withdrawn when it was obvious the winner had not cost Kaatoon second place.
"He's quite a mature, strong horse for a 3-year-old at this time of year," said Richard Collett.
Azincourt made a fair fist of his first middle distance in finishing fourth, but his effort late lacked the same dash as a couple of his starts.
Keepabit made a reasonable fist of his first trip past 1600m, trailing the leader then battling back late.
