Sacred Star's win was so clearcut that rider Vinny Colgan had time to pose for the finish. Photo / Thinkstock
Saturday's dramatic $250,000 Berkett Telegraph at Trentham should have taught punters an important lesson.
Pressure trumps sheer ability in top-class races.
Never forget that the $27 outsider Sacred Star finished 5.2 lengths ahead of the $4 favourite Soubrettes.
The difference? Experience under pressure, having previously been put under the pump in major races.
Soubrettes hadn't raced outside the South Island in five starts.
Sacred Star had competed in one of the toughest pressure races in this part of the world, Brisbane's Stradbroke Hcp, in which he ran a magnificent fifth after coming from gate 16 and finishing 1.8 lengths from the winner in a 1400m race run in a startling 1:21.66.
That's called pressure.
Sacred Star was the hardened warrior on Saturday - Soubrettes the London debutante.
No one will remember who first said an "old dog for a hard road", but whoever it was thought deeply. Telegraph Hcps are hard roads.
Regular rider David Walsh admitted Soubrettes didn't manage the pressure well, but that's no discredit to her.
She remains a truly magnificent talent and it won't be long before she's reminding us all of that again. Inexperience is easily fixed.
If punters couldn't find a reason to support Sacred Star, they shouldn't be embarrassed - trainer Tony Pike was a long way from confident the 5-year-old could carry 57kg topweight to victory.
"I thought the race would top him off nicely for the group one 1400m sprint at Te Rapa [NRM Sprint, February 7]."
One of the tips was that Sacred Star performs well fresh - he won the BTC Cup in Brisbane in a fresh start, just before his Stradbroke run.
Sacred Star was well fancied in each of the three legs of the Hastings spring treble - he started favourite in the first leg - but raced well below his best.
"If I learned something last year it was that it's too hard to come back from a Brisbane campaign and race in the spring," said Pike.
Walsh lost no admiration for Soubrettes because of the loss.
"She travelled okay, but when she came out from behind them in the home straight she got lost, she didn't know what to do."
Stewards wanted to question Sacred Star's rider Vinny Colgan about his whip use outside the 200m, but Colgan had pressing flight constraints coming out of Wellington and the inquiry was adjourned.
Designated Driver, still eligible for R85 races, got up for second, four lengths from Sacred Star and just ahead of Trepidation and Sydney's Sam Clipperton, Durham Town and Soubrettes.
Designated Driver, at $18 a place, helped set up a $19,594 trifecta and a $31,904 First4.
Well fancied Natuzzi finished 11th and never looked a winning chance.
"He got outsprinted early and after that never got back in the race," said rider Chris Johnson.
Stablemates In Style and Tomorrowland finished 10th and 14th.
Picture perfect
*Despite carrying topweight and returning from a short break Sacred Star was too classy for his rivals in the Telegraph Hcp.
*Favourite Soubrettes showed her inexperience by finishing fifth, but still pleased jockey David Walsh.
*Punters who struck the trifecta and First4 were well rewarded.
It was Matt Dixon's biggest win as a solo trainer.