Tasmania’s top dog looking to conquer summer series.
Durazzo stamped himself as the best horse in Tasmania with a tough victory in the Newmarket Handicap and will be a short priced favourite in the Conquering Stakes on Wednesday at Launceston.
He beat a number of key rivals last start giving away weight, running to his peak Timeform rating of 105 in the process, which was right up there with the better Newmarket winners.
Since the turn of the century, only The Inevitable (110), Royal Rambo (110) and I'm Wesley (108) have run better Timeform ratings to win the Newmarket, with the Conquering taking no more winning.
Fittingly, the best ever winner of the race on the Timeform scale is Conquering, for which the race is now named after, who ran to 110 in 2009, while The Inevitable is the only horse to run a higher rating than Durazzo's peak in recent years.
Looking at the Racing & Sports weight adjusted Timeform ratings, Durazzo's last start is eight pounds clear of his nearest rival Bank Maur, who comes over from Victoria to challenge.
Very well exposed, Bank Maur holds a peak Timeform rating of 102 in the past year on which the scale operates, however he has run as high as 113 as a three-year-old given he ran fourth in a Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m).
Typically, Bank Maur's best ratings have come fresh, which he was last start in the Cranbourne Cup.
He worked hard early there and ended up sitting outside a strong tempo, fading to be beaten 4.5 lengths and running to a Timeform rating of 97.
That won't be good enough to challenge Durazzo, who deserves to be a short priced favourite, especially given I think we can gap a fair few of the others.
Given Durazzo was backed into $1.80 to win the Newmarket, I think the same price at weight-for-age, even with the addition of Bank Maur, is very easy to take.
He draws ideally and is even better suited going to 1400m so it's not unreasonable to suggest he could improve again. We suggested after the Newmarket that he could put up a picket fence over the Summer and that streak should continue here.
