Again plenty of interest in the 2yo racing last week with the return of Extreme Choice in the Chairman’s Stakes and the running of the Inglis Premier. Both races had there fair share of debutants, as is the norm at this time of year.

EXTREME CHOICE

Easily the best 2yo we’ve seen in Melbourne this season, he jumped well, soon led and never looked like being beaten. He’ll go the the Blue Diamond a deserved favourite. However I’m sure he’ll not have it all his own way on the 27th February. We’ve a few more horses to see between now and then, with the Preludes run this coming weekend. Also the step up to 1200m will suit some more than others.

VALLIANO (feature image)

Very hard to make a comparison between these two races as the Chairman’s was 1000m and the Inglis Premier was 1200m. However Valliano was very workmanlike in taking out the race. The son of Equiano sat off the speed and was able to round up the leaders easily as they found the 1200m a stretch, and go on a record a strong win. It would be difficult to see him winning a Blue Diamond off that win, but he certainly deserves his chance in the race. While this was his first win, he’s had a couple of luckless run, particularly  in the Debutante back in October.

SIGNOFF

Poor old Signoff turned up at the track looking ready to race. As he entered the mounting yard, the ears went up and he looked somewhat confused. No crowd and no other horses present.

The story of his positive swab to ibuprofen, a drug he hasn’t  had for some time now, is well documented. He was scratched again Saturday for fear of another positive. He had a track gallop and a drug test afterward, to establish if exercise induced the secretion of stored ibuprofen from fat tissue.

RVL met today to discuss a solution to the problem, however as expected the status quo remains, horses can’t race with ibuprofen. There was talk of setting thresholds, having some sort of moratorium for the horses that have been treated. However neither of these solutions sits well with the desire to have horses free of medication on race day. Unfortunate as it is for those involved there was little else that the board could do today.