While the favourites floundered in the heavy ground, Hallowed Crown remains unbeaten after a dominant return in The Run To The Rose at Rosehill on Saturday.
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The Street Sense colt shot to the top of betting for the Golden Rose and could be set to give Bart and James Cummings their first group1 winner in a fortnight's time. The only question that remained after he careered down the centre of the track to win by three-quarters of a length from Kumaon was is he as effective on a dry track.
"Time will tell. We've had no problem with him and there's certainly no horse in our stable that can raise the bar to him on the track," co-trainer James Cummings said, answering the question.
"He's a very cool customer, which definitely helps, and that's the way we like to train, especially our colts. He's able to take it in his stride.
"He had a couple of good trials to be ready for it, but he improved from that second trial dramatically, as he did in his first preparation. He's got a great brain for racing and hopefully he gets that little bit of improvement for in a couple of weeks."
Hallowed Crown scored twice on soft ground in the autumn, including the Kindergarten Stakes on a heavy track, but the Cummings partnership decided not to push on to Brisbane. That patience has paid off.
"We gave him the time he needed," Cummings said. "I think he's still going to be better in the autumn.
"That [win] is going to be hard to improve on, but physically he's going to be better in the autumn and he'll be able to sustain more racing.
"That was the perfect way to start the preparation. He's now three from three. I'm sure he'll be the horse to beat in the Golden Rose."
Josh Parr bided his time at the back of the field but when he let Hallowed Crown go it was clear he was going to be the winner. Kumaon was game coming through on his inside but he was no match.
"I just sat back on him nice and quiet and he relaxed really well for me, which is a plus going into the high-pressure races," Parr said. "His turn of foot was brilliant. He got to the front and just wandered for a stride or two, and I had to get a little bit busy on him, but I really liked how he pulled away the last little bit.
"Usually the ones that can let down like that when they haven't travelled all that well usually are the really good ones.
"I think you can put him wherever you like [in the Golden Rose], he's that straightforward."
Favourite Nostradamus and J.J.Atkins winner Almalad could not pick up on the heavy ground after camping on the speed with the run of the race. Brenton Avdulla felt Nostradamus was the one to beat coming to the turn but soon as he asked for effort, the Hawkes Racing colt struggled, finishing seventh.
"I was the winner coming to the turn when I was on the bridle, but as soon as I asked him for effort his wheels were spinning and he went nowhere," Avdulla said.
Nostradamus had bumped Almalad out of the way to make his run but Tommy Berry was not that unhappy with Almalad even though he ran ninth of 10.
"In the last 200 metres his condition gave out and he didn't really handle the track," Berry said.
"He did a big job to finish that close under a big weight and back at level weights and at 1400m you will see a big improvement in the Rose."
Godolphin trainer John O'Shea was delighted with runner-up Kumaon and happy to see Sarajevo run into fourth despite failing to handle the ground. Sarajevo will battle to get into the Golden Rose because he is low on the order of entry. "I'm not giving up on Sarajevo just yet because history says that the field falls away," O'Shea said.
"He doesn't handle that track and over 1400m on a dry surface he is a player. Kumaon was outstanding and he has earned a crack at the Rose now and I think there is a bit of improvement there."
