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If it wasn’t obvious to the eye, there was so much merit in the win of Creator in the TAB Clarendon Stakes (1300m) at Hawkesbury.

Punter’s Intelligence sectional data reveals the $1.5m colt did plenty of work in the run and the overall race time was superior to the two other 1300m events, including the Group 3 Crown, on the day.

After settling back Creator was asked to go before the 800m and he ran 10.85 from the 800m-600m then had to sustain it to run down Erno who had hit the front around 400m out.

He then ran 11.43 (600m-400m), 11.09 (400m-200m narrowly bettered by Bacchus) and then 11.55 home for a last 600m of 34.07.

The first 500m in the Clarendon was run in 29.12, the Hawkesbury Crown 29.83 and the benchmark 78 in 30.11 so considering Creator wasn’t far off the 1300m track record at the finish his performance is one of a very smart horse.

The Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas turned into a two horse war between Military Zone and Trope over the last 200m and it’s the latter’s effort that deserves some attention.

A solid tempo set by Kylease, who ran 34.90 for the first 600m including a 10.58 from the 1200m-1000m, aided those coming from the back but Trope still had to round up the entire field.

He clocked the fastest last 600m of 33.62 and pulled a couple of lengths off Military Zone (33.93) but just gave away too much start.

He’s threatening to win a decent race, even though he’s only had the four starts, and Trope appears to have the scope to be well above average.

There was a lot more merit in the first-up run of Aqua D’Ivina in the Hawkesbury Crown than it might look to the eye.

For some reason she couldn’t keep up early – the first 100m was 8.42 and every other runner ran between 7.61 and 7.91 – but she was doing her best work late.

The next 200m matched the leader, and winner, Irithea’s 10.99 and her last 600m of 33.93 was third fastest of the race.

She’s never won first-up, though had previously run three seconds, but is unbeaten second-up so no surprise to see her improve sharply.

It won’t be long this time in before So You Win picks up another race if his first-up effort over 1500m is anything to go by.

The gelding settled well back but powered home, running 33.95 for his last 600m – the only horse in the race to break 34 – and the fastest last 200m of 11.38.

So long as the tracks stay on the dry side he’ll break through sooner rather than later and worth noting he’s never won first-up but has won two from three second-up.

And good old Tom Melbourne did his thing running second for the 12th time and he had the honour of clocking the fastest last 600m of the Hawkesbury Cup of 34.23.

A quick look back at the two two-year-old races at Randwick on Anzac Day and we saw a pair of smart youngsters break their maiden status.

Libertini ran the faster time overall, narrowly, as the fillies went out in 34.41 while the colts and geldings, won by Reloaded, were slightly faster early in 34.35.

The last 600m by Libertini was 33.85 while Reloaded clocked 33.87 though Libertini’s last 200m was far superior (11.33 compared to 11.77). Reloaded covered slightly more ground (+9m to +6.7m).

Fastest last 600m: 32.91 Intuition

Most ground covered (to win): Military Zone +9.9m

Don’t miss Punter’s Intelligence with Gerard Middleton, Brad Davidson and Brad Gray at 7pm on Tuesdays on Sky Thoroughbred Central.

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