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By Brad Gray
At Royal Randwick

How Did The Autumn Sun Do That?
That was the question punters were left asking themselves after The Autumn Sun came from the clouds to prevail in stunning fashion in the G1 Randwick Guineas.

The Autumn Sun (Pic: Steve Hart)

Punters Intelligence goes some way to answering that question. It reveals that The Autumn Sun, was at one point, spotting Miss Fabulass a whopping 33.3m. At the 150m mark he was still 10m behind Fundamentalist.

Miss Fabulass recorded a lightning 57.71s first 1000m. To put that in some context, albeit across different meetings, it was nearly four lengths faster than Happy Clapper went for the first 1000m in the Chipping Norton against Winx.

The Autumn Sun started to click through his gears but it was only the last 400m he really asserted his dominance. His 600-400m split of 11.42s ranked just sixth fastest in the race. His 400-200m however was 11.01s and his last 200m 11.51s. That was five lengths quicker than Fundamentalist.

New Zealander Madison County has run out of his skin, producing a last 600m of 34.16s (compared to The Autumn Sun's 33.94s) and a last 200m of 11.55s. Madison County  will now head to the Rosehill Guineas.

Does The Slipper Fit Tenley or Yes Yes Yes?
TAB Fixed Odds can't split Tenley or Yes Yes Yes at $6 and on figures, it's hard to argue with that assessment.

Tenley in the Riesling ran 1:08.34s compared to Yes Yes Yes clocking 1:08.40s in the Todman. Tenley's last 600m was 32.99s compared to 33.04s for Yes Yes Yes. They were both similarly run races in the early stages and both have the same racing style.

What is certain is that they were head and shoulders above their respective rivals. Punters Intelligence further highlights that Tenley's last 600m was 3.5L quicker than the next best in the race (Anaheed's 33.57s). Yes Yes Yes was three lengths better than Dubious (33.53s) which ranked second.

Every Golden Slipper winner since 2011 has run on this day, so history is on their side too.

Yes Yes Yes hadn't run since late December so perhaps he's got more improvement? Splitting hairs.

Yes Yes Yes is now equal favourite with Tenley for the Golden Slipper with @tabcomau.

Impressive! pic.twitter.com/qmuLE8HZgN

— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) March 9, 2019

Spright Plays Bride
Winter Bride smashed the clock in taking out the Winona Girl Quality, and it was all in the closing splits. The official time was 1:07.73, just two lengths off Santa Ana Lane's track record of 1:07.45.

Winter Bride and Spright at Randwick (Pic: Steve Hart)

After Za Zi Ba set the pace of 34.71s for the first 600m, which is about bang on average, the closers really came hard. None came home quicker than Spright though, running a lightening 32.12s last 600m. She broke 11s for five consecutive splits from the 1000m home.

Winter Bride clocked 32.31s herself for the last 600m.

“These mares get better as they get older," said Winter Bride's trainer Toby Edmonds, "She took a while to mature. She was quite weak if I can say that early in her career but ridden patiently and Tom (Berry) rode her beautifully. I was a bit concerned with the 58kg as an anchor but she is so game and tenacious.”

Kerrin McEvoy said of Spright, “She ran well, the winner was just up and running and got first run on us. It wasn’t as hectic a speed as last start, but she ran on as well as she could.”

Berry Gushes Over Trope
Prophet's Thumb won the Fireball Stakes (1100m) for David Pfieffer and Jason Collett but there was no bigger smile coming back to scale than Tommy Berry's.

Jockey Tommy Berry (Pic: Steve Hart).

Berry rode the second placed Trope. The Randwick 1100m track record was smashed to smithereens, 1:01.67, beating Redzel's previous mark of 1:01.83.

"It's hard not to get excited about it, he's a serious horse," said Berry, "He just doesn't show that tactical brilliance yet but it feels like he'll run a mile. He'll get there."

Punters Intelligence reveals Trope's last 600m was 32.15s, with a last 200m of 11.01s. Prophet's Thumb clocked 32.38s and 11.16s. Trope covered an extra 4.4m in the run (1107.2m).

It was a big push in itself that Berry stuck with Trope having ridden Baller to victory first up.

Check out the replays and results for Randwick on Saturday.