Racing
Pinnacles Pointers - Key stats leading into week 3
Racing and Sports take a look at some of the key statistics surrounding Western Australia’s exciting new look racing carnival – The Pinnacles.
In week three of The Pinnacles we are treated to the running of the time-honoured Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes.
Run under Weight For Age conditions over 1200m, the short distance feature has for many years attracted some of the country's top tier sprinters. Since becoming a Group 1 in 2010, the race has crowned elite horses champions. Some of the names atop of the list include multiple Winterbottom Stakes winner Buffering ('13,'15), and Ortensia in 2011 before she went on her overseas tear.
With history showing that interstate horses have won 9 of the last 14 runnings of the Winterbottom Stakes, in this week's edition of Pinnacle Pointers we wanted to dig a little deep into how exactly the 'Eastern Raiders' fair when opting to make the odyssey west to take on the hometown heroes.
While some may consider the following a cherry-picked stat, we believe the best point of comparison to analyse the Winterbottom success of WA runners Vs. eastern brigade, is to run our eye over the two primary lead up events in Perth and Melbourne - The Colonel Reeves Stakes (1100m) and the Champions Sprint (1200m).
Focusing on the WA contingent first, since 2000 92 runners have taken the path of The Colonel Reeves into the Winterbottom Stakes. From the 92 only 3 have saluted – just better than half of what the market expected. What is also worth noting is that last year's winner Graceful Girl does carry an asterisk beside her victory - with no interstate runners partaking in last year's edition due to COVID restrictions.
In comparison, since the beginning of this century 13 runners have come through the Champions Sprint for 2 winners – also sitting around half the wins of market expectation. Both of these triumphs belong to the highly accomplished Buffering.
Another successful Victorian lead up race in recent years has been the Manikato Stakes. Winterbottom winners such as Buffering, Hey Doc ('19), Voodoo Lad ('18) and Viddora ('17) have all either won or run in the race before going on to win the Perth feature.
An anomaly out of recent winners sits Miss Andretti, with the Lee Freedman-trained champion the only runner since 2000 to win the Winterbottom ('05) first before tasting success in the Manikato ('06) and Champions Sprint ('07).
Now for a verdict on this weekend's edition.
Having run my over the stats and key lead ups for this weekend's Winterbottom Stakes, I can't help but keep landing on the Queenslander Rothfire.
Trained by same man who has already tasted heavy success across the Nullarbor with his champ Buffering, the Robert Heathcote-trained five-year-old profiles perfectly for Saturday's Group 1.
With a placing in the Manikato and a midfield finish in the Champions Sprint, if Rothfire is anywhere near his best come the weekend Robert Heathcote will become a three-time Winterbottom Stakes winning trainer.
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