Newmarket Handicap Review

Cylinder (blue) on his way to winning the 2024 Newmarket Handicap

As the Media emphasised over and over again,  it was a stinking hot day last Saturday, fierce sunlight and a blustery wind making the conditions at Flemington pretty awful.

However, I didn’t let that put me off attending, when my current favourite racehorse, Imperatriz, was set to contest the feature race.

Racing Victoria had rejigged the time line of events with the first race being put back to 10.45 am, meaning it would not be a long afternoon trackside.

I reached Flemington around 11.45am and was in time to practice photography in the 4th race, the Group 2 Sires Produce Stakes.

Also having time on my hands I briefly visited the stalls area for a photo of Imperatriz

Imperatriz in her stall

Traffic Warden was the victor in the Sires Produce Stakes, leading from the start, beating race favourite Rue De Royale by 1.75 lengths.

Traffic Warden wins the Sires Produce Stakes

 
Rue de Royale

Race 5 was the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap and Imperatriz was the hot  favourite.

Alas, it wasn’t to be with lightweight three year old Cylinder upstaging the mare to win by 1.25 lengths. Imperatriz carried the top weight of 58kg, giving Cylinder, who carried 51.5kg an enormous advantage on weights.

Imperatriz battling up the straight overtaking race leader The Astrologist

Imperatriz returns to scale

As trains from Flemington to the city were running all afternoon and feeling the heat, I departed after the Newmarket Handicap and got home early for a change.