Sangster won as expected comfortably being perhaps the best weighted runner ever in this race but never drew away from the second placed longshot El Soldado the closing 200m. The facts say this was a handicapping win rather than that of a genuine 3200m stayer plus the track being rated today at Ellerslie as a Good 3 was perhaps the biggest joke. Every single time on the day was way below standard and at least a second (six lengths) to a second and a half (nine lengths) by the end of the day. Not a drop of rain fell on the day yet a track rated a Good 3 by the six stewards on course (the Chairman and five others so enough were there) got slower and slower, which is impossible surely. Surely the alarm bells should have rung when the strongest field of the day, a G3 for mares that had multiple G1 winners and placegetters in it, ran a feeble 1:23.27 for 1400m. It is hard to dismiss and say it was just a sprint home as even then this quality of runner would still go much quicker overall and should on this supposed Good 3 rated track still have run in the 1:22’s Not every race was a dawdle on the card and not every event was for ordinary gallopers so the track was closer to dead for certain. The final event over a mile was for one-win gallopers and contained a few runners with some upside but the time of 1:37.38 is almost eight lengths slower than a standard maiden. The times all day scream dead but no downgrade eventuated and it is such a shame bettors are not being looked after completely. This same track three days later, when only 4mls of water was applied on Thursday evening, was clocking some times over two seconds faster or twelve lengths better than standard. This same track four days earlier on Derby Day, when rated also a Good 3, saw a G3 over 1200m clock 1:09.88 yet on a Good 3 rated track too on Auckland Cup Day a Ratings 85 for Gaston ran 1:11.46 (or ten lengths slower) and there is not that gap between them. The track was 100% not a Good 3 and should not be stated and maintained as fact throughout the day when the times got worse and worse despite not a single drop of rain. The Good 3 rating on each day of the carnival shows by way of times all cannot be true. A massive on pace bias the last day with the rail out 4.5m is just a manmade symptom and on decent footing gets highlighted even more. Databases should not have a Good 3 as the Cup Day rating for Ellerslie as it is simply not true (should never have been uttered as fact to bettors before a race had been run and then at least downgraded after Race Five, the strongest field on the day). Sangster after a beautiful trip behind the pace clocked 3:23.23, which since the race was moved to a midweek March date is just the fourth best in eight runnings. The jumper Titch clocked 3:17.02 to win in 2011 (same weight of 54.5kg as Sangster and same rider Opie Bosson too) and ran about thirty-eight lengths superior to Sangster. Interestingly too the likes of Pentane (3:21.52) won this on a dead track and clocked a ten length superior time to Sangster. Spin Around, a return home reject (uncompetitive anymore) from Hong Kong, won with 55.5kg and clocked 3:23.61 and would finished twentieth in the Melbourne Cup that year totally out of his depth. Opie Bosson got fined $350 for a celebratory gesture but that is not going to stop such behaviour as the suspended rider from today due to knocking some over and out the way to get into clear air did it again on Saturday. Bosson got fined $350 for that gesture when winning the G1 Diamond Stakes (allowed to ride as already had booked mounts), so I do not think an extra fifty bucks is going to send riders into a cold sweat. Soldado alarmingly never lost ground on Sangster the final 200m and two mares in Chaparrone and Savannah Rush both ran sound races for third and fourth respectively as they covered extra ground the first 1400m. The performance of the cruelly given topweight Spiro was perhaps the performance of the race as this old warhorse got the most rotten run and found slow ones ahead all the time. Spiro was near last and the widest runner turning for home but stomped home like a marvel for fifth. Remember he has not won a race for 26 months but gave 4.5kg to the winner Sangster (twice a G1 winner (once in Australia), once a winner at G2 and placed at G2 (in Australia) and Listed level all in the time that Spiro has never won a race). A lot of poor performances but when the race was a dash home you can forgive many plus of course the track was not a Good 3. Blood Brother ran on as did Ransomed but both settled too far back and the former was not of his own doing after being crowded early. A vast majority of the field could not stay 3200m and never will plus lacked the class too. It is absurd that the only G1 winner in the field (and he was a dual one when the gates crashed open) had to carry 54.5kg and that is where the suspect nature of this race must start and end regarding credibility. Sangster is still a young horse but surely will be buried with weight if he ever runs in a handicap again as he is now a triple G1 winner.