It was a winter carnival of old in 2021 with the unearthing of several genuine contenders for the biggest upcoming races in the Spring.
Zaaki and Incentivise were two memorable performers with dominant victories, resulting in them being favourites in futures markets for the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup.
Seeing both of these geldings absolutely blitz their opposition by more than nine lengths got us thinking about some other huge wins we’ve seen in the past.
Here’s some cracking examples.
Yucatan
This horse showed his raw ability in his first ever run in Australia during the 2018 edition of the Herbert Power Stakes.
James McDonald was in the saddle and was sitting 3 wide the trip with no cover, before taking off at the 600m.
Well the big fella just kept on running before being eased down at the last 100m to win by a length.
It could have been 10 lengths easily but the horse was virtually walking in over the last 50m.
Unfortunately that was the only success Yucatan had in Australia, he started as the $6 favourite in the Melbourne Cup at his next start, finishing 11th.
Black Caviar
Winning by more than five lengths over a 1000m sprint is dominant.
Compounding that with a genuine Group quality field and doing it all over again 12 months later means you need to be a pretty special horse.
Black Caviar was special all right.
This undefeated sprinting superstar won the Moir Stakes in 2010 and 2011 in dominant displays, never looking like losing.
Check out the footage below for her 2010 victory – crushed them.
The Autumn Sun
A real favourite of ours at On the Drift, as he probably is for a lot of readers, The Autumn Sun’s short-lived career wasn’t short of amazing wins.
His come from behind victory in the 2019 Randwick Guineas is one of the best performances in recent memory.
But in terms of sheer dominance, nothing compares to his Caulfied Guineas win.
Despite starting at $1.70, there was a fair whack of late money for horses Native Soldier and Oohood.
Those punters may as well have flushed their tickets down the toilet.
The Autumn Sun cruised to the front in time for the last furlong to go on and win by 5 lengths. He wasn’t even touched by his jockey, JMac.
Hartnell
The old war horse Hartnell is one of my favourites.
He put in at every single start and was incredibly versatile, winning from 1400m right up to 3200m.
He was arguably the most in-form horse in the country during the Spring of 2016, as he strung together an 8 length victory in the Chelmsford Stakes in Sydney
He followed that with a 6 length victory in the Hill Stakes at Randwick, capped off with a 3 length victory in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes, beating home Jameka!
He started around a similar quote at his next start in the Cox Plate, where he was beaten by 8 lengths by a handy mare called Winx.
Winx
It’s a blitz! A Winx blitz! This list wouldn’t be complete without arguably her greatest victory in the 2016 edition of the Cox Plate. From memory, the bookies had her about even odds that day…a price we would never see again for the GOAT.
There was a lot of talk surrounding Hartnell leading into the race and how he was a real live chance.
As we just outlined, you can’t blame the hype after the prep he was having.
But if you had Winx that day you were counting your cash as soon as she hit the front.
What a special win.