No match for Patriarch’s pace on Saturday

LIGHTNING-fast PATRIARCH should pull another disappearing act on the usual suspects, the three newcomers won't make a difference, going the exact distance, with less weight, in the open allowance on Saturday.

Ridden by Robert Halledeen and carrying 126lb, two Saturdays ago, PATRIARCH defied topweight to wire a closing CHACE THE GREAT; an outsped UNIVERSAL BOSS; early pursuer, FATHER PATRICK; and outclassed PRINCE CHARLES, to stamp his claim as the quickest horse at the park, winning by a half-length in warp-speed time of 1:04.4.

Truth be told, none of CHACE THE GREAT, UNIVERSAL BOSS, FATHER PATRICK or PRINCE CHARLES ran bad races, PATRIARCH simply had no matching speed to test his opening quarter of 22.3 and a crippling 45.0, on an already fast track, which had him two-and-a-half lengths clear a furlong out.

There is absolutely no reason to question whether trainer Fitzgerald Richards will present PATRIARCH in the same form. Richards' intentions are absolutely clear, summoning claiming apprentice, Oshane Nugent, who, in reality, is a veteran at the track, to clip seven pounds off the 126 PATRIARCH had carried with Halledeen.

It will be catch-me-if-you-can once again, which will be highly unlikely with memories of Halledeen motionless in the saddle with topweight, cutting into the lane four lengths clear of a ridden FATHER PATRICK, who simply gave up the chase inside the final half-furlong where he was relegated by CHACE THE GREAT.

Newcomers to the class, ACTION RUN and CRYPTOCURRENCY, at 111 and 115lb, respectively, are too close in the handicaps to PATRIARCH's 119lb to even be considered threats. Neither has a clue to a 45.0 split and won't know what hit them for the first half-mile.

Wayne DaCosta's top handicapper from last season, United States-bred STRANGER DANGER, returns off a nine-month lay-up, labouring at exercise, and is best left alone until he regains some semblance of form.

However, DaCosta should wrap a three-timer with TOMOHAWK closing the 11-race card in the I'msatisfied Trophy at nine furlongs and 25 yards. TOMOHAWK has had the measure of his only possible threat, MONEY MONSTER, at two and three years old, and has four runs under his girth off the COVID-19 lay-up, including a fourth-place finish in the 2000 Guineas.

SWEET TOPPINS should be a lonely winner for the former 18-time champion trainer and his two-year-old debutant, DEN STREET (Northern Giant-All For Pleasure), got the better of ROJORN DI PILOT at exercise recently and was only a length behind LOOSE BALL on the round course, clocking 1:00.0 for a five-furlong gallop.