The Listed 3yo over 2100m was a fizzer in regards to proving anything regarding stamina with the Ellerslie track biased and slow. The winner Mongolian Khan led from the outset and controlled the race with only his stablemate and eventual runner up Ezra having a look across the top to the home turn. Mongolian Khan sprinted best at the 200m and left his rivals gasping with the win being his third in four starts. The only time he has missed came at G2 second up in a torrid run race when settling well back from a bad barrier. The stamina concerns are most likely not in doubt being a half brother to Young Centaur (7 wins including the G1 3200m Wellington Cup). Ezra by way of sitting second the outer got the runners up money such was the biased and wet Ellerslie track that saw an avalanche of withdrawals in the morning after it looked a turnover collapsing bog. Midnitemagicman the favourite settled down in the rear duo the outer and was a bit keen and green at times. He had no hope the way the race was run and the bias of the track so to get third was sound enough plus his rider dropped the whip in the run home. However he is still a maiden and burning bettors each run so the money has never ever been right on the lolly yet I’ll give you the tip. The other three runners did not do much with The Austrian Oak at least being third until inside the final 200m and with his size he needs more race pace. Mongolian Storm was not good enough and nor was Flavigny. The winning time of 2:18.64 is downright embarrassing and staying races at Ellerslie have become an epidemic of crawl then sprint home races for a long time now. The winner has scope and now has a tactical advantage of leading if nothing else is game enough to do so. The third finisher needs a stronger tempo or else he will keep being a money muncher that bettors will soon stop coming or swinging out of trees to back once broke and tree-less! An awful race and guide as footing wet and track biased in a small field plus the rail was out a substantial amount, which is a recipe for self-inflicted irrelevance. It was in essence a 50K track gallop for half a dozen 3yo runners at Listed level.