The Listed 1400m feature saw the easy winner last year in Longchamp defend his title albeit by a lesser margin and he was up 3.5kg. The rising 6yo had not won a race since this a year go so it showed the suspect depth of the field that he would be up 3.5kg. Longchamp sat wide handy so did it the hard way though the track was blatantly biased all day for one pacers bar one race. He took the lead at the 250m and held on gamely to win by a neck in 1:31.02 on boggy footing. It was his seventh win from twenty-two starts so his conversion rate is quite good and of course it was his second Listed success. He was third at G2 as a 3yo behind the since well performed Turn Me Loose and also he finished fourth at G1 under WFA behind Kawi in August of 2016 to show the depth in New Zealand is very mediocre at WFA. Kawi, the current highest locally rated racing NZ galloper, could not pay a dividend in three Perth starts over last Summer when beaten over three lengths and up to four and a half lengths each time against mostly runners that would get shown up badly in Melbourne or Sydney. Longchamp likes wet ground so will be on a similar path early next season as long as the ground suits his style. Nashville, a rising 9yo, stormed home late for second from well back and defied the blatant track bias and pattern to add even more merit to his performance He is a dual G1 winner but they came in February of 2014 and 2013 in small fields, so the fact he can still perform at blacktype anywhere in New Zealand says it all regards actual depth. New York Minute raced handy and fought well for a close up third as did Taurus, a rising 9yo that sat in the trail mostly and was beaten just over half a length. North And South ran on soundly down the outer for fifth from well back to defy the track bias and pattern. Admiral set the pace and was run over into sixth beaten four lengths and he has this campaign not been able to pay a dividend yet but has gone okay more than once. Art Deco the favourite disappointed after sitting midfield then being sixth across the top and while the mare boxed on for seventh beaten just over four lengths she never showed her usual wet track ping the run home. It was the first time today she had missed paying a dividend in her career. Doiknowyou and Zorrali battled away okay as did Platinum Command, while the runner outside the pace in Catwomandu wilted the run home. Mersault and He’s Cavalier were outclassed and Duffers Creek ran a shocker in what was his worst effort in years. This looks a dubious result because of the track bias and footing and is a handicap so not many of these are of genuine WFA standard for early next season onwards. Longchamp has the right racing pattern to counter blatant track bias towards on pacers, which seems to be an epidemic with New Zealand racetracks now that so many venues have not had much if any in fact meaningful work done on them for a very long time. If an old closer like Nashville can almost win this type of race then that says it all plus another rising 9yo in Taurus was a close up fourth, so where are the ranks coming through? Many of these will head to Winter Cup week at Riccarton, where a different type of bog track awaits but the venue is at least much roomier than New Plymouth.