ALTHOUGH a noted lead-up race, yesterday's Zeditave Stakes at Caulfield did little more than further muddy the waters as far as the Australian Guineas is concerned, after an unplaced run from Caulfield Guineas winner Anacheeva and an unconvincing win from the favourite Eclair Mystic, reports The Age (www.theage.com.au).It states: Rather than being upbeat about a Guineas tilt after Eclair Mystic's sixth win from eight starts, his trainer Robert Smerdon agreed that a doubt lingered over whether th


ALTHOUGH a noted lead-up race, yesterday's Zeditave Stakes at Caulfield did little more than further muddy the waters as far as the Australian Guineas is concerned, after an unplaced run from Caulfield Guineas winner Anacheeva and an unconvincing win from the favourite Eclair Mystic, reports The Age (www.theage.com.au).

It states: Rather than being upbeat about a Guineas tilt after Eclair Mystic's sixth win from eight starts, his trainer Robert Smerdon agreed that a doubt lingered over whether the gelding would be able to run out the 1600 metres of the Guineas at Flemington in March.

''It looked all over on turning for home but he didn't have much to spare on the line,'' Smerdon said after the 1200-metre race. And, rather than being downcast after the seemingly unflattering eighth placing of Anacheeva, his trainer Peter Moody claimed the Anabaa colt ran as well as he could have in his first run back since his Caulfield Guineas win last October.

''I thought he was very good,'' Moody said. ''He made up six or seven lengths in the run home and will obviously improve as he gets out to 1400 metres next time and then to a mile in the Guineas. If he can draw a barrier next time, he can take up a more forward position, as he did in the [Caulfield] Guineas.''

The race sectionals supported Moody's thinking, as no other horse in the race could match Anacheeva's times of 22.57 seconds for his final 400 metres and 11.57s for his final 200. Just to confuse matters even further, the best run in the race was turned in by third placegetter Linked In, who was coming off a debut maiden win at Geelong.