The Grey Flash is undoubtedly our best sprinter to grace the Australian turf since the mighty Black Caviar retired and he more than secured that title on the weekend by taking out his third TJ Smith against the disadvantages thrown up by a heavy track that was front-runner biased, again.
According to the general public, Chautauqua’s career was over after his first up run at Caulfield when defeated by Super Cash and I Am a Star over 1100m. The majority voted that the big C’s career was over, followed by ‘See one more run’ and ‘No’ in last place. I’ve included below the videos of his past three wins a number of tweets from directly after his first up run this prep with some calling the end of his career, while some very good judges said to hold fire or even praised the run. It’s interesting reading.
Is the mighty Chautauqua finished?
— Punters.com.au (@Punters) February 11, 2017
Let’s start by looking at his last three TJ Smith wins. Going through this process has been very painful as I loaded up on Lord of the Sky in the 2016 edition at $101! That’s racing.
2017 TJ Smith Stakes
2016 TJ Smith Stakes
2015 TJ Smith Stakes
time to retire the grey donkey. #Chautauqua #shitauqua
— grant davies (@grantdavies12) February 11, 2017
Wayne Hawkes hahaha#Chautauqua
— Nick H (@nickbyname) February 11, 2017
Surely we can collectively stop pretending now … Chautauqua is gone
— Matthew Taylor (@MattyA_Taylor) February 11, 2017
It’s not the chautauqua of old at all! #theyvekilledhim 😱
— Ben (@BTMcDermott) February 11, 2017
Nope. Not the same horse. Won’t even be great again. Chautauqua. #Caulfield
— Matt (@Mattys123) February 11, 2017
Some on the other hand came at Chautauqua from a more pessimistic view. Let’s just hope Sharon loaded up on Saturday, the first time since that run that Chautauqua had T Berry on, Clockwise, WFA over the 1200m.
@HawkesRacing my 2 bobs on lovely Chautauqua. Try clockwise races again with @TommyBerry21. Still at 1200m, but not set weights/penalties.
— Sharon McKay (@WingedCharm) February 12, 2017
Talk that Chautauqua’s ‘turn of foot’ is gone implies that he had one. He’s a sustained closer off high pressure not a sit and sprint horse.
— Adam Blencowe (@NoverreMan) February 11, 2017
Chautauqua absolutely done in by the tempo, but found the line just fine 1st up. He’s always going to be a pace dependent type.
— Candice Hare (@chare889) February 11, 2017