The Big O is back in town: Overpass shoots away with second Winterbottom Stakes and fourth Ascot feature

Dynamite speedster Overpass upheld the claim of being Ascot’s undisputed sprinting king, clinching his fourth feature from as many runs at the circuit and his second Group 1 $1.5 million MCA Polytrack Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) in successive years. Despite being unable to lead, jockey Josh Parr sent Overpass ($3.30 TABtouch) forward from the outsider barrier (16) to sit outside firecracker pacemaker Bravo Centurion ($14). With 400m to go, the Sydney galloper collared and conquered the early front-runner to blast to the front and set up a three-length break before holding on to win by just under a length from fellow raider Maharba ($9.50) and enduring veteran Hot Zed ($126). Parr lauded the six-year-old, who added another Winterbottom trophy to his pair of Quokka wins from the past two season at Perth’s premier racecourse. “The horse needs all the credit for this. He keeps showing up and performing for us. He’s just an absolute marvel and I adore him,” Parr said. “As I’ve said before, he’s such an easy horse to trust. We can bang him out of the barriers, put him on speed, he travels, and he lets go. “This track is actually perfect for him. Obviously, the shortish straight, really well cambered corner, and I must say this track today, it’s absolute perfection. “You see the times they’re running, that’s a suggestion of just really good ground. It’s nice and firm and quick, but it’s absolutely perfection, so well done to the team here.” Parr was surprised that the son of Vancouver lacked some of his usual early alacrity, yet the race played out ideally in any case. “Interestingly, Overpass’ usual barrier speed, the only thing that concerned me about the set up was if I jumped half a length in front of Bravo Centurion and just how it panned out from that position,” Parr said. “However, Overpass just scrambled slightly out of the barrier and it put us on the back foot, so I needed that cart across after that happening to obtain the position and then get a hold of him. “Once that played out, it actually worked out perfectly. I know there were tactics thrown around here, there, and everywhere all week. “There was a stable suggesting the only thing they were interested in was drawing inside of Overpass and all this nonsense, and he just turned up here and smashed them again.” In what has become a customary idiosyncrasy, Overpass lugged out to the middle of the track over the late stages, but it didn’t halt his momentum as he sizzled up the home straight. “He doesn’t particularly do that anywhere else and I don’t allow him to do that anywhere else. He gets to about the 500m point here, really lifts up underneath me and starts to tow me into the race,” Parr said. “You see him going by the leader, like he’s full of running at that point, and just drifts out and then reaches his top speed, so I don’t dare get in his way, put it that way.” The prospect of plundering more of WA riches to smuggle back to NSW shores hasn’t ended either, with Overpass already the $3.40 favourite for next year’s The Quokka. Trainer Bjorn Baker had a day to remember, taking the Eastern States’ feature event of the afternoon in the Group 2 $750,000 Quayclean Zipping Classic (2400m) at Caulfield with Arapaho. “I’m lucky enough to stand here and talk to you and cheer and celebrate, but the hard work that Bobbie (strapper) and the team put in at home is just remarkable,” Parr said. “Bjorn is a magnificent trainer preparing this horse, he’s got the absolute right key to it. He got a big winner at Caulfield today and he did remind me of that pre-race. I said ‘listen, I’ll take care of the Group 1’. That gazumps the Caulfield winner.” Baker stopped short of publicly stamping his star sprinter a champion, though that might be true in the leading trainer’s eyes. “He’s might not be a champion, but he’s our champion,” Baker said. “He got a lot of pressure today and I was worried about the barrier, but he’s so good here and he’s a super horse.” That pressure arose when horses like Boots Like Bruce ($101), Snowdome ($61) and Almighty Class ($26) rushed forward at the start, meaning Overpass had to work harder than some expected to find the position outside the leader. As Overpass moved to take Bravo Centurion on the bend, the well-tried Lady Laguna ($4.20) extricated from the heels of the front pair and looked a serious chance to break hoop James McDonald’s WA hoodoo. But her run soon emptied and Overpass left rivals in his turbulence, with Maharba scything through traffic from near last on the home turn to scream into a somewhat unlucky second place, picking off noble seven-year-old Hot Zed in the dying stages. Western Empire ($4.40), who was the most strongly supported runner through the week, was hampered at the 300m mark before running on fairly to finish ninth.