Australian bred fillies ran first and second with the gap to third substantial. It gives Australian bred 3yo's the G1 double at Riccarton after Atlante won the 2000 Guineas last week. Australian bred fillies have won four of the last five runnings of 1000 Guineas in what is a very loud and clear message to breeders including having Katie Lee that won both Guineas in a week. Costa Viva raced one-off throughout and got the last shot down the outer at the hotpot Bounding, which was whatever way you slice and dice it a moral beaten. The ride on Costa Viva was planned and executed too a tee but the horsemanship on Bounding bordered on arrogance and massive over-confidence with a twist of fatal indecision early. Mark Du Plessis flew out at the start on Bounding with a clear lead wide but his decision to ease back as others kicked up has been the difference between winning and finishing second. Some fillies started to play up in the gates pre-start (no surprise on a hot day with mucking around loading seemingly the norm now at New Zealand meetings to squeeze that last drop of turnover) and Bounding was unloaded to be checked by the vet. She got to walk around for quite a while then got cleared and put back into the stalls last as the odds on favourite so some of her rivals were standing for an eternity in the barriers. It is possible by being vetted that may have put doubt into the mind of Du Plessis but she at least was active for a substantial amount of time rather than standing in the stalls like several for way too long. Bounding could have pressed for another 200m to get over one-off or lead as this race ended up not run as many thought. We will never know for sure but odds on runners do get some respect if they send out a definite message rather than a mixed one early. Du Plessis eased back three-wide without cover the entire race to sit fourth then fifth before striding up deeper near the home turn and hitting the lead at the 300m. The filly was a bigger sitting duck at the 200m than Donald on a barstool at Disneyland! If they ran this race a hundred times then Bounding wins 99 of them so the filly was fantastic but the ride was yet another howler at G1 in New Zealand. After the worst one this year seen by Hayden Tinsley on Survived (this horse unsurprisingly won its next start with a jockey change) this Du Plessis slaughter is a clear cut number two. This was a G1 and it matters so much more with a filly and now Bounding has finished second at this level as a juvenile and as a three-year-old. The gaps back to Spellbinder in third and Miss Foxwood in fourth were big with the former still to fill out fully and the latter may need more cushion in the ground but their time will come as both are nice fillies. Role Model, which was bought by clients pre-race to join the Gai Waterhouse stable, was a very distant fifth and looks a wet track filly so autumn may be her earning time. The rest were outclassed but it was in essence four good fillies against four others with perhaps Role Model being able to make the step up on rain-affected footing. Both the Guineas fields in 2013 lacked size and depth, which is very worrying in itself. The time of 1:35.42 was the fastest run since 2008 but in this century it is the seventh fastest so is in fact a medium clocking. The fastest time this century is Final Destination of 1:34.16 and she had size and class plus was able to win in the USA later on. Notably the Costa Viva time was over a second (six lengths) faster than the G1 2000 Guineas last week for the males (though fillies can run there if they choose). It was the second win in the race for jockey Leith Innes after the ill-fated Ad Alta in 1999. It was the second win for trainer Jason Bridgman after King’s Rose in 2010 plus he also saddled up third today. It should be noted too that last season Ruud Awakening was the top filly over Bounding (beat her at G1) but this season she has been found out in four Melbourne runs not even able to pay a dividend. Perspective required will be glaringly on display if Ruud Awakening can start winning once back into the easier New Zealand pond. Some serious downgrading is going to happen sooner rather than later with New Zealand racing and no matter how much race shifting and carnival tinkering is done a return to some realism cannot be a bad thing.