This Prestige Steeplechase over 3900m saw the favourite Shamal just get up in a ding donger battle the run home. The track at Te Rapa as usual raced very biased towards on pacers and in the four jumps races held today all the winners either led turning for home, shared the lead or were a close second on straightening up. Shamal ran fourth in this race last year carrying 65kg but since then has won a Manawatu Steeplechase and the Prestige Grant National at Riccarton and then has come up well this time in with a win here in a lead up steeplechase. He looked thrown in today at 68kg and after racing sixth moved up third wide across the top and then challenged thereafter to the home turn. The rising 9yo slugged it out with Gagarin and only gained the upper hand narrowly with 50m to go and ended up winning by a short neck in 4:26.46 to record his seventh win from forty-one starts. He has now won five Steeplechase races and one Hurdle race and one flat race. Gagarin sat back early then improved third wide a lap out and challenged across the top before having a leaping and eyeballing war with Shamal the final 600m. This rising 11yo blinked first albeit very close to the line and came off second best but gave the favourite a real scare. Zardetto raced third early and fifth a lap out before moving into a distant third across the top chasing the two brawlers ahead and he kept coming to be beaten five lengths. The Arabian Duke was fifth mostly then into fourth the home turn and fought well for that finishing position but he needs wetter underfoot conditions. Magic Wonder was plugging on late for sixth and she definitely needs the footing slow or heavy to first keep up and secondly outswim her rivals. Max won this last year with 65kg and has not paid a dividend since. Today he settled back as usual and could not quicken on the dead ground as he too need as bog to come into his own. Thenamesbond led as usual but stopped badly once headed across the top and Just Got Home settled down last and could not stay in touch as he also needs slow or heavy ground to be competitive. Yipson raced second but was gone across the top and pulled up without clearing the final fence, as was Joking that had raced fourth early before drifting a lap out. This was not a very strong Prestige Steeplechase and once again manmade track bias played the decisive role plus many of these need much wetter and deeper footing to even get warm. Shamal is now at the mercy of the handicapper with two Prestige Steeplechase wins on his resume.