Some gallopers excel on sharp tight turning tracks, their balance and nimbleness making them the perfect conveyance for such circuits.

Others need a flat, expansive, galloping environment where they can get balanced, straighten up and then stretch their legs.

Darren Weir's Palentino very definitely falls into the second category and his affection for the wide open spaces of Flemington was demonstrated again in perfect fashion in Saturday's Group Two Blamey Stakes.

Its not that he is not competitive anywhere else - he has, after all, run fourth in group 1 contests at Moonee Valley and Caulfield already this preparation, both over distances short of his best, in the 1200m Australia Stakes and the 1400m CF Orr Stakes respectively.

But give Palentino 1600m and Flemington, and it's a combination made in heaven.

The form book suggested that, on weights and measures, he had no hope of beating stablemate Tosen Stardom in the group 2 Blamey Stakes. He had finished two lengths behind his stablemate at Caulfield last time when Palentino was only sixth in the Futurity Stakes, with both horses carrying 59 kilograms.

In the Blamey, Palentino had to give Tosen Stardom four kilos, which, on weights and measures, should have been worth some eight lengths over that distance.

That is why Tosen Stardom and apprentice Ben Allen went off as the $1.65 favourite and Palentino, with regular rider Mark Zahra in the saddle, started at $5.50.

But horses don't read the form guide, and they certainly pay no attention to the betting market.

Tosen Stardom was in the first two throughout as Sir Isaac Newton cut out the running, but he had no answer to Palentino as Zahra straightened him up, got balanced and galloped away to win by an easy three and a quarter lengths, with Weir's other runner, the staying mare Real Love, running on to finish fourth, just behind David Hayes French import Harlem.

Palentino is now an attractive stallion proposition - Sun Bloodstock invested heavily to buy into him after his Guineas win - and there will be a temptation to cash in and put him to stud soon.

But Weir, for whom Palentino was a 100th metropolitan winner of the season, may now add the four-year-old to his small but select team being prepared for Sydney's big money tests during The Championships over the next month, with The Doncaster as his likely target.

"Things just haven't been going ideal, he's been doing a lot of things wrong, today he did everything perfect, he got in the right spot, he got the right tempo, so everything worked out well.

"He's got an amazing turn of foot when everything goes well. But he's his own worst enemy at times."

Weir counselled punters not to drop off Tosen Stardom, who was only having his second run in six months.

"The second horse has still got a lot to come, I certainly wouldn't be dropping off him, he's a proper horse. Real Love ran her normal honest race. Tosen was probably going up and down in the one spot late, but he will come on from that.

"Tosen and Real Love are on Sydney programmes and he will head to the Doncaster. There is a group 1 mile race in Sydney for Real Love and the Doomben Cup."

Big Duke, who scored in the first race in Sydney on Saturday on protest to give Weir his first ever winner in the NSW capital, will head back to Randwick for a Sydney Cup lead up race, Weir said, while Raw Impulse has had a setback and will not travel north now.

Last week's Australian Cup winner Humidor will head to Sydney next weekend to tackle the 2400m The BMW while Zasorceress, a narrow second at Flemington last weekend, will also target a 2000m event.

Stable star Black Heart Bart sustained a minor injury which kept him from running in the Blamey but he will have a short break and then head to Adelaide to try to win a second successive Goodwood, SA's top sprint race which is now worth $1 million.

Lee Freedman sprang a surprise in Sydney with Our Ivanhowe in the Group One Ranvet Stakes, but his two-year-old filly Shoals, the $2.70 favourite, was a much more predictable winner of the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes, also ridden by Zahra. She too now heads to Sydney for the Percy Sykes Stakes.

Udyta Clarke only trains half a dozen horses at Cranbourne, but one of them, Rich Jack, is a very handy performer, as he proved when scoring in the 1200m York Racecourse Handicap under Patrick Moloney.

Scott Brunton has shown often before that good Tasmanian gallopers can cut the mustard on the mainland and he did so again with Hellova Street, who scored in the listed Goodwood Racecourse March Stakes.