Ridden by Efrain Hernandez, the Barb Heads-trained Synergy put an emphatic three lengths of daylight between himself and a good-looking field of sophomores in the Sir Winston Churchill. Then, on Sunday, Here’s Hannah appeared to be struggling at the home turn in her allowance contest before she responded to Scott Williams’ urgings in typically gutsy fashion; wearing down the leaders and seeing off the terrific late challenge from Hastings’ Racing Club’s WARRIOR’S PROMISE (Warrior’s Reward).

And, while Hannah, who was winning for the 13th time in 16 starts, and Synergy deservedly took centre stage this week, seven other BC-bred winners ably backed them up. Pick of the supporting cast may have been the two-year-old ATLIN BAY (Harbor the Gold) who, recently moved to the Dino Condilenios barn by his owner Peter Redekop, stepped up on a promising debut last month with a scintillating gate-to-wire dash in what looked on paper to be an above average maiden event.

Atlin Bay was one of four BC-bred Hastings winners in the past week who were also graduates of the BC CTHS Yearling Sale. DEVIL OF A DEAL (Devil in Disguise), BAKKEN AND EGGS (Bakken) and the resolute AMORCITO (Finality) demonstrated once again that the CTHS Sale remains a proven source of quality winners.

This year’s CTHS sale is set for the Chilliwack Heritage Park on September 8. Catalogues are already available online, as well as via the wonderful Equineline catalogue app, and there are currently 77 yearlings slated for auction.

Training is the toughest of games. One trainer’s gain inevitably means another’s painful loss. However, Condilenios can’t have wished for a better start stewarding horses for Redekop. Atlin Bay’s win was supplemented in the nightcap on Sunday when Redekop’s well supported ANIMA (First Samurai) put the unfortunate starting gate episode in her previous start firmly in the rear-view mirror to land the odds.

The strikingly colored MOLESLEY (Pop Artist) made the most of a drop in class to win on Thursday for the Swift Thoroughbred team, setting up a hat-trick for the in-form Condilenios.

One of the inevitable consequences of condensing purse levels together is a blurring of the lines between classes - and it’s become clear this season that trying to win a bottom-level claimer at Hastings is a far from straightforward endeavor.

After all, if there’s barely any difference between a $4,000 and an $8,000 contest in terms of prize-money, trainers and owners are understandably going to point their weapons at the most hittable targets. This situation has been exacerbated by the almost total collapse of the claiming market.

Another example of just how competitive things are becoming in the $4k claiming category was the confidence boost DAT DAY (New Year’s Day) received when “dropped in” to the bottom level by his trainer Craig MacPherson. The Canyon Farms’ homebred looked like a good thing on paper, and that’s how the race unfolded, with rider Efrain Hernandez enjoying a Sunday afternoon sightseeing trip at the head of affairs.

The winner of the Jack Diamond as a juvenile, and highly-tried last season, Dat Day has been running well at the 16k level without troubling the judge, and the only real surprise about his win on Sunday was the absence of paper in the claims box that accompanied it.

A horse being “dropped in” is, of course, nothing new. However, the wider question this season is whether the narrowing of the purse bands in the bottom categories, and the subsequent “race to the bottom” it encourages, will force more modest runners elsewhere, as well as reduce the numbers of runners in other categories at a time when they are most needed.

Dat Day was a second winner of the week for MacPherson, who also struck with BONITA B (Stay Thirsty) on Thursday, while wins for the Christine Ammann-trained KICK UP THE DUST (Bodemeister) and Glen Todd’s BOUNDARY BAY (Harbor the Gold) saw both handlers move to the top of the table on 10 winners each.

The riding plaudits for the week belonged to Amadeo Perez, who notched five victories across both days, one more than Scott Williams and two more then Efrain Hernandez. There was a win, too for Silvino Morales to keep him very much in touch in the overall standings.

Racing resumes at Hastings on Thursday, with two $16k maiden special weights set to kick-off a competitive eight-race card - which incudes four bottom-level claiming events that have attracted a total of 38 entries.