While it might not be the race that stops the nation, the racing continued in Seaford on the opening day of St Kilda’s pre-season.

After checking in first thing Wednesday morning, the Saints’ first to fourth-year players were welcomed back to the club with a traditional three-kilometre time-trial around Linen House Centre.

Ed Phillips picked up where he left off last summer, setting the pace to beat home Dan McKenzie and Jack Sinclair, who fought it out to the finish line with only one second separating the pair.

Fresh from a trip together in the United States, young midfield pair Blake Acres and Jack Steele were further back in fourth in fifth spots, making an impressive start to their pre-season campaigns.

St Kilda High Performance Manager, Matt Hornsby, was pleased with the first set of times recorded for the pre-season and praised the performance of emerging key forward Paddy McCartin, after the 21-year-old made a statement on day one.

“It was a positive start to the pre-season given the targets we set for the guys were achieved, so it provides a really good foundation from day one to work from,” Hornsby told saints.com.au after the 3km time-trial on Wednesday morning.

“I think the group ran really strongly because they were helped by the fact there was a really good group up the front – there are some pretty elite runners in Ed Phillips, Jack Sinclair, Dan McKenzie, Blake Acres and Jack Steele who really set the pace.

“Some guys went above and beyond those targets like Ed Phillips at the front, as well as Paddy McCartin and Jack Billings.

“For Paddy to run a fairly significant PB is a really good indication that he continued the work he did at the back end of the season when he wasn’t able to play during the off-season – it has translated into a really strong performance today.”

After challenging seasoned endurance kings Jarryn Geary and Jack Newnes last summer, second-year midfielder Phillips impressed Hornsby with his elite endurance once again.

“He’s a very natural endurance runner with a really efficient running technique. I think he’s really just scratching the surface with what he’s capable of achieving,” Hornsby said.

“He’s laid an excellent foundation to start pre-season given the number of months we’ve still got before Round 1.”

A year after arriving at St Kilda for the first time with his foot in a moon boot, unable to train for the first few months of the pre-season, Steele got off to a much better start this time around.

“It’s great when guys like that return and train really strongly,” Hornsby said.

“He had injuries prior to coming to us last year, so he wasn’t able to get the work in in the off-season.

“But clearly he and Luke Dunstan and Blake Acres, who spent a fair bit of time away together during the off-season, have all trained really strongly and all three of those guys performed really positively.”

First to fourth-year 3km time-trial results:

1. Ed Phillips

2. Dan McKenzie

3. Jack Sinclair

4. Blake Acres

5. Jack Steele