There have been two further Fast Track Qualifiers – the winning of which gives an automatic berth on Finals’ Day at Lingfield Park on 25 March 2016 – since the last Timeform AW Championships blog at the start of December, and neither went the way expected.
First up was the Download the New Unibet Racing App Conditions Stakes at Wolverhampton on 05 December, in which the smart Ornate went off odds on but came unstuck behind Quatrieme Ami (pictured), who was winning his third race in a row. Further improvement from the Philip McBride-trained winner was not a great surprise, but Ornate faded into third behind Sign of The Kodiac also and clearly was not at his best. Nonetheless, Quatrieme Ami posted a handy overall time given the slower-than-normal conditions and has been credited with a 100 rating by Timeform. That would have seen him go close in the first Unibet Three-Year-Old Sprint Final back in April, but that race, along with others on the big day, promises to be even tougher to win this time. Moonrise Landing (pictured) plies her trade near the other end of the distance spectrum, but her FTQ win in the two-mile 32Red Conditions Stakes, also at Wolverhampton, on 12 December marked her down as a candidate for the same sponsor’s Marathon in March. It seems likely that neither of the Godolphin-owned pair of Anglophile and Famous Kid (who was another third-placer at odds on) ran to their very best, but Moonrise Landing beat them handsomely and increased her Timeform rating to 106, just a few pounds behind what it has taken to win on Finals’ Day previously. The best effort on the all-weather in the period under review came not in a FTQ but in a handicap on that same Wolverhampton card, however. Godolphin may have been unsuccessful later on, but it was spectacularly successful with the three-year-old Festive Fare in the Coral Handicap over an extended nine furlongs. The son of Teofilo defied a BHA mark of 103 in style, coming from behind despite just a fair gallop, and running to one of the highest Timeform ratings (115) of the AW Championships so far. Festive Fare is unbeaten in three runs on all-weather and probably better on the surface than on turf. He could well be one for the Coral Easter Classic (won by the same connections’ Tryster this year) a few months down the line. Races are won by running faster than one’s rivals, not necessarily by running as fast as possible, but running fast for a section of a race is nearly always a sign of superior ability, and sometimes of superior ability that may be missed otherwise. Timeform has used video analysis to come up with sectionals for all horses on the all-weather in recent years and the “fastest closing sectionals” of this AW Championship so far make for interesting reading.
Fastest closing sectionals by older horses on AW, 29/10/2015 to 16/12/2015 | ||||||
Course | Date | Horse | Race Dist | Sect Time | Fin Spd | Speed |
Chelmsford | 23-Nov | MEDICEAN MAN | 5.00f | 33.39s | 103.7% | 40.4 mph |
Kempton | 18-Nov | CELESTIAL PATH | 8.00f | 33.84s | 110.7% | 39.9 mph |
Lingfield | 09-Dec | AL KHAN | 7.00f | 21.80s | 108.9% | 41.3 mph |
Southwell | 12-Dec | MAPPIN TIME | 5.00f | 34.21s | 102.9% | 39.5 mph |
Wolverhampton | 28-Nov | WINSLOW | 8.64f | 22.42s | 113.3% | 40.1 mph |
Fastest closing sectionals by two-year-olds on AW, 29/10/2015 to 16/12/2015 | ||||||
Course | Date | Horse | Race Dist | Sect Time | Fin Spd | Speed |
Chelmsford | 07-Nov | CALDER PRINCE | 6.00f | 33.43s | 108.0% | 40.4 mph |
Kempton | 15-Dec | SINGYOURSONG | 8.00f | 33.84s | 112.9% | 39.9 mph |
Lingfield | 17-Nov | KUMMIYA | 8.00f | 22.25s | 110.9% | 40.4 mph |
Southwell | 24-Nov | GOOD TRIP | 7.00f | 36.63s | 104.4% | 36.9 mph |
Wolverhampton | 05-Dec | MUTAWAALY | 8.64f | 22.53s | 114.0% | 39.9 mph |