Timefigure analysis of all the action from Royal Ascot

Long regarded in Britain as a sport reluctant to embrace educational and illuminating new data, horse racing has thankfully made great strides to right that wrong in recent years with Ireland now on board the informational push too.

That’s not to say everything in the data garden is rosy – British racing still lacks some of the basic information freely available in other jurisdictions around the world such as raceday horse weights (which have always been an intrinsic part of raceday information in greyhound racing – at least at the tracks itself if not available elsewhere until much later) results of barrier trials or schooling races or times recorded by the horses entered at Breeze-Up sales.

However, the estate is much less bare than it once was. There’s no shortage of timing data available online nowadays and any inquisitive newcomer to the sport fascinated by the myriad statistics available in other sports such as golf of baseball has plenty to get stuck into with detailed guidelines on how to interpret it freely available too.

All bar two of the results from Ascot last week had comprehensive published timing data and I’ll go through the meeting day-by0day highlighting the best of the action, not just from an overall timing perspective but picking out some of the fastest performers on the day on bare sectionals for those who prefer that simpler approach.

Clock backs up Rosallion display

From a functional perspective the meeting didn’t get off to the most promising start on Tuesday with on-screen data showing the runners in the both the opening Queen Anne and the King Charles III hitting non-sensical speeds of 50 miles per hour – a five-furlong sprinter covering Epsom’s downhill five furlongs, the fastest in the world, in 55 seconds would only be averaging around 40 miles per hour, for example – but the timing mechanism was on its best behaviour for the intervening Coventry and continued without a hitch for the remainder of the meeting.

I wrote before the meeting about how I thought the British juveniles were better than the French but the Irish were better than the British. However, what I should have said more accurately, in hindsight, was that while the French were clearly inferior to the British, the best of the Irish youngsters had recorded better timefigures (and by some way, too) than the best of the British.

Despite providing both the favourite Camille Pissarro and second favourite Cowardofthecounty in the Coventry, the Irish found the home contingent too hot to handle with the unlucky Chester runner-up Rashabar getting the better of two expensively-bought Wathnan breeze-up purchases with Cowardofthecounty never a threat in seventh and Camille Pissarro only 11th, albeit second behind Rashabar in his group.

The winner might have been 80/1 but while there was no fluke about his win in a well-run race, a 92 timefigure is very low by historical standards with only CD Europe in 2000 achieving less. I wouldn’t be giving up on Cowardofthecounty just yet, however, or even sixth-placed Symbol Of Honour.

According to the stride length data available on the Attheraces website, theirs were much longer than any of their rivals with Cowardofthecounty coming in a mighty 25.79 feet (the longest by a two-year-old all week) and both left the impression that seven furlongs on ground as fast as it was last week will be more up their street, while eighth-placed Star Anthem (who’d finished second at Newbury on his debut when Rashabar had finished third) ran the fastest last furlong and is another worth keeping onside.

Charyn did best judged on headline timefigures with his 122 in the Queen Anne just missing out on the top five in the race this century but throw sectionals into the mix and St James’s Place winner Rosallion tops the pile.

A 113 timefigure is pretty middling viewed in historical terms but a 10lb upgrade from the three-furlong marker elevates that figure to 123, 4lb more than he managed at Newmarket in the 2000 Guineas using the same metric, yet even that figure undercooks him given he ran the fastest last two furlongs of any winner all week and was the only winner to dip under (and by some way, too) 12 seconds for the last furlong. Using those figures and not those from three furlongs out, I’d suggest he’s probably worth 128 or so which puts him in and amongst the best milers his yard have had. The enigmatic Israr made the most of a drop in class in the Wolferton, scoring in a smart 119 which is right up there with his best, while Australian challenger Asfoora posed a 115 in the King Charles after Big Evs had overdone things in front.

Auguste the Wednesday star

What transpired in the Coventry pretty much repeated itself in the Queen Mary the following day with four big-priced horses in the frame only this time Wathnan provided the winner with another of their big-money breeze-up purchases as Leovanni readily got the better of the very cheaply-bought (by comparison) Mighty Eriu from the Gavin Cromwell yard.

Once again the winning timefigure wasn’t high by historical standards, just 93, a far cry from the 127 Lady Aurelia posted when the once-feared but now increasingly marginal Wesley Ward (whose challenger this year Ultima Grace would have been better off running in the Albany looking at her stride data) was in his pomp. If there was a horse who was a bit better than the result it was surely third-placed Maw Lam who met trouble before running the second-fastest last furlong of the week from what looked a modest draw.

Leovanni’s time didn’t compare particularly well with the one Ain’t Nobody posted in the Windsor Castle for which he earned a 103 timefigure after running each of the last two furlongs fastest of all to get the better of the American-trained runner-up Gabaldon but it may well be conditions were speeding up as the day went on.

For all Ain’t Nobody’s timefigure was up to scratch, it wasn’t a day where any of the winners other than Auguste Rodin (118) scored highly. The Prince of Wales’s was well run courtesy of pacemakers for both himself and the disappointing French raider Blue Rose Cen for whom a change of trainer has backfired, but it looked briefly as if the prize might go to France anyway when my fancy Horizon Dore was launched with his challenge. However, a mile and a quarter in top company just stretches him on a stiff course and he was passed late on by compatriot Zarakem who ran the fastest final two furlongs from too far back.

Indeed, horses running each of the last two furlongs fastest of all without winning was the feature of the day on the round course, proving how crucial a good position is on the home turn, with third-placed Birdman doing the same behind Illinois (104 timefigure) in the Queen’s Vase and runner-up Laurel repeating the feat in the Duke Of Cambridge behind her cutely-ridden stable-companion Running Lion. An 11.29 penultimate furlong from Laurel was only 0.02 seconds slower than Rosallion had managed the previous day and there wasn’t a bigger eyecatcher on the day.

Sonny Liston also ran the fastest last two furlongs in the Hunt Cup but couldn’t quite peg back the more prominently-ridden Wild Tiger (106) but Doha bucked that abortive last-two furlong trend and provided some consolation for his trainer Ralph Beckett in the Kensington Palace to get up in a 104 timefigure.

English Oak posts Thursday’s top figure

If Wednesday was a slightly underwhelming day so long as headline figures were concerned, Thursday was even more so with the top figure of the day – just 110 – posted by Wathnan-owned English Oak in the concluding Buckingham Palace Handicap, a race in which the placed horses came home faster than he did from the two furlong marker but were either ridden too far back, encountered trouble in running, or, in Carrytheone’s case, both.

Gold Cup winner Kyprios wasn’t far behind English Oak, posting a 109 as he saw off Trawlerman while Port Fairy (108) took her form to a new level in a first-time visor when causing something of a surprise in the Ribblesdale despite running three of the last four furlongs slower than the filly that chased her home, Lava Stream. Yet another horse who took the honours on the fastest individual last two furlong metric yet went home winless was King’s Gambit who was undone by the short run to the first turn in the Hampton Court unlike the London Gold Cup at Newbury and so found himself far too far back.

Even so, in a modestly-run contest, he almost got to Jayarebe (98 timefigure) and looked the better horse by some margin. English Oak was the second winner on the day for Wathnan who had earlier taken the opening Norfolk with yet another breeze-up purchase Shareholder but like the Coventry and Queen Mary winners he didn’t impress on the clock, returning a modest 92 as Irish favourite Whistlejacket (longest stride in the race) took too long to hit top stride but did run the fastest final furlong.

Calandagan destined for top table

Aidan O’Brien might have endured an underwhelming start to the week with his youngsters, but he struck in the opening Albany Stakes on Friday with Fairy Godmother whose 105 timefigure is towards the upper end of recent winners. That’s a smart enough performance by itself even without knowing the back story; trapped behind horses for a good part of the race, she lost three lengths on runner-up Simmering approaching the final furlong as she was manoeuvred out then made up all of that ground and more very quickly to score readily.

Inisherin ran a 109 in the Commonwealth Cup despite conceding the fastest final furlong to the runner-up Lake Forest who also ran the second half of the race fastest of all, but the performance of the day (122) on the clock, however, and joint-best of the week, was put up by the French gelding Calandagan in the King Edward VII.

No match for French 2000 Guineas winner Metropolitan on his debut at Deauville last year, he’s been getting better with racing, always seeing his races out strongly in France. Being held up off a far stronger gallop (the opening nine furlongs were run around 11 lengths faster than the earlier handicap over the same distance) than he has encountered in France clearly prompted even more improvement and he’d have been a live candidate for the Arc were he eligible (geldings can’t run).

His compatriot Ramatuelle came up short in the Coronation, finishing third behind Porta Fortuna (98) who’d also finished ahead of her in the 1000 Guineas, while Epic Poet in the Duke Of Edinburgh and Blue Storm in the Palace of Holyrood added their names to the list of horses who ran the last two furlongs fastest of all yet had to be satisfied with a place behind Crystal Black (104) and Pilgrim (96) respectively.

Story looks out of the ordinary

If Fairy Godmother looked something better than the average Albany winner on Friday, her stable-companion Bedtime Story looked an out-of-the-ordinary Chesham winner on Saturday, scoring by a margin (nine and a half lengths) unheard of in a race not won otherwise by further than three and a half lengths this century.

A 110 timefigure is not quite the best in the race in that time but a 6lb upgrade from the three-furlong pole takes her overall timerating to 116 which is exceptionally high for a youngster at this time of the season for all the weight-for-age allowance included in her rating is almost certainly on the generous side for a filly so precocious as she is.

Repeat Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee winner Khaadem posted the highest headline timefigure of the day, 116, 4lb less than 12 months previously, winning the race with a smart mid-race move with each of the last two furlongs being run fastest by horses that finished out of the first five. Khaadem’s timefigure was 12lb higher than Unequal Love managed in the Wokingham but the eyecatcher here was Orazio who ran a remarkable race, running the first furlong much slower than he did last year when sent off favourite only to storm home and be the only horse on the day to dip under 12 seconds for the final furlong. He didn’t go on from that sixth-placed finish last season but it’s still early days with him as a sprinter and there’s no doubt he possesses the ability to land one of the season’s big sprint handicaps.

Form-pick Haatem (102) took the Jersey Stakes by a short head from Kikkuli who came home fastest of all but whose stable finally bagged a winner when Hand Of God had his rivals well strung out in the Golden Gates, a 110 timefigure suggesting he’s Group 3 material as well much like his other stable-companion King’s Gambit had looked earlier in the week.

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