Sectional Timing Debrief: Champions Day 2017

For a Champions Day to have credibility, it requires Champions. British racing’s flagship event at Ascot has had a fair few over the years, not least the peerless Frankel in its first two editions, but this year’s seventh incarnation looked for a while as if it might fall just short.

Not a bit of it: in addition to the humans honoured off the course, there was one standout Champion performance on it, plus several which were up to scratch for the big occasion.

That performance was, of course, put up by Cracksman, a son of Frankel who is looking more and more like a chip off the old block.

Any doubts about the colt’s effectiveness at 10f were banished summarily here, as had been his effectiveness on soft ground a long time ago. In fact, he was nothing short of brilliant under that combination of conditions.

In a well-run race, Cracksman had no difficulty in taking a handy position and was in complete control from the moment Dettori sent him for home 3f out, galloping clear to win by seven lengths.

The sectionals – derived by Timeform from video footage in the continued absence of official ones – put some hard figures around the performance, and they give every reason to think it was as good as it looked.

The overall time was good for the conditions, and the finishing speed %s of most of the principals were close to par for the course and distance, indicating that they had run efficiently.

Cracksman’s own finishing speed % was quicker, though, and a reflection of the way in which he stamped his authority when it mattered. In theory, he could have run quicker still had he turned the screw sooner.

What is for sure is that Cracksman finished his race very strongly, and in a wider context not just that of others in his race.

As will be seen by other British Champions Day sectionals below, Cracksman achieved the notable feat of running the final furlong quicker – in 13.0s flat – than any other winner on a card, which included a Group 1 sprint and a Group 1 mile. Just how good could he be when returned to a mile and a half?!

There were no excuses for the others in the Champion Stakes judged by sectionals, but third-placed Highland Reel produced an effort of no small promise after an absence, having been taken wide mid-race in search of better ground.         

The day began with a barnstorming finish in the Long Distance Cup, another well-run race which resulted in a good overall time, with Order of St George getting up late on having looked in trouble early in the straight.

This was not Order of St George’s finest hour – his thrashing of Torcedor and Mount Moriah, a close second and fourth here, in the Irish St Leger at the Curragh in September looks pretty spectacular in retrospect – but it was one which answered any doubts about his attitude. Another worthy Champion on Champions Day.

Third-placed Stradivarius did the most running from the home turn, but his high sectional rating is a reflection of unfavourable weight for age rather than that he was definitely unlucky.

Librisa Breeze does not quite deserve the title Champion Sprinter, in what has been a vintage year for sprinters, but he turned up when it mattered and took the Sprint on merit.

This looks another decent time, but it was a slightly odd race, not unlike the Commonwealth Cup on the same course in June. Harry Angel got run down having looked a likely winner in both, and that is probably no coincidence.

In both races, the opening furlong was surprisingly slow for a top-notch sprint (slower in Saturday’s race than for the mile races later on), which ensured that Harry Angel was soon doing plenty close up.

In the Sprint, there then followed a fast mid-section – with three consecutive furlongs breaking 12.0s – and a slow finish, with the final furlong FS% of 93.4% well below what might be expected.

It suited Librisa Breeze, who stayed on strongly from mid-field to lead late on, but this defeat of Tasleet and Caravaggio looks bona fide, even though Harry Angel and Battaash had achieved more than him elsewhere and at other times.

Not all races on British Champions Day were well-run. The Fillies & Mares was far from it, with Journey one who went too freely as a result. Those closing sectionals are pretty swift by the first three but are still not enough to raise a modest overall time above expectations for the grade.

That is not to denigrate the winner Hydrangea, however. This was her seventh successive start in a Group 1 since her seasonal reappearance and she has come back from several defeats to be better than ever. Her turn of foot from shorter distances was in evidence here, but these were hardly the conditions for non-stayers, either.

If there was one disappointing event it was arguably the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, which went to the gambled-on Persuasive from Ribchester and Churchill, for it was run in an overall time slower than recorded by Lord Glitters in the Balmoral Handicap at the end of the card.

A one-on-one comparison of the principals in the two races show they were like chalk and cheese in a crucial respect.

Those finishing speed %s in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes are all well below par, indicating that the runners did too much earlier and ended up finishing slowly. Ribchester – who tracked his pacemaker Toscanini before going on with more than 2f to run – comes out best on sectionals, albeit not by much.

Even the winner, Persuasive, was feeling the pinch late on: that final 1f of 14.3s (92.8% FS) was the slowest of the day, just behind the Long Distance Cup over nearly twice as far. Plenty failed to give their running in behind.

Lord Glitters was about 3.0s (over 15 lengths) behind the leader in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at the 3f marker and over 1.0s behind the leader in his own race. But the pace in the Balmoral Handicap was still solid enough to enable him to come with a wet sail to win.

Those finishing speed %s for the first five in the Balmoral Handicap are quicker than par, but not by much. Lord Glitters may, indeed, be “a Group horse in a handicap”, but it would be wrong to take the overall time comparison at a face value which says he is already better than the likes of Persuasive, Ribchester and Churchill, given what those sectionals tell us.  

British Champions Day 2017 proved to be memorable for a number of things, not least the magnificent Aidan O’Brien’s equalling of the record for Group/Grade 1 training wins in a year with Hydrangea and some “challenging” weather, but I suspect many of us will remember it for one horse above all: Cracksman.

He was identified as a fast horse by Timeform sectionals the very first time he set foot on a racecourse, and Timeform sectionals have been contextualising his efforts ever since.

We see so little of some of these stars that surely British racing should be making a bit more of what they do – and of how they do it – when they appear.