Handicappers' Corner: Two-year-olds take centre stage

Timeform Debate / Simon Rowlands / 26 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lightening Pearl.

"Lightening Pearl took the former (Cheveley Park Stakes) in workmanlike style, running to a figure of 113 that is slightly below the usual standard for the race."

There were plenty of notable performances in the latest week but no change at the top of the juvenile pecking order. Simon Rowlands reports...

With the Flat season in Europe approaching its closing stages, more of the attention has switched to the two-year-olds, who had several Group races restricted to their age group in the latest week.

The Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, both run at Newmarket, went the way of Irish trainers.

The Ger Lyons-trained Lightening Pearl took the former in workmanlike style, running to a figure of 113 that is slightly below the usual standard for the race (favourite Best Terms was nowhere near her 116-rated best).

Daddy Long Legs headed up a 1-2-3 for Aidan O'Brien in the latter, running to 116. That's quite good for the race historically but a long way behind Frankel's figure of 133 a year earlier.

O'Brien also sent out the winner of the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh, David Livingston (rated 115) improving slightly on previous efforts in accounting for Akeed Mofeed (114p) by half a length. This race boasts some illustrious winners, but the latter, having just his third run, looks the more likely to scale the heights than does his conqueror after this.

The other big juvenile race of the week was the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket, which went to the unbeaten Lyric of Light. A rating of 114p is close to par for this race for the winner, who probably did not get the run of things quite as much as the runner-up Samitar (rated 112).

The divisional leaders for the two-year-olds remain as Harbour Watch (rated 121p) among the colts and Maybe (rated 117p) among the fillies, though there are still quite a few big races to come.

The French-trained Sahpresa is better than ever at the age of six and took the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket in ready style by a length from Chachamaidee. The winner ran to 4 less than her Timeform master rating of 124 but nonetheless paid something of a compliment to Immortal Verse and Goldikova, who had beaten her in a strong Jacques le Marois the time before.

Ransom Note put up a notable front-running effort in the Group 2 Joel Stakes, accounting for Premio Loco by two and a quarter lengths and recording a career-high of 123.

British challengers fared well on the continent, with Dick Turpin short-heading Cityscape in the Group 1 Premio Vittorio di Capua at Milan (both ran to 126, but the former remains with a master rating of 127) and Campanologist (rated 116) taking the Group 1 Preis von Europa at Cologne.

There were no notable European challengers in North America, where the performance of the week was Ruler On Ice's second place behind the well-treated To Honor And Serve (to whom he conceded 10 lb) in the $1m Pennsylvania Derby at Parx.

Ruler On Ice (rated 123) had previously won the Belmont Stakes and finished third in the Haskell Stakes, and his strong effort here has resulted in a slight upward revision of those two races and of some of the other form that ties in with those races collaterally.