Handicappers' Corner: Sacre's saunter stretches the numbers

Here at Timeform House, members of the handicappers' department put themselves firmly in the numbers' camp, although there are occasions when they reach for a thesaurus rather than an abacus in order to get their point across.

Take Saturday's Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown, for example. The superlatives have, quite rightly, been used liberally in the aftermath of a wide-margin reappearance win by Sprinter Sacre (Timeform rating c183p), though putting a numerical slant on his performance is nowhere near so straightforward and calls for a dispassionate head. In purely form terms, on paper at least, a 15-length defeat of the seemingly-exposed Kumbeshwar (c147) at level weights certainly isn't enough to warrant a rating in the "astonishing" or "sumptuous" category.

The form book doesn't tell the whole story in this instance, however, and it is impossible to ignore the manner of Sprinter Sacre's performance, which saw him cope effortlessly with the searching gallop set by the headstrong Sanctuaire (c167) and then cruise clear to win with stacks in hand, the latter of which has been reflected in his new rating.  Saturday's hugely impressive win was hardly an isolated performance either - indeed, given how well the form of his win in last season's Arkle at Cheltenham has worked out, a revised rating of 183p makes plenty of sense.

The retention of a "p" on his rating, of course, illustrates that Sprinter Sacre has the potential to go on to even better things, so comparisons with former greats cannot be viewed as premature even after just six career chasing starts.

One factor which could prevent Sprinter Sacre from bettering his current rating this season is a dearth of serious opposition to him, with most potential rivals already being steered clear of him by their connections. Sanctuaire, of course, had been put up as a viable challenger by some following three runaway chasing wins in the second half of 2011/12 and he shaped better than the bare result suggests on Saturday due to rather overdoing the front-running tactics.  That said, it wouldn't the greatest surprise if he went backwards from now on given his past quirks.

There are no such doubts regarding the two protagonists in last weekend's other big head-to-head, namely Flemenstar (c173) and Sir des Champs (c167), who met in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on Sunday, with the former prevailing by five lengths. Although this three-runner affair wasn't quite the same breathtaking spectacle as the Tingle Creek, it was arguably the better race of the two and the form certainly has more substance to it - the fact that the pair pulled well clear of 2011 winner Rubi Light suggests it's best to take the form at face value for now. 

As with Sprinter Sacre, Flemenstar could be named the winner a fair way out at Punchestown, whilst the manner in which he saw his race out suggests a step-up to three miles shouldn't be a problem when he bids to complete an eight-timer in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown later this month.

Meanwhile, fans of Sir des Champs will no doubt cite the lack of a recent outing as counting against him at Punchestown, particularly as the ground ended up being very testing, and it is certainly too soon to be rubbishing his Cheltenham Gold Cup claims on the back of this first defeat over fences. However, the numbers suggests he now has a bit to find with a few of his rivals.

Timeform's top-rated chasers

183p SPRINTER SACRE 
175p BOBS WORTH 
174$ TIDAL BAY 
174  FINIAN'S RAINBOW
173  FLEMENSTAR 
173  LONG RUN 
172  SIZING EUROPE 
170  RIVERSIDE THEATRE 
169p AL FEROF 
169+ CUE CARD 
169+ SILVINIACO CONTI 
167 ALBERTAS RUN 
167 MEDERMIT 
167 SANCTUAIRE 
167 SIR DES CHAMPS 

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