Sectional Debrief: Newmarket July Meeting, Thursday 11

The opening day of the 2013 Newmarket July Meeting took place in glorious sunshine and on drying, good to firm going. A number of the races were not truly run, but the record time posted by Maputo in winning the 10f handicap for three-year-olds is an indication of how fast conditions were. 

Record times are a function of a number of factors, including ground, weight carried and, of course, the ability of the horse concerned. They also usually occur when the pace of a race has allowed the winner to run in a highly efficient way, and that was the case with Maputo. 

Early leader Party Royal went too fast, and the first eight to finish were between six and 11 lengths back just before the sectional. Maputo ran remarkably efficiently, and so did most who finished closest to him. The winner's time, put into context and converted into a timefigure, suggests he will be mixing it in Group 3 or Group 2 company before long.    

Many of the other figures speak for themselves: the races won by Feel Like Dancing, Universal and Montiridge ended in sprint finishes and may not be reliable; the 2yo maiden won by Qawaasem produced a good enough time to be encouraging but favoured those close up; the 5f handicap won by Last Sovereign also favoured those close up, but the time was disappointing. 

Two eye-catchers from these races on sectionals were Crown Pleasure in Qawaasem's race (fastest final 1f of all in 11.88s, having had only one behind her around halfway) and Rebecca Romero in Last Sovereign's race (not well placed early but ran fastest penultimate 1f of 10.53s to get into contention before effort flattened out).
 
The most interesting race from a sectional point of view was the Group 2 July Stakes, an extract of the sectional information for which is as follows: 

The principals finished in a bit of a heap, and the form is probably useful rather than better, with the timefigure adding substance to that. However, sectionals paint a rather different picture to that implied by the bare result. 

Horses close to the pace should have been by no means disadvantaged, but the first two came from some way back to run easily the fastest final quarter-miles and can be considered several pounds superior to the result. Figure of Speech's penultimate 1f of 10.70s was fastest of all, and he looked like he might win, but Anjaal countered with a final 1f of 12.16s to his rival's 12.20s to prevail. 

Figure of Speech was one of three losers for the sectional "to follow" list yesterday, but he confirmed the impression made on his debut that he can win in Group company. With a bit more experience that might have been the case here. 

To follow: Figure of Speech, Crown Pleasure, Rebecca Romero 

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