Angus McNae's Racing UK Blog
	Saturday 18th October 2014

Belardo might be consistently underrated next season

Future Champions Day at Newmarket produced some interesting racing that we might take us endless hours to fathom if we did not have sectional times. 

Fortunately we have them and they tell us all we need to know.

Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes: 

The Middle Park was very strongly run. Indeed all the runners ran sub 12-second furlongs between the five furlong and one furlong poles.

Charming Thought

These four furlongs were so strongly run you could be forgiven for thinking this was a five-furlong race. That they went so fast is evidenced by just how slowly they came home in the final furlong. Charming Thought, the winner, clocked a slovenly 13.04s and the runner-up Ivawood came home in 13.16. There is no doubt the pace collapsed here and all of the runners paid for what they did early in the race. Small margins made a difference to the result though. That difference can be seen in what happened between the four furlong point and the two furlong marker. Between these points the winner had plenty of cover as opposed to hot favourite Ivawood, who saw a lot of daylight. This resulted in Charming Thought clocking slightly slower furlongs than Ivawood, while getting that cover and given the margin of success in the end this part of the race was crucial.

Dubai Filles’ Mile:

The Fillies' Mile was an evenly run contest with Richard Hughes making the running on Marsh Hawk.

Together Forever

Visually it looked as if he tried to steady the gallop at half way, but the sectionals tell us he maintained an even pace. For a Group One race over a mile early sectionals of 12.23s, 12.4a and 12.42s are unremarkable and this meant that the race began in essence at the three furlong pole and became a sprint  from there to the one pole. Between the three pole and the two they cranked it up running a 12.11s split and then the race really began between the two and the one furlong marker as the winner sprinted through an 11.59 furlong. Both Agnes Stewart in second and Winters' Moon in third finished off quicker than the winner Together Forever who had been the first to strike for home three out and there is every chance that if the three met again, and a different pace scenario ensued, a different result would occur. All in all unremarkable stuff for a Group One.

Dubai Dewhurst Stakes:

This was a truly-run race and the best of the three Group Ones on the card in terms of time performance. There was no fluke about the success of Belardo, whose finishing splits after getting a little bit of trouble in-running were impressive.

Belardo
© Racehorse Photos

He came home in 11.52 and then finished with a final furlong of 12.69s. It was a final furlong that was a good deal quicker than his rivals.

Importantly he was not able to do this because he saved a lot of energy early on. The sectionals show he did not run much slower than his main rivals in the early sections of the race, but was still able to blow them away late on.

Estidhkaar was the disappointment of the race. He blew the start and disconcertingly hung right for a good portion of the contest. The sectionals show, however, that the effort he made to regain some of the ground he lost at the start really cost him. Between the four pole and the two pole he ran faster than any other horse in the race. His consecutive splits of 12.01s, 11.69s and 11.43s fired him back into contention at the two pole but then he paid for this big effort. As such he is much better than he bare result.

Did we see a future champion in any of these Group One races? Probably not, but we saw a horse who may be consistently underrated next season in Belardo.