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Ratings Update: Beau Remains Top Of The Class

20th Apr 2015

Racing And Sports - by Adam Blencowe - Monday, 20 April 2015

With Sydney’s Autumn Carnival at an end Brazen Beau still holds the lead in the race to be Timeform’s Champion Three-Year-Old.

The Brisbane carnival is still to be run and won but Brazen Beau’s rating of 126 – achieved when winning the Newmarket - looks unlikely to be toppled by the three-year-olds heading north.

Brazen Beau Horseform heads north himself; 16,500 kilometres north to Royal Ascot where a rating of 126 should see him competitive in the Diamond Jubilee.

Wandjina Horseform is also bound for Royal Ascot on the back of his good All Aged Stakes effort and he appears to still be on the improve, his rating of 123p from Saturday up 3lbs on his Australian Guineas-winning rating.

The relative strengths of the Randwick and Australian Guineas have been hotly debated in their aftermath - one of the obvious positives to come out of running both races on the same day.

In Timeform’s view there is little between the winners of each race and Scissor Kick’s proximity to Wandjina in the All Aged Stakes strengthens that view – Scissor Kick Horseform has twice met Hallowed Crown Horseform over 1400m and twice been beaten.

Wandjina was the winner on the day in the Australian Guineas, but Alpine Eagle Horseform and Kermadec Horseform are held in just as high regard by Timeform on the back of their performances at Flemington.

Kermadec has already gone on to confirm himself better than the bare result that day, running a top race in the George Ryder and winning the Doncaster pulling away, while Alpine Eagle, currently rated 119, has a plus on that rating that he is expected to put to good use when he returns in the spring time.

Of those not currently in the top 10 Alpine Eagle is the most exciting and he should prove up to posting form in a similar range to Wandjina and Kermadec in time.

The third major Guineas (out of what seems an infinite number of ‘Guineas’ now run in Australia) is the Caulfield Guineas, and Shooting To Win’s performance to win the spring classic is still considered slightly superior to the winning performances put up in both the Australian and Randwick Guineas, despite his failing to match that rating in four autumn runs.

Shooting To Win Horseform was solid if unspectacular in his first three runs this campaign before failing on soft ground in the All Aged, clearly not at his best on the day.

His best has been re-assessed in light of his autumn form but his rating of 125 stands as his performances both in the Stan Fox, where he easily dismissed Scissor Kick and returned a strong timefigure, and the Caulfield Guineas where he edged out the very smart Rich Enuff Horseform, again returning a smart timefigure, hold up to rigorous testing.

Whether he was ahead of the weight-for-age curve in the spring and unable to improve in line with it into the autumn, or whether he simply didn’t quite come to hand this campaign, are questions that we can only speculate on at this point.

Kermadec and Wandjina are the two colts that are considered open to more improvement in the top ten and the highest rated filly First Seal still has a ‘p’ attached to her figure as well.

First Seal Horseform draws comparison with fellow Flight Stakes winner Streama, also rated 122 as a three-year-old, and she might continue to follow in her footsteps by returning to that level in races such as the George Main and Epsom at Randwick in the spring time.