Winchester Mansion and See It Again feel the handicappers’ whip

The handicappers have been busy in the wake of the tumultuous Hollywoodbets Durban July race meeting – being particularly stern on big race victor Winchester Mansion, hiking him a full nine merit rating points.

The Brett Crawford-trained four-year-old gelding took the express elevator from MR 112 to MR 121 and is unlikely to be carrying his July featherweight of 53kg in a top-level race again anytime soon.

See It Again, the Michael Roberts-trained colt who was pipped on the July post by Winchester Mansion, also felt the heavy hand of the handicappers – going from 124 to 131 and making him the joint second-best-rated horse in South Africa.

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See It Again is unlikely to bear the new burden for a while yet. There is talk of him having a crack at the HKJC World Pool Champions Cup at Greyville at the end of the month, but that is a weight-for-age contest in which he will have the minimum impost as a three-year-old.

Grand old man Do It Again, who finished fourth in the Durban July, was deemed to be the line horse for assessing the race – so was left unchanged on 121, where he is now joined by Winchester Mansion. However, Do It Again might well have run his last race, so won’t get a chance to show he’s just as sharp as the youngster.

“In rating the race this way, fifth-placed Second Base also runs to his rating, effectively making him a line horse as well and leaving him unchanged on a mark of 120,” explained the National Horseracing Authority handicappers.

Bless My Stars

The only other runner to get an increase was third-placed Bless My Stars, the Sean Tarry filly who started 3kg under sufferance yet beat the line horses by “two pounds” and therefore copped an eight-point penalty, going from 109 to 117.

Charles Dickens, safely at home in his stable on July day, remains the top-rated thoroughbred in the country on 132 – with See It Again and L’Ormarins King’s Plate champ Al Muthana next on 131.

The sprinter Gimme A Prince, also not in action last weekend, is next on the MR list at 130, having been raised from 125 after his spanking win in the Golden Horse Sprint at Scottsville.

Saturday’s Grade 1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes winner Princess Calla was named the line horse in that race, so remains ranked at 127 – alongside Trip Of Fortune, who hefted top weight of 60kg in the July, finished seventh and was given a free pass by the handicappers.

The latter was a late supplementary entry who’d not been tried over more than 1600m before, and therefore had the stamina question hanging over him. But his seventh-place finish and some interesting data prove that Trip Of Fortune stayed every inch of the July’s 2200m.

Fastest final 1000m

Sectional timing, newly introduced to South Africa, showed that Candice Bass-Robinson’s four-year-old ran the fastest final 1000m of the race.

Under substitute rider Raymond Danielson, he clocked 60 seconds flat for that final stretch, ahead of the 60.59 seconds of winner Winchester Mansion, the 60.23 of runner-up See It Again and the 60.93 of Bless My Stars in third.

The clear implication is that if Trip Of Fortune had not been drawn in the No 16 pen, not been forced to tuck in at the tail of the field and not had to pick a way through toiling rivals, he might have gone close to winning.

Early race leader Dave The King clocked the fastest first 1200m at 72.21 seconds, while See It Again clocked the quickest 800m to finish, 600m to finish and 400m to finish. The fastest last 200m finisher was fourth-placed Do It Again.

Sectional timing

Sectional timing is an exciting thing.

Timings for sections of the course is popular in some other racing jurisdictions and is being done in South Africa by French company McLloyd. The statistics are carried on Winning Form’s website (www.winngform.co.za) – for Hollywoodbets Greyville, Scottsville and Kenilworth.

“In a game that is subject to multi-faceted variables from weather to human judgement, sectional timing information is a scientific beacon of light that will not only enhance the Gallop TV race-viewing experience, but easy-to-interpret data can also highlight exceptions, like an individual standout performance that suggests the horse may be one to follow,” enthuses Sporting Post about the innovation.

“Easy-to-read data also provides one with the opportunity to highlight the pace of the race, when a horse is going faster or slower than the rest of the field, and when some riders may have made race-winning or losing moves, by possibly going too fast, or being forced to give ground away. 

“Face value form assessment can be misleading in instances, and this is another area where sectional timing can be a valuable filter,” adds the website. 

All this is true.