Timeform Chief Correspondent Jamie Lynch answers our Racehorses Of 2017 inspired questions on the top sprinters, Aidan O'Brien, Frankel at stud and of course Cracksman v Enable.
Timeform's Racehorses of 2017 has been published and as ever the fascinating essays on the leading stars raise many subjects and discussion points.
We put five key questions that arise from them to their Chief Correspondent Jamie Lynch.
The essay on Battaash is fascinating and clearly Timeform see the current crop of sprinters as being outstanding. How do they compare to recent generations?
What was remarkable about the sprinting class of 2017 was the standard at the top end. In ratings terms, we often talk about 130 being the gateway to greatness on the Timeform scale, and once every four or five years on average a speedster will come along who can break that barrier. Last season, the number of sprinters rated 130 or higher by Timeform operating in Britain was not one, not two, not three, but four! That has never happened before, in Timeform’s experience.
And the exciting element for the sprinting scene this year is that, of those four, only Marsha has retired, while the rest will be providing more fast-and-furious fireworks in the months ahead. With five Group One wins between them already, Harry Angel, Lady Aurelia and Battaash are on a collision course to determine the King, or Queen, of a golden age for sprinters. With his rating of 136 - the same, incidentally, that Black Caviar achieved – Battaash looks the next in line to the throne.
Battaash! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/DZgRX6kJce
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 2, 2017
Cracksman’s win in the QIPCO Champion Stakes was significant on a number of fronts but not least another Group One winner for Frankel as a stallion. What have you made to his start at stud, and which horses are most likely to provide him with a first European Classic success?
Frankel has made as good a start to his stud career as almost any stallion of recent times. His first two crops have contained 14 individual European Group-race winners so far, which is just four fewer than record-holding Dubawi achieved in the in his first two years as a stallion. Frankel’s sire Galileo, whose stud career started relatively slowly, is the undisputed Daddy amongst stallions of the modern age, but he’s twenty now, and Frankel is shaping up like the heir apparent.
There are a number of his three-year-olds of 2018 who look to have the power and potential to give Frankel a first European Classic, chief amongst them Elarqam, who’s towards the front of the 2000 Guineas market after two bulldozing wins last September. He’ll go straight to Newmarket without a prep run, which worked for Elarqam’s dam, Attraction, likewise trained by Mark Johnston. And there are many of us at Timeform Towers holding an ante-post slip on Contingent for the Oaks, in the hope and expectation that Dermot Weld’s filly proves as special as she looked in winning her only juvenile start.
The essay on Desert Skyline offers a number of talking points, principally the argument that geldings should be allowed to contest classic races. What’s the thinking behind that?
The traditional theory goes that elite Group One races exist for the purposes of selecting the best colts for breeding. ‘I don’t know why geldings can’t run in the classics,’ said David Elsworth, speaking about Desert Skyline who won the Doncaster Cup, because he was ineligible for the St Leger the following day. ‘We want to know what the best three-year-old is and if it happens to be a gelding then so be it.’
Timeform, via various essays in our Annuals, has been advocating for half a century that geldings should be allowed to run in the top weight-for-age events, including the Classics. Admitting the best geldings can only provide a stiffer test for the colts which, for breeders, as well as the entertainment of the racing public, should be welcomed and even encouraged. The Triple Crown series in America hasn’t been damaged in any way by being open to geldings, nor the Australian Classics. What makes the British ruling all the more bizarre is that, for years, they’ve been allowed to run in races like the King George at Ascot, which is potentially a more defining event than any of the Classics as it brings different generations together.
Much was made of the end-of-year ratings given to stablemates Cracksman and Enable. How did Timeform end up with the pair – and just how good a filly was the latter, purely on the formbook?
The bottom line with Enable is that, according to Timeform measurement, there hasn’t been a better British-trained filly than her since Pebbles over 30 years ago. But she doesn’t need a rating to speak on her behalf, as her three-year-old CV does that, and she’s unique among fillies for her achievement in landing the King George/Arc double, something only six colts have done in history.
Her figure of 134 is exceptional for a filly. And yet, by the end of the season, Enable’s later-maturing stable-companion was rated higher still by Timeform, Cracksman earning 136 – the joint-best performance by any racehorse anywhere in the world in 2017, alongside Battaash – when he ran away with the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.
A stunning performance by Cracksman who streaks clear of his field under @FrankieDettori to emulate his sire Frankel pic.twitter.com/3tXIvrqkto
— Champions Series (@ChampionsSeries) October 21, 2017
There are two statues 50 yards apart at Ascot, one of Frankel and another of Frankie Dettori, and they should serve as a reminder in years to come of the occasion the pair combined in Cracksman’s explosive performance which gave British Champions’ Day of 2017 a real champion it could celebrate. Even with the sex allowance, Enable with have her hands full against Cracksman if (and indeed when) they meet in 2018, and it’s Paracetamol at the ready for Dettori for his happy headache at having to choose between them.
The only thing missing from the Aidan O’Brien CV now is a Triple Crown winner. Could Saxon Warrior be the horse to provide it?
The first cut is the deepest if Saxon Warrior is to have a cut at the Triple Crown as the first leg of the Guineas demands the deepest reserves, not only for the fact that Newmarket will be his first run of the season but also for the feeling that he’ll be more comfortable and classy the further he goes up in trip. He needed every yard of the mile as a two-year-old to rally past Roaring Lion in the Racing Post Trophy, when the ground was on the soft side, and he’ll have faster horses to fend off in the Guineas. If Saxon Warrior manages to clear that hurdle successfully, then he’ll be a short-priced favourite for the Derby, and beyond that it’s just a question of ambition for Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners, but the campaigning of Camelot in 2012 shows that reigniting the fire of the British Triple Crown is something they are very keen to do.
Racehorses of 2017 is published now and available from www.timeform.com. Features include:
- An individual entry for every horse that ran on the Flat in Britain during the season and the best global stars, including a Timeform rating and commentary
- Extended essays on the leading performers
- 1,216 pages and over half a million words
- Action and posed portrait photographs
- Examination of the wider issues in the sport through the essays and forthright introduction. It doesn't pull its punches!
- Top 100s, promising horses lists, International Review & more
Price £79 (free p&p). Click here to order.
