Substandard sprinting scene lacking a dominant performer

Where have all the good sprinters gone?

The question comes after we have just witnessed the lowest-rated edition of the July Cup this century. The 66/1 winner No Half Measures, beaten in a listed race on her previous start, was credited with a Timeform rating of 114 after a race where the finish resembled a handicap, with the first eight home covered by barely more than two and a half lengths.

But there's a lot more evidence than just the latest running of the July Cup that there's a lack of good sprinters at the moment. Since the beginning of 2015, there have been 74 Group 1 sprints in Britain open to three-year-olds and/or older horses. This year’s July Cup ranks 73rd of those in terms of the winner's rating, above only this year's Commonwealth Cup. That went to another outsider, the 25/1 shot Time For Sandals, with a rating of 113, the lowest for any winner of that race since it was first run in 2015.

The winners of the July Cup and Commonwealth Cup were both fillies, so their allowances played a part in the low historical ratings for both races. Neither No Half Measures nor Time For Sandals came out best at the weights in their respective races – the colts Big Mojo and Arizona Blaze both ran to 115 in finishing a neck second – but that does little to alter the status of the two weakest Group 1 sprints run in Britain in the last ten years.

While there was more quality on show elsewhere at Royal Ascot in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, it came from the international challengers rather than the home team. In a humbling race for the British-trained sprinters, France’s high-class gelding Lazzat (rated 125) fought it out with Japan’s top sprinter Satono Reve, while Flora of Bermuda, who fared best of the British, was beaten a further three lengths in third; she then trailed home last in the July Cup after badly missing the break.

Neither France nor Japan is really known for their sprinters. There have been only three French-trained winners of the Prix de l’Abbaye this century, while Japan’s world-beaters have tended to be middle-distance performers. Satono Reve, incidentally, provides a good line of form to the world’s best sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, recently named Horse of The Year in Hong Kong, where he has twice trounced Satono Reve in the last eight months.

Back at Royal Ascot, the other Group 1 sprint run in Britain so far this year, the King Charles III Stakes, fell to American Affair who recorded a more respectable rating of 120. But the fact that the winner had a BHA mark going into the race of 105 (beating the BHA 104-rated 28/1-shot Frost At Dawn) and had begun the season winning a couple of handicaps is another sign that the sprinting division is a threadbare one at present.

News has come through this week that American Affair unfortunately won’t be getting the chance to confirm his Ascot improvement in next month’s Nunthorpe Stakes. He would otherwise have been bidding to emulate Battaash who won the same two races in 2020 (he also won the King George Stakes at Goodwood in between). But top sprinting honours have tended to get shared around in recent seasons, and Battaash is one of just a handful of sprinters in the last ten years who have managed to win two of Britain’s seven Group 1 sprints in the same season.

There were seven different winners of those races last year, and the last horse to win two such contests in the same season was Shaquille, who followed up his Commonwealth Cup success in 2023 in the July Cup. Prior to Battaash, Quiet Reflection won the Commonwealth Cup and Sprint Cup in 2016, Harry Angel won the July Cup and Sprint Cup the following year and Blue Point achieved the notable Royal Ascot double of what was then the King’s Stand Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes in 2019.

Blue Point had also won the King’s Stand the year before, while Battaash’s 2020 Nunthorpe victory was also his second in the race, having gained his first Group 1 win in the 2017 Prix de l’Abbaye. But it’s been ten years since a sprinter has managed to dominate the division to any degree. That was Muhaarar who ran up a four-timer in Group 1 sprints in 2015. After winning the inaugural Commonwealth Cup, he followed up in the July Cup and, having also won the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville, he ended his career with a top-class effort in the first running of the Champions Sprint as a Group 1 contest when beating fellow three-year-old Twilight Son who had won the Sprint Cup.

Mention must also go to Highfield Princess who ran up a quick hat-trick of Group 1 sprints in three different countries, winning the Maurice de Gheest, Nunthorpe and Flying Five in 2022, as well as the following season’s Abbaye.

In the last ten years, Muhaarar’s rating of 134 has only been exceeded in the European sprint division by the brilliantly speedy Battaash (136), he too trained by Charlie Hills for Sheikh Hamdan. Five more sprinters in the same period have achieved top-class ratings (i.e. 130+) on the Timeform scale from British Group 1 sprints, though two of those were trained abroad – America’s Lady Aurelia and Australia’s Nature Strip both ran to 131 when winning the King’s Stand in 2017 and 2022 respectively. Blue Point and Harry Angel (both also 131) have already been mentioned, while Marsha earned a 130 when putting her nose on the line ahead of Lady Aurelia (with Battaash fourth) in a memorable Nunthorpe in 2017.

A clash between three sprinters rated 130+ is certainly hard to imagine now, and only the visiting Nature Strip, therefore, who demolished his rivals at Royal Ascot, has run to 130 or more in a British sprint since 2019.

In 2015, the average performance rating for the winners of Britain’s seven Group 1 sprints was 125.3. That rose to 125.7 in 2017 and 126.0 in 2019. While it was still a healthy 124.0 in 2022, that was going against the trend of more recent seasons. For 2021, 2023 and 2024, the average was 120.4, 120.6 and 120.3 respectively. The current season's average is only 118.0, so unless the winners of the Nunthorpe, Sprint Cup or Champions Sprint can boost the score, we could be looking at another new low this year.

One final thought. We are often told that breeders only care about speed these days at the expense of producing middle-distance performers and stayers. But if that’s really true, shouldn’t that make for a stronger sprinting division with a larger number of good horses? There’s not much evidence of that quality coming through at present.

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