Watch And Learn: Graeme North timefigure analysis for Hackwood Stakes and more

Horse Racing

Tue August 18, 2026 · 8h ago

Were you not entertained? Well, last week's two-legged action at the Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, Birmingham, was thrilling in parts.

Amy Hunt made history by becoming the first athlete in the history of the Championships to win four golds at a single meeting, while fellow Briton Dina Asher-Smith also became the most decorated athlete in the history of an event at which records regularly tumbled.

Sadly, the domestic four-legged equine action was less so. There was some good racing at the weekend in France where Rayif landed the Prix Jacques le Marois, but the domestic week (on the Flat at least, acknowledging Brian Hughes reaching 2,000 winners) was dampened even further by the surprise retirement not only of Bow Echo but also Trawlerman.

Outside of the big Festivals, Flat racing struggles for quality in the period between Royal Ascot and Doncaster’s St Leger meeting, and successive weekends fronted by the Shergar Cup and the Hungerford Stakes (or Geoffrey Freer, Great St Wilfred or Newmarket’s Grey Horse Handicap if those are your preferred bag) mean for this columnist at least York’s Ebor meeting this week can’t come soon enough.

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Since the last day of ‘Glorious’ Goodwood there have been 12 Group races run in either Britain and Ireland, six apiece, with Ireland hosting the only Group 1 in that time, the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes and Britain the only Group 2s, the Hungerford Stakes and Geoffrey Freer, which both took place at Newbury on Saturday.

Sun Goddess ran to a Timeform rating of 108 (with a small p) in the Phoenix Stakes which is below the level usually required but she was well on top at the line from Folsom Blues whose performance confirmed his second place behind Sun Goddess’s stablemate Florida Bay in the Tyros Stakes hadn’t done him justice, with a gap of almost four lengths between the third horse Velozee (third in the Princess Margaret, eighth in the Queen Mary) and the rest.

Sun Goddess’s performance was in line with the substandard feel the race gave off beforehand and a timefigure of 100 didn’t add much gloss either considering the strong pace set by her stablemate Carry The Flag (0.4 seconds faster to the two-furlong marker than the pacesetter Bucanero Fuerte in the preceding Phoenix Sprint over the same distance) should theoretically set the race up for a good figure.

I find it hard to believer her stablemate Victorious who won the Queen Mary, a race that so far has thrown up eight subsequent next-time-out winners and was contested by four other fillies besides her now rated 100 or higher, is not the much better filly given the swagger with which she won that race – indeed, collateral lines of form through the Queen Mary second, third and fourth suggest she could be rated somewhere between 110p and 118p.

Sun Goddess on her way to winning the Phoenix Stakes

Disappointingly, the Phoenix Stakes was the only one of two races among that Group dozen whose timefigure came in at three figures – the other was the Group 3 Desmond Stakes at Leopardstown which was won by Isaac Newton in a timefigure of 104. The veteran Audience set a brisk gallop but couldn’t ward off a pair of three-year-olds with Isaac Newton getting the better of British challenger Needle Match by a length and a quarter in a timefigure of 104, his best yet and a step forward from his last three efforts the best of which was a narrow defeat of Hotazhell and Geryon (both now rated much higher than Isaac Newton, even after his Demond win) in a listed race at Navan in June.

The best of the ten remaining Group race timefigures is the ordinary 97 posted by Ethical Diamond in the Ballyroan Stakes at the same Leopardstown fixture; worse still only three of the other nine Group races made it into the 90s with Hungerford Stakes winner Coppull, Phoenix Sprint winner Big Mojo and Geoffrey Freer winner Wine Dark Sea the horses involved.

Coppull’s Hungerford win was his first try at seven furlongs and though he was sent off a biggish price (15/2) he was the pick of Timeform weight-adjusted ratings beforehand after a career-best effort the time before in the July Cup where he might have done even better had he not hung left late on. A staying-on eighth in the Commonwealth Cup had also suggested seven furlongs would be within his grasp, and he never looked in any danger once in command with over a furlong still to run, his sprint speed handy given the less-than-true gallop.

Big Mojo was sat closest to the ordinary gallop set by Bucanero Fuerte in the five-runner Phoenix Sprint referred to earlier and was too good for a rival he had the beating of on form anyway, while Wine Dark Sea made the most of an uncontested lead in the Geoffrey Freer as the betting suggested he might, never in much danger once kicked clear from three furlongs out, though this run shouldn’t be taken as evidence he’s suddenly improved into a better horse than those that finished behind him with the runner-up Tabletalk, for example, emerging with a much higher sectional upgrade. He won’t be easy to place now, though has probably done enough to get into the weights for the Melbourne Cup which is his end-of-season aim reportedly.

Outside of Group races, the best winning timefigures of last week were recorded in handicaps. Best of the five that went into three figures was the 105 posted by Royal Zabeel in the William Hill Great St Wilfred. What is usually a well-contested handicap had a very lop-sided feel to it this time around with Aramram running off a BHA mark of 109, Royal Zabeel 104 and nothing else higher than 95 and the winner didn’t have to do any more than he had at Newmarket two starts back (came wrong side in the Bunbury Cup in between) to score in a 105 timefigure, a marginal improvement on anything he’d achieved before. He’s won at listed level before, albeit not on turf, but his overall profile this season is a bit more progressive than last and horses who win off official marks of 104 or higher in sprint handicaps have regularly gone on to score at Group level.

On the same card the mile handicap was won by Murashah in a timefigure of 104. He had his field well strung out - none of the margins between any of the runners was less than a length and a half – following up his Thirsk win on his previous outing four months previously which was just his sixth start. Given he’s five, he’s clearly not easy to keep sound, but pretty much every run so far has been an improvement on his previous efforts and it’s hard to know how high up the ladder he might climb.

The other three three-figure timefigures were posted by Addison Grey (104) at Newbury, Trefor (101) at Windsor and Valvano (100) at Southwell. Like Coppull, Addison Grey was also having his first start at seven furlongs for Clive Cox but in his case improved for it; Trefor went one better than in the corresponding race last year after which he followed up at York’s Ebor meeting (is entered in the same race this week) while Valvano also scored on his first start over seven but in his case after dropping down from a mile having been tried over as far as a mile and a half last season and also in 2024 when fifth in a heavy-ground November Handicap. A recent gelding operation since his sixth place in the Lincoln when last seen was presumably the catalyst more so than the trip.

French round-up

Over in France the Prix Jacques le Marois was won fittingly on a day sponsored by the Aga Khan Studs by the owners’ Rayif. Progressive prior to winning the French 2000 Guineas where he had an ideal trip around the inside he was caught out by the drop in trip in the Prix Jean Prat last time but back at a mile (or 1600m to be exact) he got up late after being held up to score by a neck from the always-prominent Summer Mile winner Zeus Olympios and the Irish 1000 Guineas winner Precise.

He’d looked the one runner beforehand open to a bit more improvement, which was just as well given he had a bit to find, and while the absent duo of Bow Echo and Gstaad would probably have had his measure had they turned up he still strikes me as a possibly being capable of even better yet in a contest run at an out-and-out gallop. More Thunder didn’t get his ideal scenario for the second race either in a race that seven-furlong specialist Thesecretadversary tried to massage from the front, but the market didn’t want to know the Japanese raiders neither of whom gave themselves much of a chance even if good enough by racing together on a part of the track the earlier ‘quinte’ handicap had suggested was heavily disadvantaged.

Romantic Symphony took my eye physically in the Prix Minerve, looking to have done really well since her run in France two starts back, and reversed form with her conqueror that day Calasita a touch readily, although the runner-up hadn’t had a race in between like the winner and arguably wasn’t as well suited by the fast ground.

Avec Toi won the Prix Francois Boutin, a race Rayif had won last year prior to a crack at the Jean-Luc Lagardere, and in beating British raider Silver Dominion by four lengths in the best performance in the race for several years earned himself the latest another ‘best I’ve ever trained’ quote, this time from Christoper Head.

Zaraki has some illustrious footsteps to follow having taken the race Damysus and Ombudsman had won in the preceding two seasons but the lightly-raced son of Zarak (he was having just his third run) ran out a very impressive six-length winner, able to ease down in the closing stages having readily gone past his rivals in the straight, albeit his last 600m time was by some distance the slowest of all winners (including of the handicaps) on the card. The Prix Niel or Prix Prince d’Orange looks next for him.

The previous afternoon the pick of the four winning performances came from Baroud in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano, although there wasn’t much to choose the merit of his win and that of Wimbledon Hawkeye in the Prix Gontaut-Biron. The d’Ornano was well run with French Derby third Montreal in his first race since fading late on after being sent to the front, but it wasn’t the well-related Daryzan who took advantage as the betting suggested but Baroud who made his ground up quickly early in the straight, albeit from a good position tactically, and impressed with his powerful physique as he saw the race out strongly.

Wimbledon Hawkeye reversed Wolferton placings from Royal Ascot with Map Of Stars but the latter ended up a bit too far back as the race went and should really have won.