Yes I do realize that Glorious Goodwood and Galway are taking place this week and of course that racing takes priority. However, once I looked through the results and the ratings for todays meeting on the PSF at Deauville it became clear that there were 2 outstanding performances in the handicaps that needed to be noted for the future.
This was an 8-race card with the last 6 on the All-Weather track and it is those races that I have focussed on. The ratings and time comparisons are below, with the red and green coloring indicating whether the race was faster or slower than the average over the course and distance. We have a mixed bag of performances and it is important to note that the colors show an above average time, rather than a time that is faster than the course standard time. It is a key difference, but the first and last race on the PSF track both went below the course standard and it is those races which I wish to highlight.
The 3-year-old handicap looked like a strong contest on paper and so it proved. The SP favorite, French Bob, disappointed again and although she didn't get a clear run, she was never looking likely to threaten and it is hard to know what his connections will do now with a horse who doesn't seem to be progressing. That's the negative news out of the way and the remainder is very positive as both the winner and second went under the standard time and put in career best efforts. Sunburst had won on the Polytrack at Chantilly in March and had generally held her form in conditions races since, but the return to the PSF and a strong pace to track played to her strengths as she stayed on best of all to win by half-a-length. She should continue to progress and may well stay further based on this evidence but the more interesting horse from this race is the 2nd placed Speechman. She comes out on top of the ratings as she raced more prominently than the winner and set what looked to be a strong gallop. Having settled on the leaders quarters, she took it up turning for home and kicked readily 2-lengths clear. Although we don't have the sectional timings for this meeting, she showed a great turn-of-foot and looked the winner at the furlong pole before tiring late to be collared by the more patiently ridden winner. The other horses to race prominently were all beaten by 8-lengths or more and so we can definitely upgrade this effort as she was still a length and a half clear of the third crossing the line. The handicapper may give her another kilo for this effort, but with a more patient ride, she must surely be competitive and looks good value for her current rating.
The other performance to note came from the winner of the Quinte handicap at the end of the card. After 22 starts (with 4 wins) Lanaken was beginning to look fairly exposed but he suddenly produced a devastating performance to make all the running to win here. If you're looking for clues, it could be argued that he is unexposed on the PSF as this was just his 4th start on an artificial surface and he had split Fort Payne and Deep Hope in a decent conditions race on his last all-weather start in March. He dipped below the standard time today, producing a rating of 103 in the process and although he will go up for this win, if he arrives in the same form next time, he is going to win again. For all the unlucky horses that will have been seen at Goodwood and Galway today, this is the horse to put into the tracker from today's racing in my opinion.
