Pupil performs perfectly in freezing Flat opener.
I HAD the pleasure of assessing no fewer than six of the eight races at Doncaster's opening Flat meeting on Friday, but with the deep ground and fierce wind it was a day where a lot of the mathematical workings have to be taken with a pinch of salt, writes Graeme Smith.
The highest rated horse to feature was last year's Chester Vase runner-up Model Pupil, and he duly landed the odds in the 1m4f Doncaster Shield by eight lengths from the outsider of the five-strong field The Bull Hayes. Model Pupil's form from last year has stood up sufficiently well for me to leave his 107 rating unchanged but I have him running to just 99 on the day.
My assessment of the race revolves around where I want The Bull Hayes' rating to lie. He came to Doncaster rated 84, but had been on 90 in Ireland following his most recent Flat start in 2011 and was as high as 105 two years prior to that.
I considered it probably wasn't fair to raise him to 90+ with his recent Jumps form suggests he is in decline so pitched him in on 87 for the time being with the hope of getting a better guide next time he runs. The other three in the race were of little use in determining the level, with Art Scholar and Cracking Lass clearly not on form and Masterful Act unproven on turf.
It's fair to say Model Pupil's future probably lies over further as he needed pressure for a good two furlongs before mastering The Bull Hayes, and his pedigree also backs up that impression. He's had only five starts in his career so far and further improvement could well be forthcoming.
Most horses still looked decidedly wintry throughout the day at Doncaster but that certainly couldn't be said of Mister Impatience, who took the 1m2f three-year-old handicap by a wide margin with his head in his chest, and in a good time when allowances are made for the strong tailwind in the straight.
In less harsh conditions Mister Impatience would have come in for a bigger rise, but the son of Peter Harris's smart Cambridgeshire winner Katy Nowaitee goes up 11lb to 93 for this nine-length defeat of Allnecessaryforce. Mark Johnston invariably unveils a strong team of middle-distance three-year-olds and the battalion is evidently ready to roll early this year.
The first division of the 7f handicap saw Gouray Girl return to form after losing her way towards the end of last season. She earned a 9lb rise to 86 with her five-length defeat of Fieldgunner Kirkup, a mark from which she proved competitive last summer.
The final noteworthy perfor mances from Town Moor came in the 7f maiden for three-year-olds. The race went to the Mick Easterby-trained Aetna, who belied her inexperience to account for Khelman by a neck with a bit up her sleeve. The second and fourth (Yul Finegold) had form in the book from last year to pin the race around and Aetna earned herself a rating of 77, which comprised of a bare figure of 75 plus 2lb for ease. It remains to be seen how much she learned from a race where she was treated with kid gloves however.
A length and a quarter behind Aetna in third was the John Gosden-trained newcomer Munhamer, who for my money made an equally encouraging start. I have him running to a figure of 77 on the day and both his pedigree and performance suggest longer trips will bring plenty of improvement from him.
HANNON FIRES AN EARLY WARNING
If someone had told me I would be spending Lincoln day digging my car out of a four foot deep snowdrift rather than taking a trip to Town Moor I think I'd have called them crazy, writes Stewart Copeland.
However my weather troubles aside, I had at least one turf race to get my teeth into on the opening day of the season, which was the 6f handicap for three-year-olds.
Richard Hannon looks to have his team fit and firing already, and it was his colt Annunciation who carried top weight to victory, making all under a positive ride from last year's champion jockey, Richard Hughes.
Annunciation showed useful sprint form as a juvenile and had run creditably in a Listed race at Chantilly the previous week. He showed the benefit of that outing and stepped up further still on that effort, showing himself as good as ever.
Successful off a handicap mark of 94, I have Annunciation running to a rating of 99. On this evidence he's well worth another chance in Listed company.
RUN FOR THE HILLS
The abandonment of Doncaster on Saturday was particularly frustrating from a personal point of view as the Lincoln is my first major handicap of the year and is o ften a valuable pointer as to how forward certain stables are, writes Dominic Gardiner-Hill.
But, looking on the bright side, the testing conditions at Doncaster might have provided an uncompetitive heat and a result that would have been extremely hard to nail down in terms of levels and figures. Fingers crossed things work out better for the rescheduling this Saturday.
In the absence of the Lincoln and its consolation race (the Spring Mile) my week was once again spent on the all-weather where the best performance I had to deal with was that put up by Bryan Smart's Dubai Hills when winning the 1m handicap at Southwell's hastily-arranged Saturday fixture.
The seven-year-old is a real track specialist and was notching his sixth victory from seven outings on the course when prevailing by three quarters of a length off 92 - I felt he was in complete charge of the race throughout the last furlong and a half and have raised his all-weather mark to 96 (up 4lb), at the same time taking his turf mark up the same amount to 92. His efforts on turf last year suggest he may struggle off that mark, but I believe his win on Saturday shows him back to his best of early 2011 on the all-weather, after which he finished third in that spring's Lincoln off 95.
The form of the race on Saturday looks solid with the next three home all having run to their ratings last time - as such I have left David O'Meara's fourth-placed gelding Frontier Fighter (winner of three off his previous five starts) on his pre-race 84 and raised both runner-up Docofthebay (winner of penultimate start of 83 and fifth in Listed company latest) and third-placed Caldercruix (winner off 73 previously) 1lb each to new marks of 88 and 79 respectively.