US Handicappers Corner: Wise Dan posts new Timeform rating high

Wise Dan could head to the Breeders' Cup.
Timeform's Simon Rowlands takes a look back at the weekend's action in the latest edition of US Handicappers' Corner...
The period since Zenyatta retired has been rather fallow in American racing, but the sport again has a horse deserving of maximum respect on the world stage.
Wise Dan has not exactly been an overnight success, having landed his first G1 last November, but he sealed his status for sure as the best horse on the continent at the weekend with a most authoritative victory in the $1m Woodbine Mile.
In beating the top Canadian horse Hunters Bay (rated 121, received 2 lb) and the high-class British miler Cityscape (now rated 127, gave 3 lb) by three and a quarter lengths and a length, Wise Dan took his Timeform rating to a new high of 132, and he did it well enough to suggest that there may yet be more to come.
Whether he will get his chance in the Breeders' Cup Mile, or in the even-more-valuable Breeders' Cup Classic, remains to be seen. But the different surfaces (Mile will be on turf, Classic will be on dirt) should not be an issue. Wise Dan is capable of high-class performances on both.
The ten-furlong Classic would take him into unknown territory distance-wise, though a furlong less has been no problem to him at all previously, and history also suggests that it should be a slightly stronger race than the Mile.
The 5-year average Timeform ratings of the Mile are: 125.2 (winner); 124.2 (second); and 120.4 (third). Those for the Classic are: 129.4 (winner); 126.4 (second); and 123.0 (third).
But, in summary, Wise Dan is good enough to win a "normal" running of either race. It's a nice problem for connections to have!
Cityscape was never likely to be good enough to beat a Wise Dan in this sort of form, but race standards and the proximity of some of the other horses suggest he ran a length or two below his best.
In other respects, it was a red-letter weekend for British raiders and ex-British horses. Samitar made her first run in the care of Chad Brown a winning one in the G1 Garden City Stakes at Belmont, having won the Irish 1000 Guineas for Mick Channon in May.
This effort, in which Samitar conceded weight to all her rivals and held Somali Lemonade by a head, is as near as dammit to the 116 level she recorded at the Curragh. Ex-Irish Tannery shaped well in third.
Congratulations must go to the shrewd connections of Barefoot Lady, who took the $300k G2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine without having to improve on her 112 Timeform rating recorded in Europe. Barefoot Lady received weight from all her rivals and held 113-rated All Star Heart readily by a length and a half.
It was a similar story with Wigmore Hall, who landed the $500k G1 Northern Dancer Turf for the second year running. The Michael Bell-trained gelding had run respectably - without finishing closer than third - in eight outings in the interim and returned to a rating of 118 with this effort.
The run-in to November's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita arguably begins in earnest with Belmont's big weekend on September 29 and 30, but first there are a couple of valuable events to be won at Parx racecourse this coming Saturday.
The Cotillion Stakes and the Pennsylvania Derby both have $1m purses, but the former is a G1 while the latter is a G2.