Handicappers' Corner: Improving Gabrial takes Doncaster honours

Richard Fahey: Trainer of Doncaster Mile winner Gabrial.

It might have been a slow start to the Flat season but there are certainly signs of it coming to life, with David Johnson making his return as our regular feature switches codes...

Believe it or not, but spring actually started on March 20, and the Flat turf season kicked off at Doncaster two days later. Bad weather, combined with poor planning of the fixture list, means you would be forgiven for thinking neither started until this week, temperatures finally into the balmy teens and the Doncaster Mile acting as a pre-cursor to the Craven meeting.

Most of the protagonists of the Doncaster Mile have been plying their trade in a higher grade, so it was a good race by listed standards with four-year-old Gabrial improving on the pick of last year's form to get back to winning ways. Running to a bare figure of 114+, he's the highest rated winner of this contest since Medicine Path ran to 117 in 2008.

Although joint-favourites Sovereign Debt (116) and Highland Knight (115) were below form, Gabrial could be expected to come out on top again if the race was run under similar conditions, so he's been given 3 lb extra over the bare result, taking his new master rating to 117. This kind of handicapping, rating horses on their position figures, is as fundamental a technique used by Timeform as more widely-known ones like standardisation.    

The chief supporting race at Doncaster was a strong six furlong handicap, attracting a similar field to what might be assembled for races like the Wokingham and Stewards' Cup and the form is likely to have a bearing on plenty of the top sprint handicaps to come.

Move In Time maintained his unbeaten start for David O'Meara, without having to improve on the 112 rating he came into the race with. He's in the Abernant at Newmarket next week but will also remain one for the shortlist for similarly good handicaps. As will the runner-up Shrophsire (109+) and fourth, Hamza (110p) who both shaped better than the bare result.

The pick of the action in Europe over the weekend was at Leopardstown where they held their classic trials, the highlight arguably the Ballysax Stakes won by Battle Of Marengo. He never looked in any danger, and increases his rating from 116p to 118p. He's reportedly due to bid to emulate last year's winner Light Heavy, who followed up in the Derrinstown, and a rating of 118 would have won eight of the last 10 renewals of that contest.

There's perhaps less chance of the Guineas trials impacting on a classic, the fancied horses from the O'Brien and Bolger yards disappointing in the 2000 trial and Fort Knox took advantage on his first start for Tommy Carmody. A new rating of 106p still leaves him well short of the standard required to even reach the frame in a typical Guineas. 

Last year's 1000 Guineas trial winner Homecoming Queen went on to follow up at Newmarket, but this year's winner Rawaaq doesn't look up to that company. She's now rated 106, which leaves her with something to find with the best of her generation, and What Style (103p) who chased her home, might be the better prospect.

The best performance on that card was put up by Declaration Of War who made a successful reappearance in the listed Heritage Stakes. Winning with plenty to spare, he's now rated 124p and is likely to head for the Lockinge next, where he wouldn't have a huge amount to find with the likes of Farhh (128) and Cityscape (126).

Elsewhere around the globe, following the retirement of Frankel, Black Caviar is flying the flag as the best horse in the world currently in training, and she took her record to a perfect 25-0 at the weekend. There's no sign that her ability is slipping either. In winning the Darley T J Smith Stakes by three lengths, she ran to a figure of 134, just 2 lb below her current master rating.

On the same card, there was another success for a horse we could be hearing a lot more of, the New Zealand-bred and trained It's A Dundeel. In winning the Australian Derby over a mile and a half in effortless fashion by six lengths, he earned a Timeform rating of 127+, the highest for twenty years. He's to be trained with the Cox Plate/Melbourne Cup in mind with the possibility of an international campaign in 2014. That would be something to look forward to. 

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