Sectional Debrief: Focus on Thursday April 18

Toronado scored in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket.

Timeform's Simon Rowlands analyses the sectionals from the second day of Newmarket's Craven meeting...

It is an occupational hazard of compiling sectional times by-hand that you are at the mercy of events beyond your control. In particular, it requires good and consistent camerawork to take leaders' sectionals accurately and to engineer individual sectionals from visual margins. Unfortunately, that was not always the case on the second day of Newmarket's Craven meeting, with the result that sectionals have not been returned for two of the races. 

Added to that, weather conditions made time analysis complicated, with a strong tailwind getting stronger still late on the card. The overall times were remarkably quick, especially for the final race, but this was a reflection of the wind more than lightning-fast ground.

Those caveats aside, it was another intriguing day's racing, not least in terms of the centrepiece Group 3 Craven Stakes won by Toronado. The Richard Hannon-trained colt did not record a good overall time, but it was not all that bad either, especially when one considers how it was achieved. 

Soft lead or not, Toronado's final 3f time of 33.0 sec is remarkably fast. Very few horses, including top sprinters, have run such a figure at the track. It results in a significant mark-up to his time rating and suggests that Dawn Approach will have to be better than ever to defeat him in the 2000 Guineas. 

Runner-up Havana Gold (112 sectional rating) comes out of the race well, also, but not so much Dundonnell (107 sectional rating), who was best placed of the rest at the sectional but finished third.

The opening two-year-old maiden produced some interesting figures. The run of the race should have slightly favoured those close to the pace (such as third-placed Twist And Shout, 74 sectional time), and fourth and fifth - Kiyoshi (79 sectional rating) and Rizeena (76 sectional rating) - did well to close. 

Third and fourth - String Theory and Matrooh - came out best on sectionals in the Wood Ditton won by Ajraam, but such a poor overall time required better individual sectionals for them to go into the notebook. 

There was hardly anything between the first three in the valuable contest won by Windhoek, though runner-up Greatwood (111 sectional rating) emerges just best on sectionals in a race where the overall timefigure is encouraging enough for all of the principals. 

That is not the case with the steadily-run Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes won by Mull of Killough, though sectionals do suggest that the right horse came out on top. 

It is not easy to know what to make of the concluding race, won by Soviet Rock under an enterprising ride and in an apparently excellent time, but the likelihood is that the first three (who finished clear) are worth keeping on the right side. Runner-up Hillstar (97 sectional rating) did the most running late on and could well have a similar race in him before long.

To follow: Kiyoshi, Toronado, Hillstar

To oppose: Ajraam 

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