Sectional Debrief: Kempton, Wednesday May 8

Simon Rowlands highlights a couple of horses worth following.

Simon Rowlands returns with his latest sectional analysis...

Regular readers of these Sectional Debriefs will know the score by now: the table below identifies the general run of the races, and sectional rating for the winners of those races, based on the fact that how a horse achieves an overall time affects what that time is. 

The good news for those coming late to the party is that past Sectional Debriefs can be found elsewhere on this site; the bad news is that you have already missed a couple of nice winners - Spillway and Fig Roll - since this series began a few weeks ago!

Kempton's Wednesday evening meeting had a majority of steadily-run (or even slowly-run) races, as shown by the high finishing speed %s and commensurately high sectional mark-ups in the table. The exceptions are the first and last two races: those last two races resulted in decent overall times and even better sectional ratings, but that first race did not.

There is no apparent reason why the Tagalaka time was so modest, for it was not an obvious function of the pace of the race. As a result, the winner goes on the "to oppose" list. Indeed, the whole race is worth viewing with some suspicion. 

Cape Alex ran close to par in winning the 12f handicap (third-placed Time Square went a bit faster than ideal in front) and sectional mark-ups for all the runners are small. This looks solid form, but there are no obvious eye-catchers, in other words.

The 7f minor contest won by Double Your Money is quite a bit more interesting, however. The winner set a decent pace but was given a bit too much rope, and third-placed Kabbaas (86 sectional rating) and fourth-placed Singersongwriter (88 sectional rating) did well given how things unfolded. Singersongwriter (who posted roughly 34.9s final 3f) had a BHA mark of 74 prior to this and is especially interesting. 

The other horse to take from proceedings is Tajheez, the short-priced winner of the 11f handicap. The sectional adjustment does not bridge the gap between his overall time and the time that could be expected of a horse with his ability, but it comes close. What is clear from the sectionals is that Tajheez (roughly 36.0s final 3f) is quite a bit better than those who chased him home. Rating him 6 lb better than the result is realistic, and that could be enough to see him follow up in similar company.  

To Follow: Singersongwriter, Tajheez
To Oppose: Tagalaka 

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