Sectional Debrief: Kempton Wednesday 19

Simon Rowlands analysed the sectionals at Kempton

Simon Rowlands brings you an update to his list of horses to follow or oppose based on sectional times...

The main action on Wednesday was, of course, at Royal Ascot, where Al Kazeem beat Mukhadram in what was an intriguing Prince of Wales's Stakes, with third-placed The Fugue the real eye-catcher on sectionals. But the game carried on at a lesser level with Kempton's third consecutive day of all-weather action, for which the headline figures were as follows:

There has been a slight upward adjustment of the timefigures in the light of the overall sectional picture, and the result is that Labienus - winning at BSP of 4.06 for sectional "to followers" - comes out with a particularly good figure. A close-to-optimum 35.45s for the last 3f, and a finish in which he was just about all out, would normally see him dropped from the list. But he is looking more straightforward now and has potential back on turf and back at a mile so gets retained. 

The other sectional "to follow" horse running last night was Masquerading, who had no obvious excuses in third behind Rundell but is also given another chance, such was the favourable impression he had made at this track the time before. While the sectionals for this race are respectable rather than better, there were some well-connected individuals on show and it could be stronger form than it first appears.

The meeting opened with something of a rarity at Kempton these days: a race run at an overly-strong pace (as reflected in the sub-100 finishing speed %). It went to Mubtadi, who was ridden more patiently than the placed horses, and, if not definitely flattered to win, was probably flattered to win quite as well as he did.    

The maiden in which Ardingly and Controversy dead-heated for first was steadily-run, favouring those, like the winners, closest to the pace. Fragonard and Silk Sari ran marginally the quickest sectionals. 

Feedyah's race was run even more slowly, with the winner coming home in about 34.7s and looking something like 14 lb better than the result in form terms. She could prove useful but this race was too messy to make that call with confidence. Sixth-placed Enraptured (35.4s last 3f) should do a fair bit better with this under her belt also.

The two-mile race won by Arashi turned into a sprint, and the winner did well to come from five lengths back at the sectional, but the form is unlikely to prove solid. 

The final race was another rarity, in that every horse ran close to optimum in sectional terms - varying between 101.6% for fourth-placed Red Explorer and 102.9% for runner-up Purcell - and no horse gets a mark-up. If all races were run like this there would be no need for sectional analysis: fortunately, or unfortunately perhaps, very few are!  

To follow: The Fugue, Labienus, Masquerading
To oppose: Mubtadi        

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