Sectional Debrief: Royal Ascot, Saturday June 22

Society Rock comes out of the Diamond Jubilee with credit

Simon Rowlands looks at some of the big races on the final day of Royal Ascot 2013...

A significant advantage of expressing closing sectional speeds as a % of average race speeds is that it enables quick and intuitive comparisons across different distances, tracks and even goings. Thus it is that, despite quite a bit of rain having fallen on the final day of Royal Ascot, meaningful conclusions can readily be made.

The sectionals were slower on Saturday in absolute terms than they had been earlier in the week, but then the overall times were slower, too, on ground that had eased. More importantly, the sectionals also tell us that the main two events, the Hardwicke Stakes over 12 furlongs and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs, produced results that can pretty much be taken as read. 

None of the runners in the Hardwicke ran far from par for the last three furlongs given their overall times. The 1.0 sec difference in sectionals between Dandino and Universal would have counted for more had the runners not run pretty efficiently overall. Dandino ran a bit quicker late on than par, Universal ran a bit slower: it probably made little difference. 

Similar comments apply to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Lethal Force ran almost bang on par in making all, but won well enough to suggest he was comfortably best in the race even so. Society Rock ran the closing sectional fastest, but not to such a degree, nor against a big enough pace bias, to mark him up more than a little. The only significant mark-ups were for horses that weakened quickly from prominence to finish among the also-rans. 

They may not be very exciting conclusions, but "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) is sometimes necessary. There have been plenty of other standout performances on sectionals highlighted in these debriefs this week.

The time of the Wokingham Handicap 40 minutes after the Diamond Jubilee was 0.43 sec slower, with the winner York Glory carrying 2 lb less. This is much what you would expect the difference to be given the calibre of horses involved. Only Glass Office (fifth and fifth) and Gabriel's Lad (first and ninth) were in the first nine at the sectional and still in the first nine at the line. But estimated sectionals suggest they were not definitely disadvantaged by racing close up, while York Glory came home the best part of a second quicker than Lethal Force had. 

The Duke of Edinburgh Handicap was run in a time only 0.65 sec slower than the Hardwicke, and that despite a slightly steadier pace early, which reflects well on the principals in the handicap. The winner, Opinion, turned in with just two ahead of him and led fully two furlongs out - posting a sectional of about 36.5 sec - whereas runner-up Stencive was about five lengths further back on the turn and only two lengths down at the line. The latter gets the bigger mark-up and could well have a good handicap at this distance or a bit shorter in him yet. Stencive is added to the "to follow" list.