48
SPEED FIGURES
RACING AHEADISSUE 178King Edward VII hero is second fastest of the month
japan zips to
top of ascot
rankings
F
OLLOWING on from last
month, JAPAN gets the
award for the fastest time at
Royal Ascot – and the
second quickest effort of the
month.
He was awarded 123 for his perfor-
mance when winning the Group 2 King
Edward VII Stakes over 1m4f.
The Aidan O’Brien-trained colt has
already franked the form by winning
the Grand Prix De Paris so Ascot
second BANGKOK (118) should be
taken seriously when heading to York
later this month.
As for Japan, talk of the St Leger
seems to be on the back burner now
with the Arc De Triomphe looming on
the horizon. He would appear to need
more improvement for that but can’t
be ruled out.
The top two-year-old performance
of the month goes to RAFFLE PRIZE
(128) when winning the Group 2
Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes at New-
market’s July Festival.
She had already won the Queen
Mary at the Royal meeting and went
from the front here to win going away
from a good yardstick in Daahyeh.
The Prix Morny is thought to be the
next port of call and it will take a mas-
sive effort to lower her colours in that.
DAAHYEH got a strong 122 for that
performance and just gives the
impression that stepping up to 7f may
be the making of her as the season
progresses.
There were plenty of other strong
performances in the final couple of
days at Royal Ascot with ADVERTISE
(121) having gone close in the July Cup
after winning the Commonwealth Cup.
It was still a good performance with
Ten Sovereigns clearly improving a
bundle since being beaten at the
Queen’s course. Advertise can contin-
ue to go well in top contests over the
6f distance but there’s no reason why
he’ll turn around the form with the Bal-
lydoyle speedster.
STAR CATCHER (119) landed a
Group 1 success in what may be a sub-standard renewal of the Group 2 Rib-
blesdale Stakes. Despite that this is a
decent time figure and she has so few
miles on the clock that there could be
a lot more to come.
Away from the big venues, POSI-
TIVE (104) created a really good
impression when winning on debut at
Salisbury at the end of June.
He looked a little green but travelled
strongly before running right away
from his rivals in the closing stages. He
saw out this 7f trip well but will stay
further and looks the type to win again
this season.Japan