After victory in the Randwick Guineas, Sheza Alibi makes a giant leap from #47 to #9.
Gun Runner, who stands at Three Chimneys for $250,000, has gone up a place in both the Overall Sires and Dirt Sires Classifications.
Movement in those categories comes alongside changes in the Turf Sires section, where Night Of Thunder goes from #6 to #5, the Jockeys table, where Yuga Kawada replaces Zac Purton at #7, and the Owners table, where Sunday Racing skips two places from #7 to #5, knocking the Ka Ying Syndicate and Wathnan Racing down the pecking order.
The week’s biggest changes, however, are to be found in the Horses table.
Rebel’s Romance has moved up one to #5, with Autumn Glow replacing him in the spot he vacates and Nysos moving to #7.
Jantar Mantar has moved up two places to #8, with Observer replacing him in the #10 position. Sheza Alibi, meanwhile, has swept into the top ten, going all the way from #47 to #9 in one fell swoop after victory in the Randwick Guineas on Saturday.
It’s worth pointing out that our performance rankings for fillies are 3lbs lower than they are for colts, and that’s so they line up with the World’s Best Racehorse ratings.
Even if a colt and a filly carry the same weight in a race, we still rate the filly 3lbs less for technical reasons.
Anyway, our performance of the week was by a filly, Sheza Alibi.
She won the Randwick Guineas and looks to be another Australian star distaffer, to go along with Autumn Glow.
She’s only three, so she has age on her side compared to Autumn Glow, and she bids to close the gap on Autumn Glow in our rankings.
Extending her stride and clearing right away in the straight, she was a very powerful finisher, but I can see why she wears blinkers as she seems to have quite a laid-back nature.
She’s now four out of four in Group races that count towards our rankings, but this was her first Group 1, the victory providing another brick in the wall for Australian racing, which is going through a pretty exciting patch.
On the other side of the ocean
Splendora is another progressive female.
The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner of last year stayed on a roll when winning another important race for her sex, the Beholder Mile at Santa Anita, going from #27 from #73.
When you watch her, she looks to be a horse best kept to her division. I don’t necessarily see her as one to defeat the males, though she’s thriving and is now into the world’s top 30.
The big race in America was the Santa Anita Handicap.
British Isles won a sub-standard renewal of a very storied race, but he won it impressively and confirmed the form of his last two starts, having finished fifth in the Pegasus and, before that, having finished a very good second to Nevada Beach (#62 from #65) in the Native Diver, forcing Bob Baffert’s runner to pull out all the stops.
The rankings algorithm was a little circumspect when it came to giving him full credit for this win, on account of the fact that he hadn’t really shown form on the same level beforehand.
The effort though, a four and a half-length win in on of the handicap division’s most important races, fully confirms that he’s a very useful horse.
He receives a performance figure of 116 and takes a gigantic leap up the rankings from #890 to #91.
I think his future probably lies outside the top 50, but I and many people thought the same of Skippylongstocking (#40 from #37) and that didn’t stop him going from strength to strength.
British Isles might turn out to be that type: a really progressive older horse.
Back down under
The big race in Australia was the All-Star Mile at Flemington, which Tom Kitten won for Godolphin.
Though he made history by becoming the race’s first dual winner, it did take a superb ride by Craig Williams to get him home by a neck.
He tends to travel strongly without finding a lot, and his last three runs have come by a neck, a short neck and a nose.
That nose victory was last year’s All-Star Mile, when he beat Mr Brightside, and he has beaten enough decent horses now to move up from #107 to #60.
A bit like British Isles, I see his ceiling as about the #50 mark, but he’s a thoroughly admirable performer in his own way.
Talked-up horses struggle
We need to focus on a couple of disappointing performances from horses we’ve talked about positively in the past.
The first is Disco Time who, after he won the Dwyer by open lengths, looked to have the world at his feet.
After that, though, he flopped in the Pegasus, when excuses were made after he got very sweaty beforehand and pulled too hard in the race itself.
It surprised me that Brad Cox decided not to come back in distance with him and instead went for the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, a Grade 3 that was won last year by Skippylongstocking.
Disco Time travelled strongly, moved up around the bend and looked to have the race at his mercy.
Then he got chiselled out of it by Disruptor, who if we’re being generous looked to outstay him, but more likely outbattled him.
Disruptor is an improving type and could have a good season.
He enters the rankings at #177, with his performance pegged at 113, which is less than stellar, though he’s open to improvement… as is Disco Time (#106 from #75).
Disco Time drops from #75 to #116, outside the top 100 when he has easily enough ability to be much higher than that.
He needs a drop back to a one-turn mile. The Challenger Stakes is a two-turn race, which makes a huge difference to an American dirt horse.
The other disappointing horse is Tentyris in Australia, who couldn’t confirm his wildly impressive Lightning Stakes win when only fifth in the Newmarket Handicap.
The winner of the Newmarket was the Bjorn Baker-trained Caballus, who goes from #410 to #181.
He has won four Group races, but this was his first at Group 1 level, and his best rating of only 112 reflects the level he has operated at.
This was probably a bit of a sub-standard renewal of the Newmarket, and we’ll give Tentyris (#19 from #12) another chance… although I did say that about Disco Time as well.
I think his ability is real, but he’ll need to bounce back.
Last year’s Newmarket winner was Joliestar and she moves up to #17 from #27 after winning the Canterbury Stakes at Randwick: her fourth Group 1 and her eighth Group win overall from 16 starts.
More notable was the weekly performance of her rider, James McDonald.
What a week he had, extending his lead at the top of the Jockeys rankings.
Joliestar’s trainer, Chris Waller, had three wins himself and bolstered his #5 ranking among the Trainers.
Back to America
The road to the Kentucky Derby continued with the San Felipe at Santa Anita.
This was a lesser Derby trial, I thought, compared to others we’ve seen recently. Its winner, Potente, is progressive, but he had to work hard.
Maybe he’ll improve over further, but for now he gets a 113 performance figure, below the 116 posted at the top of this division, most notably by Commandment (#56).
Potente is thriving, entering the rankings at #167, but will need to prove himself a horse who has more in the locker.
Lord Allen resigned as Chair of the BHA last week – what does British racing do now?
Jon Pullin gave an update ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, which has begun in Great Britain
Kristen Manning spoke to the leadership of studs affected by January’s bushfires in Victoria
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