TPD Race Data Review - Race Week 2 - Wolverhampton
- Total Performance Data
- Aug 1
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
A fascinating night of racing for Week 2 of the Racing League as The East, led by Charlie Fellowes, surged ahead in the table. Unlike the opening night at Yarmouth, there weren’t any stand out performances from one particular team, but The East picked up a series of promising results, most notably with the victory of Mr Swivell in the 8:15. Here’s our review of the key points from the data from this week’s Racing League.
The warmer weather in the summer can definitely have an effect on the Tapeta surface as the wax based surface slows down. The winners of this week's seven races can be ranked 1, 2, 8, 9, 6, 1 and 1 for the time that it took them to reach 30 mph and those that were slower from the stalls appeared to benefit from a pace collapse in front of them.
As a result, getting out of the stalls and into a prominent position was very important and that was definitely the key to the victory of Intervention in the opening six-furlong handicap for The North. Sent forwards by Alistair Rawlinson from stall 2, he took just 5.2s to reach 30 mph from the stalls to get to the front. An average stride frequency of 2.4 per second ranked second in the field and that turn-of-foot allowed him to dictate matters and hold the inside rail around the turn.
Briefly headed by Supreme King, Intervention had enough in reserve to hold his ground into the straight where he then kicked clear under Rawlinson. Whilst both the second and third have closed all the way to the line and recorded the fastest run-out speeds in the field, the early speed and the track advantage that it brought were enough to see Mick Appleby’s charge home for a twelfth success on the All-Weather and his sixth win at Wolverhampton.
The placed horses are clearly in form and have worked hard to chase home the winner, but if there is a horse to take from the data for next time, that is surely Supreme King. Drawn wide in stall 11, he was forced to use a lot of energy in the early stages to get himself to the front. That effort, with 10-0 on his back, proved too much and with a record of four wins from 40 starts, he doesn’t have any secrets from the handicapper at this stage.
However, he ranked first for Top Speed with a peak figure of 42.57 mph and his average stride frequency of 2.52 per second was a race best figure. His best form has come on the polytrack, but the handicapper is beginning to relent and he is getting close to his last winning mark with another couple of pounds surely due back to him after this sixth-placed effort.
The need to get to the front forced his connections hand, but the wide draw made things very difficult for David Evans charge. However, he showed plenty of speed and with a better draw next time, he should run a better race than the form book might suggest.
Jack Mitchell attempted similar front running tactics in the second race at 6:15, but the weight appeared to tell aboard Miraculous. He also took just 5.2 s to reach 30 mph, but his run-out speed of 32.35 mph, ranked fifth, confirmed the impression of a tired horse that was given from the replay.
The winner, Sudden Flight, also carried 10-0, but Richard Hughes’s three-year-old looks very progressive and having got the perfect tow into the race under Finley Marsh, he finished with the fastest fourth and fifth furlongs to win going away with a run-out speed of 33.69 mph. He had been running consistently on the turf, but both career wins have come on the All-Weather and he seems particularly suited to the tapeta surface.
The fact that the winning time of 1:12.64 was only 0.23s quicker than the TPD expected time for the grade does mean that we can upgrade this performance from Sudden Flight given that he had to overcome the track bias to make up ground from the middle of the pack.
Having swung wide into the straight, Sudden Flight made rapid headway and then appeared to idle in front under Warren Fentiman, shortening his average stride length in the final furlong despite maintaining the highest stride frequency figure in the field at that point of the race. Taking all of that into account, there is surely more to come from Richard Hughes’s charge and if you add just one horse from this week's Racing League to your ATR Tracker, it should be him.
Sudden Flight wasn’t the only impressive three-year-old winner on the card as both Stormy Impact and Hyperchromatic managed to get their heads in front later on the card. The latter was a very impressive winner under Joanna Mason for Yorkshire, overcoming a difficult draw in stall 11 to eventually win by over two lengths.
Hyperchromatic has won both starts on the All-Weather for Marco Botti and seemed to relish these conditions as he quickened into the closing stages with the fastest seventh and eighth furlongs of the contest. He exceeded both his expected stride frequency and stride length figures, finding a top speed of 38.77 mph after coming from behind the pace.
The runner-up (Love is the Law ) has struggled to get her head in front, but the third placed Double Parked came into this race on the back of a win at Redcar and Hyperchromatic has easily dispatched him in the final three furlongs. It will be interesting to see whether his connections now choose to campaign him as an all-weather horse, but he has the early speed needed to get into a prominent position and should be capable of winning again even after he is reassessed.
Mr Swivell rounded off a very productive evening for The East team as he made virtually every yard of the 8:15 under Danny Muscutt. Ok, I will admit that I was particularly pleased to see him do so, having predicted this exact outcome in our preview of the card (advised bet at 4-1), but despite giving away at least thre lengths by wandering to his right in the home straight, he galloped on through the line with a run-out speed of 34.16 mph to suggest that he won with something in hand.
An opening furlong below 11 seconds was the key as he broke smartly from stall 3, taking 6.2s to reach 30 mph (ranked 1st). An average stride length of 25.23 ft was the longest in the field and once in front, it seemed very unlikely that he would be headed. Kevin Philippart de Foy looks to have found the key to him and his record since going the yard now stands at three wins and two second placed finishes from five starts.
He won by two lengths from a career high mark of 87, but given the way he idled in the closing stages and the fact that a winning time of 1:46.89 was 2.64s below the TPD expected time for the grade would give me plenty of hope that he may not have reached his peak just yet.
You can find sectional times, stride data, speed statistics and jumping performance metrics on the At The Races RESULTS page.
The global database of sectional times, stride data and performance metrics is available through Total Performance Data.
