TPD Race Data Review - Race Week 4 - Windsor
- Total Performance Data
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Team East came into the 4th week of the Racing League 2025 with a healthy advantage and they got things off to the perfect start as Rocking Ends landed the opening 5-furlong handicap. Any doubts over the ground were quickly dispelled by the time and speed data for this opening contest as 12 of the 13 runners reached a top speed above 44 mph and a winning time of 56.91s was 2.27s faster than the TPD expected time for the course and distance.
Danny Muscutt delivered Rocking Ends perfectly, coming with a sustained run after quickening with the fastest 3rd furlong in the race in 10.34s as they straightened for the judge. On terms at the furlong pole, Rocking Ends ran the fastest final furlong too (11.62s) as he used his long stride to get the better of the 2nd and 3rd. This was a 2nd win of the season for Tom Clover’s 5-year-old, who seemed to relish the strong pace as he stayed on to win by 2-lengths.
At that point in the night, things could not have been going better for Team East and Charlie Fellowes, but Matt Chapman and his Team London & the South were about to take over, starting with Kodi Fire in the mile handicap at 6:00. This victory completed a hat-trick of wins for Charlie Hills 3-year-old son of Kodi Bear, who used his long stride to best effect in the closing stages as he galloped through the line with a run-out speed of 37.16 mph. It took him 8 attempts to get off the mark, but he has won each of his last 3 starts, despite taking a couple of steps up in grade and given the way that he hit the line at Windsor, there is every reason to think that he has a good chance of completing the 4-timer.
The 4th race on the night was won by Brosay for Team Yorkshire under Joanna Mason. He made good progress from the rear of the field with the fastest 4th and 5th furlongs in the field and appeared to win with something in hand, despite the fact that he drifted across to the far side of the course in the home straight. This was a first win of 2025 for Paul Attwater’s charge, but it did come from a career high mark of 86 and he was a worthy winner.
However, I can’t help but feel that the runner-up, Zoulu Chief, was a slightly unlucky loser for Team Scotland. Having raced towards the stands side, he was as much as 4-lengths behind the winner in the straight before he rallied strongly, closing with the fastest final furlong in the field (11.87s) and recording the fastest run-out speed at 35.97 mph.
He won 3 times as a juvenile in 2023, including a valuable Nursery at York in the August of that year, but he hasn’t won since. However, since having wind surgery in May, he has been gradually improving and this performance was his best since his 2-year-old days. He has recorded a better run-out speed than the winner on 2 of his last 3 starts and looks to be finishing his races with much more vigour than before, which would suggest that his turn may not be far away.
Team Scotland didn’t have to wait too long to get over that disappointment, as Zapphire landed the mile handicap for trainer Julie Camacho under Kevin Stott. He was ideally placed behind the leading pair, but much like the preceding contest, it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for the runner-up. Hickory raced towards the rear, but was 0.25s faster than Zapphire in the final furlong and hit the line strongly with the best run-out speed of the 8 runners at 37.22 mph. He won his first 3 starts for Jamie Osborne and is just 1 from 22 since, but he does finish his races well and is another who should be competitive from his current mark in the weeks ahead.
Arguably the most impressive winner on the night was Siempre Arturo, who defied an SP of 25/1 to win the 7:30 by over 2-lengths under Nicola Currie. He led home a 1-2 for the London & the South Team, but once hitting the front in the final furlong, the Kubler’s 5-year-old finished strongly with the highest average stride frequency in the field (2.35 per second).
He has now won 7 of his 18 starts and although he has had a couple of lacklustre efforts this season, those races have been on galloping tracks where he hasn’t been suited by the strong test of stamina. At 24.70 ft, his peak average stride length ranked 7th of the 9 runners on Thursday evening, compared to the 2nd placed ranking for his average stride frequency figure and he may be better suited to turning tracks where he can use that turn-of-foot.
Team East were able to book-end the card with victory in the final race at 8:00. Mr Swivell was the better fancied of their runners in the market, but the change in tactics seemed to end his chances from an early stage and instead it was Auld Toon Loon, at 16/1, who delivered a remarkable success under Callum Shepherd. Having been the slowest horse to leave the stalls, running an opening furlong of 16.67s after taking 7.6s to reach 30 mph, he was last at the end of the first furlong. Normally, when a horse wins from the rear, we would expect the data to suggest that the leaders went too fast and the pace collapsed.
However, a race finishing speed of 112% suggests otherwise and the winning time of 2:06.38 was actually 0.2s slower than the TPD expected time. Auld Toon Loon was the fastest horse in each of the final 2-furlong splits and hit the line strongly with a run-out speed of 37.65 mph. He finished last of 18 on his penultimate start at York in July and this win appeared to come out of the blue. He has won 4 of his 20 starts and will need to back this up, but there’s no doubt that this was one of the best performances of the Racing League so far this year.
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.
