Form Pointers

This week the TechTeam examines the Group One Stewards’ Cup held on Sunday at Sha Tin.

The Stewards’ Cup

As prognosticated in our Sha Tin Report last weekend California Spangle was a horse to avoid, running a TechTeam rating of 115, well below his solid best rating of 128 which he had run four times. As mentioned in the same post, our only three chances ran 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in that order.

Voyage Bubble returned a rating of 127, just below the 128 he ran when second to Golden Sixty at his last run. Beauty Eternal returned his previous best rating of 124, so he ran to his ability, whereas the third placegetter Beauty Joy ran 120, below his prior best runs.

The major pointers for our readers to discern from this Group One event is firstly the importance of a horse in a Group One event being tuned in, or at least well performed at the distance of today’s race, thereby eliminating Straight Aaron (3:0000), Russian Emperor (7: 0110), Healthy Happy (11:0103) and Fantastic Treasure (7:0101) . Secondly, when a horse has sunk significantly below its solid prior form it is a major risk in any Group One or Group Two contest i.e. California Spangle.