Almeraq produced one of the most visually striking sprint performances of the British season when running away with the Group 1 Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock.
The winning margin was 4¼ lengths. There was another 4¾ lengths back to third. By the time the field reached the line, a Group 1 sprint had been turned into a rout.
My private performance rating for Almeraq is 126.
That represents an excellent performance. But despite the spectacular margins, I wouldn't push the figure any higher yet.
Almeraq 126
The strongest part of Almeraq's performance was not simply how far he won by, but how he did it.
Tom Marquand kept him towards the rear during the early stages of the six-furlong contest. There was no frantic attempt to get involved and, importantly, no indication that the leaders had gone suicidally hard.
Approaching the final two furlongs, Almeraq began to move through the field smoothly.
Paborus had taken over at the front, but once Almeraq arrived alongside him the race changed very quickly.
He led around a furlong from home and went clear.
The Racing Post described him as winning "going away", while Marquand's post-race comments were arguably even more revealing. The jockey said Almeraq stepped up so easily when reaching Paborus that he was able to shut him down again late in the race.
Visually, there was no argument.
Almeraq was vastly superior.
The Soft Ground Matters
The race was run on soft ground, described as heavy in places, and that needs to be considered before getting carried away with the distances.
Almeraq clearly enjoyed the conditions.
His connections felt his previous defeat in the July Cup could be explained by the faster Newmarket surface, whereas Haydock allowed him to travel and accelerate much more effectively.
That doesn't diminish what he achieved.
It does, however, mean we should be cautious about treating every beaten length as a literal measure of superiority.
The winning time of 1m 15.00s, 4.70 seconds slower than standard, doesn't give us any reason to inflate the figure either. On testing ground, the raw time is of limited value.
The rating therefore comes primarily from the horses involved, their finishing positions, the margins and the manner in which Almeraq dominated them.
Paborus Gives Us the Best Anchor
The most useful horse for assessing the race is probably Paborus.
Officially rated 113 beforehand, he ran a perfectly respectable race.
He travelled strongly, handled the ground and moved into the lead two furlongs from home. He simply encountered a horse operating at a substantially higher level.
I've rated Paborus 114.
That is only a pound above his official mark and avoids the common ratings trap of artificially upgrading the runner-up simply because we want to produce a huge figure for the winner.
Almeraq beat that 114 performance by 4¼ lengths and did so decisively.
Allowing for the testing surface and his superiority at the finish, 126 looks a sensible figure.
The Race Fell Apart Behind Them
The reason I'm reluctant to go higher becomes obvious when looking further down the field.
Big Mojo finished third, nine lengths behind the winner.
He entered with an official rating of 113 but connections felt the ground was against him. His performance here is worth only around 102 on my figures.
James's Delight receives 99, Kind Of Blue 98 and Aramram 97.
Then things deteriorate further.
Three-year-old Coppull, officially rated 115 beforehand, finished 14 lengths behind Almeraq. His trainer reported afterwards that he was unsuited by the testing conditions and would prefer faster ground.
I have his performance at only 87.
Marvelman was an even bigger disappointment. He weakened rapidly after losing the lead two furlongs out and finished last, nearly 17 lengths behind the winner.
His performance figure is just 79.
Those figures aren't new assessments of those horses' underlying ability.
They represent what they actually achieved on the day.
And that's an important distinction.
My Sprint Cup Ratings
Horse| Rating
Almeraq| 126
Paborus| 114
Big Mojo| 102
James's Delight| 99
Kind Of Blue| 98
Aramram| 97
Coppull| 87
Marvelman| 79
The spread of those ratings tells the story.
Almeraq was outstanding. Paborus ran well. After that, the form becomes considerably less convincing.
Was It a True 130+ Group 1 Performance?
Not on my scale.
My benchmark for a genuine Group 1 performance is 130, and I'm not prepared to put Almeraq there on this evidence.
That might initially appear conservative for a horse who has just won a Group 1 sprint by more than four lengths.
But race titles don't determine ratings.
Several horses who might otherwise have provided strong reference points failed to reproduce their established form. Big Mojo had a ground excuse. Coppull clearly struggled with conditions. Kind Of Blue disappointed and Marvelman collapsed completely.
If those horses had run close to their established levels and Almeraq had still destroyed them, the calculation would be very different.
They didn't.
The result therefore tells us considerably more about Almeraq than it does about the overall quality of the race.
Race Rating: 123
I have the Sprint Cup itself at 123, three pounds below Almeraq's individual figure.
That reflects the lack of depth behind the winner.
Had Almeraq and two or three other horses produced performances in the mid-120s, the race rating could sit very close to the winner's figure.
Instead, Almeraq stands largely on his own.
That doesn't make his performance less impressive. In some respects it emphasises just how dominant he was.
But it does mean we should distinguish between an outstanding winner and an outstanding race.
This was the former.
The Bigger Question
Almeraq is now a dual Group 1 winner, having added the Sprint Cup to his Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes success at Royal Ascot.
That gives his Haydock performance additional credibility. We aren't dealing with a previously exposed 110-rated sprinter suddenly producing one freak result in extreme conditions.
There is established high-class ability here.
The next question is whether he can take another step.
A figure of 126 leaves Almeraq four pounds short of my 130 Group 1 benchmark. That's not an enormous gap, particularly given the authority with which he won at Haydock.
For now, though, there is no need to anticipate what he might achieve next.
Rate what happened.
Almeraq: 126.
Sprint Cup: 123.
A deeply impressive demolition of a Group 1 field — but one in which the winner performed considerably better than the race around him.
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