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Letter of the Week

Overrated?

I found the rehandicapping of Invictus Prince following the Winx Stakes to be interesting.
The import went into the race rated 77 and came out of it (after running second) rated 100.
This is an extraordinary rise, the equivalent of 11.5kg, and weights him out of the benchmark races he was getting beaten in before the Winx Stakes.
Prior to the Winx, Invictus Prince ran 12th in a benchmark 82, carrying 59kg. His rating then dropped from 78 to 77.
If he were to run in the same race this week, he would have to carry 70kg.
I am interested in the implications of this huge ratings jump for the Australian Pattern Committee’s assessment of the Winx Stakes as a Group 1 race.
I believe the committee’s upgrades and downgrades of black-type races are based on the ratings of placegetters over a period of years.
In assessing this year’s Winx Stakes, will the committee use the ratings achieved by Winx, Invictus Prince and D’Argento going into the race, or coming out of it?
The fact is that a midweek horse, a 77-rater, shouldn’t really be running second in a Group 1 weight-for-age race. But it happened. 
Does the extravagant rehandicapping of Invictus Prince serve to protect the Winx Stakes’s rating as a Group 1 race, when in fact it’s just a late-winter pipe-opener for the real Group 1s in the spring?

Dale Scott
Cremorne (Vic)
Today's Racing
Friday 29 March
Saturday 30 March
Sunday 31 March